DIY Technologies are Democratizing Science

A few years ago, a friend and I were about to buy a few machines from OpenPCR(1) and embark on a molecular bio project, with dreams of getting a proper startup going. It never really went anywhere but we were astounded at the possibilities, with hardware getting less expensive and reagents being available to even a couple of dudes in a home lab. I believe the next 50 years will see a huge democratization of biology and it will be fascinating to see what happens. Imagine a GitHub for custom viral vectors or plasmids.

Unfortunately, this will also mean real bioterror events and I shudder to think what malicious groups could (will?) do with this technology once it is more widely available.

(1) https://openpcr.org/

This is cool, but it means that the design, construction, test and calibration procedures and results for your self-built equipment will all have to be part of your experiment documentation for reproducibiliity.

I'm all in favour of DIY, but doing it right is vital in science. The book Arduino for Projects in Scientific Measurement[1] is a useful starting point.[2] Of course the principles and methods described apply more widely than just to the Arduino.

1. https://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Projects-Scientific-Measureme...

2. But it's just a starting point. There is a long journey ahead.