BioCoder #11

Chapter 10. HiveBio: Access Granted

Max Showalter

Bergen McMurray has cherry-red hair and shoulders painted with black ink tattoos. You probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she’s worked as an artist, a photographer, and a graphic designer. But McMurray has a few more titles that set her apart. She’s a loving mother, she’s published in Nature, and in her spare time, she happens to lead a buzzing colony of do-it-yourself biologists.

Do-it-yourself biology, or DIYbio, is part of a growing movement which seeks to give people the tools to learn without formal education. “Punk,” “maker,” or “hacker”—the DIY community can go by many names, all of which embody the same directive: democratize science. DIYbio empowers the individual to seek scientific knowledge through trial and error, getting hands dirty in books and bench work alike. In the same way computer tinkering and garage electronics powered the human element of the digital revolution, DIYbio provides the average individual a pathway to biological literacy.

McMurray’s philosophy aligns to the ethic of the DIY community. “I believe that everyone, regardless of education level or income or age, should [have] access to the resources needed to learn and build and create,” she said.

But for biology, finding this access can be hard to come by. Expensive and potentially hazardous chemicals, specialized equipment, particular safety and environmental contamination protocols: all of these can present insurmountable hurdles. Even ...