Sebastopol, CA—If you want to conquer aging, as Google is attempting with the formation of its new venture Calico, or light up gloomy city streets with glow-in-the-dark trees, or venture into the endless possibilities of 3D printing of human tissue, you're thinking like a biohacker. Indeed, innovative, do-it-yourself experiments now happen daily outside the confines of standard academic and industrial laboratories.
But how do you discover what's new and share information with this growing and active DIYbio community?
Enter BioCoder, a timely new newsletter from O'Reilly, to bridge the gap.
"Biology in 2013 feels like computing in 1975 (just before the PC)—ripe for an explosion," explains O'Reilly editor Mike Loukides, who spearheaded the creation of BioCoder. The newsletter aims to connect the scientists behind community and home laboratories that are springing up on every continent except Antarctica. It will feature articles about DIYbio labs, interesting experiments, profiles of key scientists, safety pointers, and more.
For now BioCoder is free and can be downloaded at http://www.oreilly.com/biocoder/. The first issue ranges from Biotech's Cambrian Era by biohacker Ryan Bethencourt, to DIYbio and the "New FBI" by educator Michael Scroggins, along with Better, CRISPR Homemade Genomes by biologist Derek Jacoby, and more. Noah Most, a self-described DIYbio globetrotter, contributed DIYbio Around the World.
The field of biology is rapidly changing. "Biohackers are foot soldiers of the next revolution in biotechnology and medicine, willing to do what others can't or won't," notes contributor Ryan Bethencourt. BioCoder tells you what this revolution is all about and how it will change your world.
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