• Laboratory_life,Lighthouse Arts Brighton, UK
• Maker Faire Newcastle, Centre for Life, Newcastle, UK  (with Cathal and Jonathan)
• DIYBio Eu Congress, Code of Ethics, LSE, London, UK
• Mini Maker Faire, Dome, Brighton, UK – > MicroWaterMonsters
• Octopus Cut and Cook, Madlab, Manchester, UK
• Hacterialab20111, Romainmontier/Zurich CH
• Field_Notes Cultivating Ground, Kilpisjarvi, FL
• H+ Conference, Birbeck College, London, UK
• DIYBio conference, Madlab, Manchester, UK

Related articles

• Interview with Marc Dusseiller (Hackteria.org), part 1: On DIYbio … (body-pixel.com)

• slow science, preservation techniques in times of excess for times of little, systems, and systems analysis, using appropriate technologies, not just the ones that are being sold to us.
• To learn from other cultures
• gambiarra/makeshift/makedo/kludge techniques.
• this time of surplus where the dollar/pound/euro shops are selling us amazing technologies for a pittance. I buy the cool solar powered light for a £1, because, chances are, it will retain its use till I die or cannibalise it for parts
• personal fabrication: of personalised designs designed using open source toolchains and equipment.
• smart design (like the spork, or sofie the giraffe), that embody a lot of thoughtfulness in it design
• the pseudo-sciences of recipeology and workshopology where knowledge(such as how to etc) is packaged in a format for ‘consumption’  [also something I love to do]
• the promise of DIYbo and personalised SynthBio

So what is this DIYBio movement? It sits at the confluence of democratizing bioscience and the need to have the tools of science under our control or knowledge. Who are we? Artists, scientists, amateurs{in the best meaning of that word}, but primarily citizens. We have different motivations, skill sets, tool sets, but we share that need to understand, to know, to tinker, to share, to dream, of better futures. To re-examine the ‘old’ technologies and the ‘new’ technologies of biotechnology and to reintroduce them to each other, to de-commodify what we can, and to appropriate what we can’t. 

This innovative centrifuge that has been designed for Reading Biotech. What we are interested in is that it is simple, light, robust and portable. http://www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk/ncbe/materials/dna/microcentrifuge.html

It was designed by Millennium Products (http://www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk/NCBE/MILLENNIUM/centrifuge.html)

microcentrifuge is specifically designed for school use to give students and pupils access to ‘leading-edge’ biotechnology work. Several mains-operated microcentrifuges are commercially available but are designed for research level work. These typically cost £500+ and are beyond the needs and budgets of most schools. This microcentrifuge is designed and manufactured to sell for approximately £100, and has been developed by Professor John Cave of the Technology Enhancement Programme, and Middlesex University with help from Science and Plants for Schools and the NCBE.

Key features of the design

The centrifuge is simple, robust and has been thoroughly tested to ensure that it is safe. The centrifuge works at safe low voltages and – uniquely – can be powered from standard power supply units, batteries or a solar panel array. This makes the equipment suitable for the classroom or for field work. It also makes the equipment very suitable for developing countries. With batteries, it has a single speed of 6,670 rpm (2,236 g), but with a suitable mains adaptor a range of speeds up to 13,000 rpm (8,494 g) is possible.

A challenge to existing conventions

The equipment challenges several basic conventions. Most equipment is mains powered; the centrifuge works from just 6-12 volts . This invites a choice of power supplies such as batteries or even solar power. The equipment also challenges product design conventions for educational equipment by effectively ‘recycling’ or placing into an unintended context components and materials normally used in other applications. The centrifuge motor, for example, is a low-cost automobile unit; the centrifuge case is machined from high pressure mains water pipe and the motor housing is moulded from rubber normally used for acoustic damping in loudspeaker systems.

The equipment also uses innovative design principles. The microcentrifuge has a safety interlock consisting of just three extended screws. These complete the motor circuit via the metal lid when all are fastened down. They cannot then be unscrewed quickly enough to remove the lid before the motor has stopped turning.

Environmental considerations

The centrifuge uses fewer materials and processes in manufacture because of simplified design. Also, because the equipment is potentially solar powered, ‘conventional’ energy consumption can be zero; more importantly, perhaps, as science equipment for schools it carries an implicit message for students that pupils that important processes can be carried out using renewable energy.

The centrifuge from NCBE

Anyway it definitely is the year of DIYBio….. for me and at least 20 or so people around the world. In no order (off the top of my head) here are some of the people I have talked to around DIYBio

• Andy Gracie(UK)
• Marc Dusselier(CH)
• Yashas Shety(IN)
• Cathal Garvey (IE)
• Mac Cowell (US)
• Jason Bobe(US)
• Asa Calow(UK)
• Hwa Young(UK)
• Lisa Thalheim(UK)
• Bryan Bishop (US)
• Denisa Kera (CZ/SI)
• The guys at HONF Indonesia(Akbar, Venza and Togar)
• Tito(US)
• Meridith(US)
• Helen Bullard(UK)
• Anna Dumitriu(UK)
• tbc

Should you be on the list? Probably we haven’t had a long talk yet.

Did I get your geotag wrong? let me know, plus a link.

In the paper “For a Comprehensive Citizen Appropriation of Information and its Technologies | Information Personnes / Persons Information”: http://pierrot-peladeau.net/en/archives/2196 the importance of choice is demonstrated. The concept in the paper that really made me think of Internet of Things was Social Appropriation.

social appropriation, which is the process by which people integrate innovations into their lives to empower themselves, adapting and even hijacking them from their initial control or purposes to fit their needs and interests.

The world is filled with technologies that went through a process of social appropriation, think telecommunications, the phones original purpose was to transmit concert performances into your house, sms was for diagnostic tests by engineers. These are the killer apps that are game changing. In the web world, flickr originally was set up for dating(anyone got a reference). Although the big appropriations are impressive, the smaller ones are more intrigueing

Take thimbl  http://www.thimbl.net/ This is a project based on an old computer service called finger, finger was used to check the details of a user on a computer. So you could read the .plan of  joeblogs@gamgee.uni.edu. The twist is that they want to take this decentralised service and knit it together into a web2 micro blogging application like twitter.

Nordt labs were resident in Newcastle over April. I managed to catch them at their final talk at ISISArt’s and at their temporary workspace at CultureLab. As you would know, lasersaur is one of a few open source projects (part)funded by a kickstarter call.

Having read about the project, it was great to get a better understanding of what motivates the development.

From my understanding, the lasersaur is quite easy to build many different dimensions as it uses standard railings. This is different to other laser cutters that use specialised rails for the dimensions. The first prototype is big enough to do panels of cloth and leather for making clothing and shoes. At their time at Culturelab/ISISarts they concentrated on getting starter kits together for their community and beefing up the documentation. In the last few days they put together a lasersaur for the SF maker faire(now been).

Dexy.it is the tool she has developed.

It may also be used in Literate Programming.