Do-it-yourself biology at Biocurious. Photo credit: Maria Chavez.

Let’s say you want to do a little “do-it-yourself” biological tinkering. Maybe you have an idea to make bacteria that can sense or even break down mercury in the environment. Or you want to attract funding for your start up with a few choice experiments. Or you just always wanted to do some biology. Where can you turn?

For people like me, it’s easy. I work for Stanford’s Department of Genetics and so if I were so inclined, I’d have access to the labs there. But this obviously isn’t a typical situation.

For everyone else (at least here in the Bay Area), there is an organization called Biocurious. They are an open lab located in Sunnyvale where you can go and do some biology experiments.

For a monthly fee (currently around $100/month for a year subscription) they provide the equipment, a lab bench and office space. You also get free classes from experts to help you get started.

This lab space is great for folks with some previous lab experience and/or who have an idea of their own they’d like to get started on. The equipment is all there for them to get started and they even get 15% discounts on any reagents they need. Stuff like restriction enzymes, Taq polymerase, nucleotides, etc.

But at least for right now, the space/concept isn’t as useful for the uninitiated. If you just want to come and play, it can be hard to know what to do. Sort of like wanting to design a mobile app but having no experience and having never used one!

One thought I had was maybe membership can come with an optional, relatively simple project that can be done to get the member’s feet wet. Maybe using the mixable and matchable bits of DNA from BioBricks to create a unique, artificial gene. That way the member could create something new but not have it be some cookbook, high school experiment.

This was just one idea off the top of my head. The folks at Biocurious know this is a problem and are brainstorming solutions. Can you think of ways that might help a newbie get started? What would it take to entice you to come join the fun?

Great interview with Eri Gentry, founder of Biocurious

Photo of "Tacit" by Steve Hoefer

Tacit is a sonar-enabled glove that helps the blind to detect when objects are nearby. Developed by local maker, Steve Hoefer, Tacit uses sound navigation and ranging to depress pads which alert wearers of their surroundings.

Built using an Arduino Pro, servos and a whole lot of ingenuity, Steve provides the complete instructions for making Tacit on his blog.

Tacit was developed with both form and function in mind. The first prototype was built as a headband, but as Steve explains on his blog, this couldn't work in the long term. Most serious obstacles to the blind occur closer to waist level and "vibrating motors stuck on your skull will drive you insane quickly". Having never placed a set of vibrating motors on my head, I am sadly without first hand experience (though the thought alone gives me a headache).

Steve put together this awesome video explaining Tacit and how it can be used:

Project Tacit: Sonar For The Blind from Grathio Labs on Vimeo.

Maker Faire lights up the DIY world

This past weekend, an estimated 100,000 people flocked to the San Mateo fairgrounds for Maker Faire, the self-proclaimed largest DIY festival on the planet.

Hundreds of makers came to display their creations and talk to audiences of all ages about getting started in making, learning new skills and seeing their awesome wares. An eclectic mix of crafters, hackers, robotics enthusiasts, steampunk fans and even the Diet Coke and Mentos guys came out to dazzle audiences with feats that seem larger than life.

This year's Maker Faire was big on robots, bikes of all sorts and corporate sponsorships. GM had a small track to test drive their cars, GE ran a solar powered carousel, Google touted the merits of Sketch Up and TechShop took over an entire building and brought their awesome shop to the fairgrounds. Looking beyond the corporate sponsorship, I was able to sneak away from the Instructables booth and catch a glimpse of what other makers were up to and it was an awesome site! Here's a review in photos:

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Watch Do-It-Yourself Science: The Maker Faire.

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

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See your heart beat with the Heart Spark pendant

Heart Spark was created by Sensebridge, a research group interested in building human-machine interfaces based out of San Francisco's Noisebridge.

The Heart Spark works by using a polar chest strap which includes a transmitter that is used to measure your heartbeat and transmit that information wirelessly to the Heart Spark pendant. From there the circuit captures each beat and displays it on a flashing LED. Check out this video from Sensebridge to see the Heart Spark in action.

The Heart Spark is available from Sensebridge for $69. You can pick up a polar chest strap easily at Amazon.com or a local sporting goods store. Simply add a necklace chain and voila! You'll have your very own, completely unique Heart Spark.

The pendant has four modes:

Fake Mode: the six LEDs blink at 75 beats per minute (BPM) regardless, which allows the pendant to be worn even if you don't have a polar chest strap.

Regular Blink: all six LEDs flash in time with your heartbeat (you'll need to be wearing a polar chest strap for this to work)

Activity Blink: the number of LEDs that blink corresponds to your heart rate, as measured by the polar transmitter. The more LEDs blinking the faster your heart rate.

Circle Blink: The LEDs blink in a circle each time the polar transmitter detects a beat.

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The Bulbdial Clock show you the time in shadows.

