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B I O PU N K DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life Marcus Wohlsen CURRENT BIOPUNK B I O PU N K DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life Marcus Wohlsen CURRENT current Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore, 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published in 2011 by Current, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright © Marcus Wohlsen, 2011 All rights reserved Excerpt from “Our Biotech Future” by Freeman Dyson, The New York Review of Books, July 19, 2007. Copyright © 2007 NYREV, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The New York Review of Books. library of congress cataloging in publication data Wohlsen, Marcus. Biopunk : DIY scientists hack the software of life / Marcus Wohlsen. p.cm . Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-101-46801-7 1. Biotechnology—Social aspects. 2. Genetic engineering—Social aspects. 3. Amateurism. 4. Punk culture. I. Title. TP248.23.W65 2011 660.6—dc22 2010043689 Designed by Nancy Resnick Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copy right owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. To Rosemary Every orchid or rose . . . is the work of a dedicated and skilled breeder. . . . Now imagine what will happen when the tools of genetic engineering become accessible to these people. There will be do-it-yourself kits for gardeners who will use genetic engineering to breed new varieties of roses and orchids. Also kits for lovers of pigeons and parrots and lizards and snakes to breed new varieties of pets. Breeders of dogs and cats will have their kits too. Domesticated biotechnology, once it gets into the hands of housewives and children, will give us an explosion of diversity of new living creatures. — Freeman Dyson, “Our Biotech Future,” The New York Review of Books, July 19, 2007 The Commission believes that unless the world community acts deci sively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013. The Commission further believes that terror ists are more likely to be able to obtain and use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon. The Commission believes that the U.S. government needs to move more aggressively to limit the proliferation of biological weapons and reduce the prospect of a bioterror attack. — World at Risk: The Report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, December 2008