DIY: Too Close for Comfort...

...Unless you know what you are doing of course.  This subject has left me divided; prior to reading Biopunk, I would have been completely against the idea of experiments in the home.  If I were to come home and find my roommate had embarked on a DIYBio mission and transformed any part of our home space into a lab, I would probably be disturbed.  First of all, I would hope my roommate would have the courtesy to call me before embarking on such a mission.  Secondly, I would probably feel a little bit disrespected because although they have every right to privacy in their share of the space, the idea of chemicals and experiments being conducted in a place where two people live in close proximity to one another and are not both voluntarily consuming any type of side effect of their experiments is kind of rude.  Although I believe it was never ruled one way or the other exactly what caused the heart failure of Hope Kurtz in Part IV of the Biopunk literature, I would still be very concerned about the possible implications of having biological agents of any kind in close proximity of where I am living.  Not only does this pose a possible health threat (the fact is, you never know what exactly might or might not kill you when experimenting with this stuff, what about viruses and various bacteria?), but I would also be concerned about Steve Kurtz' run in with the law.  We live in a very skeptical age, especially in regards to bioterrorism, at least in the government's eyes, and I would be worried that even if my roommate had the best of intentions, they could easily be misconstrued.  

Now that I have all of my negative reactions out of the way (as I am a very emotional person and they would likely be the first to come out), I can now discuss what I actually might appreciate about my room mate's endeavors.  Galileo did not buy a telescope, he built it.  As they mention in Chapter 8: My Life of Biopunk, Benjamin Franklin used a kite and key to discover the power of electricity.  Marie Curie's work in radiation was not sponsored by the school she worked for, but yet she received a Nobel Prize in her work on radiation...and the list goes on.  If many individuals had not had the self determination and will to explore science the way they did, without government assistance or harassment, where would we be today?  The spirit of hacking the sciences has long been a part of our history and I sometimes do believe that everyone should have a right to participate.  The bigger the brain pool, the better, right?  So believed Andrew Hessel...we should have a cure for cancer, or in his terms, we should have many different treatments for cancer tailored to their particular kind (Chapter 8: My Life of Biopunk).  As our book has pointed out so many times, there should always be an easily accessible alternative for those who wish to participate in biological research, if not just for their own understanding of themselves, but also for the possibility of a break in research.  You just never know!  In this sense, I do support the spirit of bio hacking.  

Everything comes back to laws, safety, and security, however.  I would request that my roommate have a clear understanding of what they are handling, and if not, to not conduct the experiments at all.  Actually, I have to admit, I would probably not be comfortable at all with the lab in the apartment and respectfully request that they attempt to find somewhere local that they could convene with like-minded bio hackers and utilize equipment in a safe environment supervised by people experienced in the field.  I would try to be understanding, as well as educated myself on what they are trying to accomplish (not to a great extent), and probably help them in a search for a place they could practice safely and legally.  I imagine I might want to take a class with them (MIGHT), just out of curiosity, but I do not see myself picking up bio hacking as a hobby anytime in the near future.  In the end, I also do not imagine that my current room mate (my boyfriend) would be conducting any kinds of these experiments without my knowledge; for that I am grateful.