

Garage Biology in Silicon Valley (2010) - MCRed
http://www.synthesis.cc/2010/03/garage-biology-in-silicon-valley.html

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w1ntermute
> I continue to get push back from people who assert that "it is really too
> hard" to hack biology in a garage, or too expensive, or that garage labs
> just can't be up to snuff. This sort of dissent usually comes out of
> National Labs, Ivy League professors, or denizens of the beltway. All I can
> say to this is -- Doodz, you need to get out more.

Are there any examples of significant biological advances or discoveries from
"garage biology" in the years since this article was written?

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lvs
No, of course not. It's great to imagine that all science is accessible to
everyone. It's a great democratizing concept. The trouble is that it's
departed from reality.

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Houshalter
They seem to be saying that it's possible to do the same experiments as real
labs, on a budget. Which might be true.

The reason garage labs produce less than real labs, is more likely due to
selection effects. The majority of people passionate about biology probably
try to become professional biologists. The people doing experiments in their
garages are those who didn't make it, or people totally outside the field. And
there's also fewer of them.

That's not to say if you took all the actual biologists and make them work in
a garage, they wouldn't produce interesting things.

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_Wintermute
It's already an issue in academic labs that many studies are statistically
underpowered. If academic labs blowing through millions each year are
producing questionable results due to cost-cutting, then the limited budget of
DIY labs is going to be a huge problem.

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MCRed
I'd love if anyone can point me to community site for DIY Bio / garage
materials hacking.

I have an idea for a hobby project that involves building a robot to mix small
amounts of (safe, non-biological) liquids... need to be able to dispense 0.1ml
to 10ml range, but very precisely.

My current thinking is hooking up syringes with one way valves (one going to
the supply, one going to the output) ... and a linear actuator or screw drive
to move the plunger back and forth-- so on the pull stroke the syringe would
fill from the reservoir and on the push stroke it would fill the output.

But I figure there might be an off the shelf solution for something like this
that's hacker friendly.

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trentmb
Perhaps a peristaltic pump[1], with the rollers spaced appropriately to
achieve the minimum incremental amount?

1:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peristaltic_pump](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peristaltic_pump)