With Thanksgiving creeping up on us this Thursday, we are officially entering holiday gift buying territory.  If you're wondering what to get the DIY enthusiast in your life, here are some great suggestions, all made or supported by local Bay Area companies:

TV-B-GONE: Probably one of the most fun kits to put together! Invented by local Bay Area maker, Mitch Altman, this allows you to turn off any TV within range. This kit takes less than an hour to build and provides endless entertainment! Kits are under $30 and can be purchased here.

Bulbdial Clock: Sunnyvale's Evil Mad Science has put together this kit which works just like an indoor sundial, but with three shadows of different colors to represent, seconds, hours and minutes. These kits start at $65 and go up depending on the components you'll want to include. Evil Mad Science has quite a few kits and projects that are accessible for beginners as well as more experienced electronics fans. Learn more about what they offer here.

Retro Scanner: Completely new to soldering and looking for an easy kit to get started with? Look no further than Applied Platonics' Retro Scanner. Developed by San Francisco maker, Josh Myer, this kit takes roughly an hour to put together, and comes with comprehensive instructions to guide you each step of the way. When complete, you'll have a cool set of blinking lights to show off. The Retro Scanner starts at $15. Check it out!

Monkeylectric LED Bike Lighting: If there's a cyclist in your life, this gift will delight. Designed by Monkey Lectric in Berkeley, their LED Bike kit will light up the spoke of your wheels in an array of pre-programmed designs and colors. These kits are plug and play, so there's no configuration on your part. Simply use the board's interface to select a design, affix it to your wheel and ride! These lights start at $65.

LED Menora, Christmas Tree and Yule Logs: Want to get into the spirit of the season? Holiday kits are all the rage and the Makershed sells them all!

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Fun, ghoulish activities for this Halloween.

Looking for what to do this Halloween weekend? Here are several activities for technology and science enthusiasts that can please both families and adults alike.

For the family

Halloween Afternoon at the Exploratorium
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Noon–4pm

Celebrate Halloween at the Exploratorium where they will have a variety of activities for the family. Creepy crawlies will be on display thanks to The San Francisco Bay Area Tarantula Society. If insects aren't your thing, check out the garden of carnivorous plants or join local artist Irma Ortiz as she demonstrates how to handcraft Calaveras, or sugar skulls, in preparation for Dia de los Muertos.

Lawrence Hall of Science
Weekend, October 30-31
1:30 – 4pm

Visit the Animal Discovery Room and hang out with all the creepy animals LHS has to offer. Touch or hold some of the slimiest, hairiest, creepy-crawliest creatures and learn more about those animals, and why they may not be as creepy as you think.

Academy of Sciences
Saturday, October 30, 9:30 -5:00 pm
Sunday, October 31, 11:00-5:00 pm

Celebrate Halloween with chills and thrills at the Academy. Enjoy ghoulish music, join a costume parade, or take in the performances by Velocity Circus. Check out the live animal demonstrations and get up close with cockroaches, snakes, and other creepy crawly critters.

For the inner child

Instructables
Friday, October 29
6pm

Instructables invites you to come to their headquarters in Downtown SF and join in a costumed show and tell. Bring your own DIY creation to show off and meet other makers. This is a participatory event, so if you're not bringing an item to show, please bring food or drink to share. Costumes are encouraged!

Journey to the End of the Night
Saturday, October 30
7pm, Justin Herman Plaza

While not strictly a science or technology event, this event is definitely worth a mention. Engage in a citywide game of tag, as you run from location to location with Journey to the End of the Night. Players race through San Francisco to a series of checkpoints, while avoiding being caught by chasers. Those who fall will become chasers themselves, out to pursue their former friends and allies.

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Rock Paper Scissors Glove by Steve Hoefer

We're fortunate to be surrounded by a large community of nerds and DIYers in the Bay Area. The community is a constant source of inspiration for me, whether I'm looking to create a self-destroying robot (as I was for Sparkfun's Antimov competition) or a piece of wearable art.

Here are a couple local makers to follow for creative ideas, inspiring designs and to spark your imagination:

Steve Hoefer

When Steve and I first met in a crafting group, I had no idea what an accomplished maker he was. Game designer by day and maker by night, Steve has made items such as a Rock Paper Scissors Glove (seen above), a Secret Knock Detecting Gumball Machine that he showed off at Maker Faire and much much more. His work, hacks and mods have been featured on Gizmodo, Lifehacker, BoingBoing, MAKE and many others. Check out this video of Steve's Secret Knock Detecting Lock.

In addition to sharing the details of how he's created these cool projects on his blog, Steve's viewpoints on technology are a breathe of fresh air. I highly recommend following Steve's work at Grathio.com. He's been a huge inspiration to me.

