Open Source Software Meets Do-It-Yourself Biology 113
destinyland writes "This article profiles a growing movement — DIY biology — that's made possible in part by open source tools. Using programs like BioPerl and BioPython, DIY biologists write their own code (computer and genetic), designing their own biological systems and altering the genome. A protein-folding simulator, Folding@home, is now the most powerful distributed computing cluster in the world, and as the movement evolves, cooperatives are also springing up where hobbyists pool resources and create 'hacker spaces' to reduce costs and share knowledge. 'As the shift to open source software continues, computational biology will become even more accessible, and even more powerful,' this article argues — while intellectual property and other bureaucracies continue to hobble traditional forms of research."
Uhhh... (Score:5, Funny)
DIY Biology sounds pretty dangerous.
As long as the instructions it comes with are better than Ikea's...
Distributed Cluster (Score:0, Funny)
...Folding@home, is now the most powerful distributed computing cluster in the world...
A Distributed Cluster? *Head Asplode*
DIY?? (Score:5, Funny)
Do it yourself biology??
I prefer "do it with someone else" biology...
Hurray great article! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Uhhh... (Score:3, Funny)
"Put tab A into slot B" is really all you need to know anyway.
Dammit (Score:3, Funny)
From the title I was looking forward to the news that I could DL the opensource software, get my PC hooked up to a robot arm and a webcam, and have it do my appendectomy.
i like cooperative do-it-yourself biology (Score:3, Funny)
sadly, i mostly encounter uncooperatives
this leads to do-it-by-yourself biology
Re:Uhhh... (Score:4, Funny)
Excuse me. In our days, we used to call that any of: ;)
- Sex
- Pregnancy
- Having mold in the bathroom/basement/etc.
- Growing your own food.
- Brewing your own beer / making your own cheese/salami/etc.
- Letting the dog lick your face.
- Actually eating the sand-cake that you made in the sandbox where the dogs used to poop.
And we lived with it! (Not in that order, though.
The youth today. A bunch of bubble boys in fear of the world.
Now get off my lawn!
Been doing that (Score:1, Funny)
The open source flu (Score:3, Funny)
coming to a upper respiratory near you.