Items

More Thoughts on Open Source / Garage Biotechnology
Contributed by Fight Aging!
June 27, 2005, 1:09 am

Fight Aging!

A post from Frank at Anti-Aging Science & Medicine (commenting on some nice simulational biotech work at HHMI) made me think again about just how open source development methologies and cultures will shape the future of biotechnology. What are the implications for garage biotechnology hacking? If bioinformatics was the sole technique, it would seem that anyone could have done this research in their garage with computer access to the genomics database and some know-how. My point is not to downplay the scientist's work but to present the possibilities for the amateur scientist in the light of "open source biotechnology". Know-how is expensive, of course, but not as expensive as you might think. If the cost of entry is low (a low cost, high power computer, some general smarts, an investment of time) then someone with 1/10 of a high-level professional biotech know-how can produce useful results at 1/10 of the rate and effectiveness of the professionals. If they mess up, then they mess up - in simulation rather than with real genes in real organisms. Experimentation and diversity will be the order of the day when the only cost is the time of dedicated citizen scientists and the only downside...

Read The Original Items

Keywords: biotechnology, open, garage, know, cost, source, biotech, open source, mess, aging, medicine, computer, high, work, garage biotechnology, think, real, smarts investment time

Additional The Anti Aging Revolution Items

Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Next