[ExI] Fwd: DIY DNA synthesis (more)

[Bryan Bishop]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 2:30 PM, Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Thu, 4/16/09, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Have you heard of Hugh Rienhoff?
>>
>> article: http://www.wired.com/medtech/genetics/magazine/17-02/ff_diygenetics?currentPage=all
>> his site: http://www.mydaughtersdna.org/
>
> [big snip]
>
> This brings up the interesting notion of more aggressive sequencing of the genomes of all known living
> things via DIYers.  Just as a lot of astronomy -- well, spotting comets and asteroids and not stuff like
> looking for GRBs -- is done by amateur astronomers, why can't DIY genomicists (correct term) just sequence
> the DNA of local flaura, fauna, etc. and share results online?  Or is this already being done?  I think it might
> increase the pace of logging these genomes -- rather than having episodic announcements like "dog genome
> sequenced" in the big journals.  Of course, there's the downside of quality control, but that shouldn't be
> a show-stopper in my opinion.

Look up "BioWeatherMap".

http://bioweathermap.org/

"Ever wonder how the microbial communities living on cross-walk
buttons in Boston compare to those in San Francisco, or Manhattan, or
the cross-walk nearest your home? We're going to find out and you can
get involved. Meet up at points around the city, swab crosswalk
buttons with Q-tips, and bring the samples back to a central location.
The samples will be sent for DNA sequencing. A few weeks later,
receive analysis results and learn about the microbes that were living
on the crosswalk button they swabbed. The data will be published on a
map, so results for different crosswalk buttons can be compared."

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507