A generation ago people learned wood or metal working in high school. Then as they grew up they tinkered in their garages building row boats or chairs with plans they got out of the back of Popular Mechanics. Now students are routinely taught genetic engineering. So plasmid preps and restriction enzyme digestions are familiar terms to most people who were at least college track in high school.
What will be in the back of Popular Mechanics in a few years?
In any city with a major university you can get everything you need to setup a genetics lab in you basement for a couple hundred dollars. If you think well regulated genetic experimentation that undergoes years of testing before it is reject by the USDA for release, is bad wait till some guy builds a new bacteria that eats PVC and then lets it go cause his neighbor’s lawn sprinkler got his hover car wet.
(Before anyone has a fit, it would be very very hard to actually make a PVC eating bacteria. It would be very hard to make an engineered bacterium that could live in the wild at all, since most lab adapted strains are “weak and soft” and would be killed and eaten very quickly once they were on their own.)
Seriously, here is the thing, since most of the early genetic research was done in the late 70’s and early 80’s using simple home build equipment the early technology can be combined with ’05 genetic knowledge to allow nearly anyone with the time and a little money to build their own genetics lab.
Now I am not here to provide a guide to DIY genetic experimentation, since you can get a Promega catalog and learn lots, so I don’t need too. While I do have concerns about the common man engaging in unregulated genetic experimentation, I don’t think it should be banned either. It is the only area where the “common” man can invent. Sure he can’t compete with a modern lab facility but rudimentary experimentation is very possible. I know for a fact the genetic puzzle has lots of missing pieces, so a cleaver experimenter can get on Pubmed and read papers to find areas where there are gaps in the scientific narrative, and seek to close them. Heck there are lots of cool things RNA and DNA can do alone. With a genome that is more junk than genes the human genome is a largely unexplored jungle with new species of DNA and RNA enzymes or other wonder waiting to be discovered. Oh sure computers are the way of the future, but computer programming is just learning a language and speaking it, so it is not really experimenting. To experiment with computers requires a fab and a foundry and you can’t get those things used at a university auction, since even in the 60’s and 70’s companies not individuals pioneered the early technology. With a few thousand dollars and a lot of time and luck, the garage molecular genetics researcher can contribute substantially to his field.
Look we can’t stop amateur genetic research, unless we make salt water and jello controlled substances. In fact there have been genetic engineers for hundreds of years Mendel and his peas. Heck I did my first genetic engineering experiment at 10, I got a bunch of snails put them in a bag and ran them through the X-ray machine at the airport about 20 times. Then I let them go in a controlled part of the yard and waited. If you are interested nothing happened (no evil mutant super-snail arose to conquer the lands) and since I got the snails in a wet climate and took them to a dry climate, after a few years the native snails out competed them and they died out.
What is the point? I think if we are going to teacher people genetic engineering when they are 17 we need to teach it better. They need to know the laws, and the risks, perhaps even a licensing process like amateur radio. There should be clubs, magazines (I like Popular Genetics) and a cable TV channel (GenTV, with shows like Dr. Debby Does DNA) we should not wait till there is a problem to get involved. Like any hobby that has potential misuses, policy and self regulation will be the most effective means of control. I can’t walk in the Radio Shack and buy a 10 Watt transceiver without a license, and I don’t think private citizens should be allowed to purchase certain enzymes or equipment without a license either. Clubs could split the cost of expensive equipment, provide waste pickup, and serve to educate the members and the community about the hobby. Companies could sequence DNA and make synthetic oligos and use the information to be sure the work was legal, or restrict the sale of items based on the licensee’s classification.
While the anti-genetic engineering people scream about apocalyptic danger from any attempts to fiddle with life. The day to day risks of even amateur genetic research are minimal, no one is going to turn themselves into a zebra or clone Hitler or whatever you see on TV. There is the possibility for problems to develop, so we must be proactive in attempting to minimize the risk and be ready to act if something does go wrong. As for people who might use the technology for evil, well those people are already out there, and if their research is improving Anthrax virulence factors, do you think they care if amateur genetic research as a whole is illegal? (If you are doing bioweapons development at your house, please pick up the phone, dial 911, and say “Anthrax” to whomever answers, and then wait right where you are, someone will be along shortly.) Of course some people start of ok then will be lured to do dangerous and illegal genetic research simply because it is taboo. While this might present a problem, without proper safety equipment these people are not long for this earth, so it will largely take care of itself. (Chances are these people would have found ways to kill themselves in other fields too, so is it really genetics fault they were nuts? Good double meaning huh?)
There are of course exceptions. Amateur virus research presents a potential problem but since with few exceptions human viruses are very difficult to work with, so no one is going to cross HIV with the common cold, or Ebola and West Nile in their home lab. (I don’t care what the video game people or the TV people say there is no Zombie virus and a retrovirus can’t make you turn into a chimera right before your eyes.) However, I am still strongly against home virus research and here’s why. A mutant virus can’t give you super powers anymore than a radioactive spider bite can, but it can kill you or give you cancer in a heart beat. Look putting a novel gene in bacteria more often than not results only in a dead bacteria, putting a novel gene in virus results in cancer and death (Look at the poor success rate of the John Hopkins genetic therapies, 9 in 10 died, and this was really well planned experiments.) Again you will not create a virus that makes you live longer, or a super-plague to zombify all humanity (if that seems like a good idea in your sick little mind), you will end up in box, deep underground or burned to a cinder when they napalm your lab with you in it, to prevent spreading of your cancer virus, and you will be remembered only for your Darwin Award! (If you are twisted you might think even cancer virus could be cool and novel, well it isn’t, there are lots of cancer viruses already, and bioweapons people have lousy retirement plans, either the burned to a cinder thing or a single shot to the back of the head when they become a liability, and if you did manage to live long enough to do to prison and aren’t killed by the inmates, you would just be waiting for your appeal before that one last meal and a short walk. Please take note that all roads lead to the same place.) In plain and simple English “Don’t mess with viruses, you might not live long enough to sorry.
To temper the previous rant I will close with this. Yes, teenagers represent most of the computer virus writers and general internet miscreants but just like kids with chemistry sets don’t automatically become Meth cooks, if they learn in a controlled environment they are more like to respect the technology and put it to good use. Given the number of people to at least take a passing interest amateur genetics research, we really can’t stop people from doing it any more than we can stop them from growing pot in a closet (based on the large number of pot magazines at my local bookstore that little prohibition isn’t going so well.) If we are to remain the intellectual juggernaut that we currently are, this country needs more scientists than wannabe pro basketball players. Since science has taken the place of wood shop, well still have a shot.
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