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Doctoring Devices Biohackers get Safer and faster When missile to work flights defences fail TechnologyQuarterly September 6th 2014 Smartphones on wheels How the connected car goes driverless 20140906_TQ_SEPT.indd 1 26/08/2014 14:44 The Economist Technology Quarterly September 6th 2014 Monitor 1 Contents On the cover Smartphones and other mobile-communications technology are changing the way cars are made, bought and used. As vehicles begin to talk to each other and the road around them, a driverless future comes closer, page 12 Monitor Biohackers of the world, unite 1 Biohackers organise, medical-technology startups, heating people rather than buildings, the language of the internet of things, and suspended animation Difference engine The DIYbio movement: Following the example of maker communities 6 Where gadgets go to die worldwide, hobbyists keen on biology have started to get together A mountain of electronic waste T LOOKS like an experimental cooking beliefthat “biology is technology” (to needs responsible recycling Iclass as participants taste a green pow- quote the title ofa bookby Rob Carlson, a der, pull faces and then mix it into a con- DIYbio pioneer): that DNA is a form of Military technology coction offruit and milk. But the event software that can be manipulated to de- 7 The unsheltering sky organised by Open Wetlab in Amsterdam sign biological processes and devices. But Long-range ballistic-missile has a more serious goal than to come up some people worry that amateur labora- defences look doomed with new recipes forsmoothies: finding tories could create killer bugs or provide ways to make spirulina—an algae which is training forbio terrorists. For the moment, full ofproteins and vitamins, but tastes at least, such fears seem premature. The Demolition technology disgusting—more palatable. amateur labs are not yet very sophisticat- 10 Bringing the house down Welcome to the world ofbiohacking. ed, according to a recent survey of359 New ways to demolish old In its original sense, hacking involves members ofthe DIYbio movement by the buildings in crowded cities taking things apart and putting them back Woodrow Wilson International Centre for together again in new ways. Such tinkerers Scholars, a think-tank. Most activities helped to create the “maker movement”, involve extracting DNA, for instance from The connected car which has grown into a worldwide com- strawberries. Only13% ofthe biohackers 12 Smartphones on wheels munity ofpeople constructing things have synthesised a gene and just 3% have Mobile communications are ranging from 3D-printed jewellery to genetically engineered a mammalian cell. changing the way cars are used robots. Biohackers have also started to Since biohackers often have a PhD, they organise themselves, under the umbrella probably did this in a professional lab. Air-traffic control ofa movement called DIYbio. Nearly 50 cities, mostly in America and Art and science 15 Free flight Europe, are now home to groups ofbio- Not all the groups are focused on synthetic How pilots can fly direct routes, hackers or amateur laboratories where biology. In Europe, amateur biologists saving time and fuel they can meet and experiment. Besides often workwith artists and designers, says Open Wetlab, these include Biocurious in Markus Schmidt, co-author ofa paper on Brain Scan Sunnyvale, California, Genspace in New European DIYbio. A recent faircalled 17 Welcome to my genome Yorkand La Paillasse in Paris. The number “Synthetic Aesthetics” at the Victoria and A profile of George Church, a ofbiohackers around the world is any- Albert Museum in London included pro- pioneer of genetics body’s guess, but the movement’s main jects that use bacteria to colour tapestries, online-mailing list boasts nearly 4,000 grow bags and encode music in DNA. members and is growing rapidly. “Our goal is not only to advance biolo- What drives the movement is the gy, but democratise it,” explains Ellen 1 2 Monitor The Economist Technology Quarterly September 6th 2014 2 Jorgensen, president ofGenspace. Found- OpenPCR has now become a startup advice to new ventures.) ed in 2010, the community laboratory in business and is working on an improved As DIYbio grows calls fortighter regu- ¡ Brooklyn is the model forthe two dozen PCR machine. Amplino, a Dutch startup, lations will get louder et clamping down others that have since opened around the has built a low-cost device capable of would be counter-productive, argues Mr world. Genspace hosts all sorts ofevents, detecting malaria, which it hopes will be Carlson. Such rules would be hard to including “biohacker boot camps”, as well used in developing countries. enforce and drive biohackers under- as projects such as “barcoding” in Alaska, Other firms are working on products ground. It would hamper startups and an attempt to catalogue plants. that could make life much easier forbio- limit innovation. Much better, says Mr Technological movements often arise hackers. Autodesk, a big software com- Carlson, for governments to support com- when a critical mass ofenthusiasts get pany, has a scheme under way code- munity labs where everbody—biohackers, greater access to information and find named “Project Cyborg” which is devel- startups and anyone who is interested— tools that are both cheap and widely oping design tools for DNA. Opus can experiment openly and safely. 