From Tim on Radar – “Paul Boutin describes his hands on attempt at gene engineering with no prior experience: “How hard is it to build your own weapon of mass destruction? We take a crash course in supervirus engineering to find out.” Boutin’s conclusions challenge the conventional wisdom that this kind of thing requires the resources of a large National Lab, and emphasize the importance of investment now in biodefense.” [via] Link.
4 thoughts on “DIY Genetics”
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I had my second job as a tech geek at a little company in Skokie, Il. in 1997. The company’s primary output was oglionucleotides. The company’s owner had a series of patents and a collection of clients who’s true identity was kept quiet. Now it’s 2006 and the hardware that they were using back, 9 years ago, is on sale for spare change. Sure, you want to make something dangerous, you can. Just understand that this hardware has already produced just about every strand of DNA and RNA that you’ve thought of or will think of. Just know that you may make something with this hardware, but it’s either already under patent review or it’ll be something the FBI will be interested in. Buy and use with caution.
I just want cats that glow in the dark so I can stop stepping on them at 2am when I’m looking for the john.