New Book, BioPunk, Chronicles Open, DIY Biotechnology Projects

As we noted in this recent post, slowly but surely, biology and biotechnology efforts that follow open source principles are improving, and as they mature, they could have a profound effect on healthcare, longevity, disease control, and much more. Biotechnology reporter Luke Zimmerman's latest dispatch on the work of Sage Bionetworks founder Stephen Friend offers a case in point, and now, for those interested in the fast-growing trend toward grassroots biotechnology efforts (many of which are open source or follow open source principles), there is an interesting new book: BioPunk, by Marcus Wohlson.

According to Technology Review: "Wohlsen discovers that biohackers, like the open-source programmers and software hackers who came before, are united by a profound idealism." Technology Review adds:

"Suspicious of scientific elitism and inspired by the success of open-source computing, the bio DIYers believe that individuals have a fundamental right to biological information, that spreading the tools of biotech to the masses will accelerate the pace of progress, and that the fruits of the biosciences should be delivered into the hands of the people who need them the most."