7 available. A similar thing is happening in Labworks, a startup, aims to build a fluid- medical technology, where there is a handling robot starting at $2,000. Even flourish ofinnovative startups making more ambitious, Cambrian Genomics is new devices (see next story). building a “3D printer forliving things”—a Many ofthe first makers were software device that can cheaply synthesise DNA. Doctoring developers wanting to reconnect with the But there are barriers that will limit real world by building physical things. DIYbio’s growth. Building a biological devices Enough people are now interested in device is a lot more complicated than biology and have knowledge to hackDNA, putting together a robot or designing a says Mr Carlson. DIYbio also has roots in new circuit board. And whereas regulators Medical technology: Easy access to iGEM, a successful annual synthetic- have largely ignored the maker move- technology and a lower cost of entry biology competition forundergraduates. ment, they are a lot more interested in the are creating a crowd of startups As in the case ofthe maker movement, workofamateur laboratories. websites such as YouTube and Instruc- IfEuropean biohackers are less focused making new gear tables allow tinkerers to share ideas. Simi- on synthetic biology, it is partly because OFTWARE helped startups flourish, larly, access to information about biotech- they need to askforpermission. Genetics Swith open-source programs and the nology has become much easier, says Mr laboratories require a licence and only a web providing easy collaboration and a Carlson. The Journal of Visualised Experi- few are even trying to get one. In America fast route to market. Tens ofthousands of ments, a peer-reviewed online-video biohackers used to riskgetting arrested, software developers will produce apps publication, is one source. but in recent years the FBI has opted fora worth more than $30 billion this year. The necessary laboratory equipment is more enlightened approach: local special Now cheap computing power and the no longer beyond the budget ofhobbyists. agents talkto community labs; the agency shrinking cost ofsmall-scale manufactur- Many devices are now forsale on eBay organises an annual DIYbio conference; it ing are spawning more hardware startups. and more specialised online market- is even a sponsor ofiGEM. “The people As examples from Europe show, a particu- places, not least because the recession has who practise DIYbio are best placed to larly thriving area is medical technology. forced a number ofcommercial laborato- know what is going on,” says Edward You, “Easy access to technology empowers ries to close. Such equipment can also be who pioneered the FBI’s effort. He also creative minds,” says Ulrich Weinberg of built more cheaply by using off-the-shelf thinks that the agency and the DIYbio the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, parts and open-source software. movement have a “shared responsibility Germany. Although Mr Weinberg often to protect science”. In other words, if works with big companies that make My own PCR machine things go wrong there will be tighter regu- medical devices, he has seen the costs of If3D printers are the tool ofchoice for lations—making life more difficult for both entry tumble. “Even groups ofstudents 1 makers, PCR machines are de rigueur in law enforcement and biohackers. amateur labs. Using a biochemical tech- Most DIYbio leaders welcome all this nology called polymerase chain reaction (although some joke that DIYbio would (hence PCR), the machines are used to not be where it is today without the FBI’s identify a specific segment ofDNA and support). “What you don’t want to do is make multiple copies ofit. “Youcan now surprise law enforcement and regulators build these in a garage,” says Josh Perfetto, with new technologies,” says Jason Bobe, who is one ofthe founders ofOpenPCR, a co-founder ofDIYbio.org, a charity that group which has developed a simple PCR supports the movement, who also works machine that costs only $600. with George Church, a pioneer ofgenetics DIYbio also benefits from the organisa- (see page 17). For now it seems to be able to tional infrastructure ofthe maker move- regulate itself. DIYbio.org has hired safety ment. Many laboratories start in hacker- experts formembers to consult. And spaces, which serve as clubhouses for leaders ofthe movement on both sides of makers. Amsterdam’s Open Wetlab, for the Atlantic have developed a code of instance, is part ofthe Waag Society, an ethics which frowns on releasing geneti- organisation which also runs a shop for cally modified organisms into the environ- makers.
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