In a laboratory in New York City, molecular biologist Roy Buchanan is finishing up at the bench for the day. It is eight o’clock in the evening, and while late night work is a familiar scenario for most scientists, the presence of Buchanan’s two young sons playing a game in the common area outside the lab is not. “My wife let me work on this project only if I promised to continue sharing the child care responsibilities,” he explains. A computer programmer by day, Buchanan pursues a self-funded genome editing project in his spare time, enabled by the shared facilities and low price point of Genspace, a community biolab in Brooklyn. Buchanan is not alone. The economic downturn has resulted in a surfeit of unemployed and underemployed scientific experts itching to get back into the lab and flex their underused intellectual muscles. More
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Bio & Life Sciences Techonomy Events
Citizen Scientists Accelerate Bio Progress
As advances in the biological sciences expand, so does their influence on every facet of life. And the people powering that expansion are not just traditionally trained scientists-they’re also regular folks like you and me. The "Participatory Biology" at Techonomy Bio convened traditional scientists Ryan Bethencourt of Berkeley BioLabs and UC Santa Cruz professor David Haussler with Eri Gentry, a self-taught scientist who left the world of finance to co-found the Bay Area biotech hackerspace BioCurious. More
Bio & Life Sciences Global Tech
No PhD Required: Science Goes Grassroots
“Citizen science” is trendy. From keynote presentations at major scientific conferences to official recognition from the White House, citizen science seems to be everywhere. But what exactly is it? Broadly defined, citizen science covers any activity by which regular people are contributing to scientific research, or integrating science more closely in their day-to-day lives. (We’ve already seen how people are getting involved through crowdsourcing; this new trend goes a step further.) Citizen scientists are those who believe in the power of technology and research—and are finding ways to advance their lives and those of others by embracing a scientific approach. More
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