Mitch Altman

Mitch is a force in the San Francisco maker community. He is the co-founder of San Francisco hackerspace, Noisebridge, and the CEO of Cornfield Electronics, makers of the TV-B-Gone. He gives workshops around the world teaching others about microcontrollers and is also the inventor of the Brain Machine, a project both available for ready made purchase and in kits for assembly, which uses visual and auditory triggers to bring users into deeper states of meditation. I've tried the Brain Machine for myself and can attest that it a rather trippy experience!

Mitch can be found most Monday evenings at Noisebridge teaching a hardware hacking workshop.

Mitch isn't much of a blogger, but can be found occasionally shooting out messages on Twitter. He is one of the nicest guys around and give awesome advice for hardware hackers from newbie to expert, so make sure to catch up with him at Noisebridge for inspiring conversation.

Who are your favorite Bay Area Makers? Where do you get inspiration from? Let us know in the comments!

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Light up costumes are creative ways to celebrate Halloween.

We're all familiar with the notion of getting a bedsheet, cutting out a couple holes for eyes and draping it over ourselves in a pinch. With a little more time you could light that costume up and dazzle friends, neighbors and fellow trick-or-treaters.

Cool Costumers with EL Wire

Electroluminescent wire (EL wire) is incredibly easy to work with and in great supply in the Bay Area, thanks to all our Burning Man friends. There is an excellent Instructables on creating glowing fairy wings out of EL Wire by SewLolita. Follow their instructions and you'll have a one of a kind creation to light up any fairy costume.

If fairies aren't your thing, consider making a TRON costume, outlining the edges of the costume in EL Wire and voila, you've created a TRON outfit.

Check out Cool Neon, a Bay Area company that specializes in EL wire, and all kinds of things that light up. They have an online store and you can also pick up from there warehouse in the East Bay. Furthermore, they have a great guide to soldering with EL wire that is indispensable if this is your first time soldering.

Light up using LED's

Like EL wire, LED costumes allow you to stretch you imagination to create unique light shows and funky designs. You can build your own light saber, make all kinds of illuminated clothing and even turn yourself in a live fireworks display! Believe it or not, using an umbrella and programmable LED's you can do just that thanks to this Instructables from Chris Huebner.

Resources

Noisebridge offers their space to the public for free use of their equipment including soldering irons and sewing machines. Wednesday nights they host a sewing and craft night that welcomes anyone to come and work on a craft project and get help from others.

The Crucible is offering an EL Wire workshop on October 23rd to get you ready to create illuminated costumes.

Good luck with your Halloween costume and let us know what you're planning on making in the comments!

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The AP ran a story the other day about people working with DNA in their garages (or apartments). For example, a woman in San Francisco is trying to engineer yogurt bacteria that will glow green in the presence of melamine. This is the chemical that was found in baby formula and pet food from China.

The idea would be that you (or some governmental agency) could check your yogurt with a UV light before you ate it. If it glowed green, then the yogurt was contaminated with melamine.

These glowing bacteria could help a lot of people avoid melamine poisoning (as long as people could get past the fact that they'd be eating a GMO!). But do we really want people doing this kind of biology at home?

Of course this sort of thing would be very difficult to stop. People can go to science fair project sites and get all the information they need to jury rig a lot of the equipment to do these kinds of experiments. They can also search the web or take a class at their local community college and learn most everything they need to know.

In fact, the technology to do this kind of stuff is so straightforward that we do something similar here at The Tech. We let visitors put a gene in bacteria that causes the bacteria to glow green only in the presence of a special sugar called arabinose.

So unless we put up massive resources to shut down these labs (a "War on Amateur Labs"), people are going to be able to do this stuff if they want to. To me, the two big questions are:

• Will anything useful come out of these labs?
• Will something dangerous be released onto an unsuspecting public?

Odds are that nothing too useful will come out of these labs. Sure the melamine bacterium could be useful (it is actually very similar to the outlawed glowing goldfish designed to detect pollutants in the water). But it would be very hard to bring to market. Two potential problems are getting people to eat a GMO and proving to the FDA that it is safe.

One good thing that might come out of this sort of thing is to make biology more accessible and maybe more exciting too. People might think of and do projects for fun that, as a necessary part of accomplishing their goal, will increase their understanding of molecular biology. In other words, they might be more willing to learn this stuff for something fun they thought of.

I can imagine some dangers too. What if someone decides to come up with an anthrax vaccine and makes a dangerous bug that gets loose? Or who knows what else?

There probably isn't a big risk in something like this happening but biology is different than coming up with a new computer program or light bulb in your garage. Biology uses live things that can make copies of themselves and spread pretty far pretty quickly. Traditional labs have controls in place to keep these sorts of things from happening. These unregulated labs may or may not be that careful.

A group in Boston that promotes do-it-yourself biology:

http://diybio.org/

How to make some molecular biology lab equipment at home http://www.scq.ubc.ca/the-macgyver-project-genomic-dna-extraction-and-gel-electrophoresis-experiments-using-everyday-materials/

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