Bio Hackers: Coming to a Lab Near You

The Economist points out that most innovators start out as hackers and become creators of new industries. Thomas Edison is a perfect example. Here is the unsettling part of this observation: the next generation of hackers is likely to focus on genetics.

The potential is certainly there. The cost of sequencing DNA has fallen from about $1 per base pair in the mid-1990s to a tenth of a cent today, and the cost of synthesising the molecule has also fallen. . . . When a science blog called io9 ran a competition for biohackers, it received entries for modified microorganisms that, among other things, help rice plants process nitrogen fertiliser more efficiently, measure the alcohol content of a person’s breath and respond to commands from a computer.

Can't wait to see what comes next.

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