Since its unregulated it has its pros and cons therefore people can bring back the black plague and others can find cures. It's beautiful to be honest pretty much like computer hacking.
1:45 Very accurately describes my job as a contractor for the military. Government is only good at creating large bureaucracies to waste money, resources, and talent.
I worked in six different govt. departments here in New Zealand, and sympathize. There was this joke... How do you create a govt department? You get a huge stadium, carpet it, set up hundreds of desks, dividers, phones, meeting rooms, computers, intranet. Seal all the doors except for one. From outside, open that door. Toss in a memo. Close the door.
Donaldo thats a false equivalence. Some =! All . Unlike government. Where ALL are inefficient and Wasteful. Being wasteful is death to the private sector, while being wasteful is an overall function of government.
Buff Awesome I would argue you are petty naive if you think this isnt going to be regulated... There are reasons there are regulation on chemicals. Because while most dont make a bomb or similar, some might want to and regulation is put in place to prevent those with illegitimate intent to not gain access. This is the same type of thing. A double edge sword. This has nothing to do with fear. Fear is cowering in a corner. Shutting your eyes while driving and hope for the best is foolish. Having progressive regulation is sensible.
Lobos222 You can't really regulate something that's decentralized. What's the government going to do? Go into every single house in the country to find all the people using this technology? The laws would be unenforceable. Uber is a perfect example of this. There's many place where their services are banned, but they continue to operate anyway. What's the government going to do? Check every single car on the road? That's the point this video made. it's not that the government won't regulate it. it's that they can't.
Buff Awesome Uber is regulated just like the Taxi bis in some nations that have a properly functioning government. In one nation Uber actually shut down because they didnt get away with their social dumping bis plan of transferring the value of the car into money for the driver short term, while screwing him over long term because hes actually making less than it costs for him to drive because the hidden costs dont show up until later when he would need to swap out vehicles or similar... Yes, if you deal in drugs or whatever illegal activity at home. The police will come and shut it down. Nor would you have easy legal access to the ingredients at stores and so on. Btw how old are you, because you sound very young. Example: "You can't really regulate something that's decentralized." "What's the government going to do?" You really think its hard to shut down a person that drives in public for a living? That pays taxes and or does not pay taxes? If Uber was illegal and the government wanted to do something. They could impound the cars for illegal usage. Fine the drivers. Limit their license for X time etc... and if they continue. Put them in prison. Its like you are used to such a level of inaction you think it wouldnt be possible. LoL
Well to be fair, the guy that invented a good wheel, which required some intricate craftmanship and technological knowledge, had their culture and language spread through the steppe west and through europe following the Sun as god on it's four-wheeled carriage.
Man harnessed fire 1.5 million years ago and the wheel was invented in its earliest stage 8000 years ago. According to your timeline, eternal life was all the rage.
The fact of the matter is that unless you have at least an undergraduate-level knowledge of molecular biology and biochemistry experimental methods and design, a vast majority of these resources will be wasted. That's not to say that having access to Cas9 is pointless. It's just that you can't even begin to have a conversation about breakthroughs if, in fact, you don't understand the surface level stuff.
There's enough resources online for those who are inclined to learn to become masters at nearly anything. This kit along with a centrifuge a few basic reagents rnases dnase and a cell culture kit can do amazing things even in an amateurs hands. Agreeably it is helpful to have someone walk you through the current processes. But imagine what you could've spent that 60k on had you the knowledge you spent it on.
the main goal is to streamline the process for the user, which is being done by people who do have that education, so that individuals already working in fields of interest, like that beer brewer, can innovate on their own time, using their own experience and market knowledge. whats a scientist going to know about what makes beer high quality? thus, giving them the job is going to waste time and resources, even though there is undoubtedly good money in it. the same analogy applies to most fields.
My father quit NASA because of the same reason. When he got hired he was given an office but couldn't even log into the programs on his computer because he wasn't given login creditinals, so he spent his first month staring at a computer he couldn't use. Then when he finally got login creditinals and finally got to work his supervisor came to him and told him that he was working too much and to tone it down... apparently they are union and my dad was doing more work than what is required for them to do. He ended up getting so frustrated with the incredibly slow pace that they wanted him to work at that he quit and went back to his old job. I was blown away when he told me about how slowly things moved there.
I was around 16 when i seen this. Dr Zayner showed me the path to becoming a biohacker. I did a couple of The Odin kits throughout the years and now im on my way to becoming an official bioengineer. Who would have thought.
This dude knows and has experienced the real deal. He is not a comformist sheep who mindlessly believes in all institutions without even having worked there.
Fer Contreras It's not really that fascinating. I got the thing and I understand how CRISPR works. All this is doing is spreading awareness of it. While CRISPR is revolutionary in every sense of the term. All this kit allows you to do is to modify bacteria so that they glow or don't grow in a petri dish
I've taken some higher level biology classes and have been thinking about this stuff since I heard about CRISPR. It's been my dream to have access to this stuff, and this guy is making it accessible for anyone. This is going to be an amazing time for medical advancements due to his innovation.
I noticed myself saying: “thats dangerous” or “I don’t think it works that way” And then I realized, the institutions have closed my mind to possibilities. Rock on biohackers
Exactly. Give knowledge. As a centre-left person, or perhaps centrist, I believe in freedom and equality for everyone, but I also believe that you SHOULD have some knowledge on what you're doing with these kinds of things. But once you have that, I'd say do anything you want! Whether this knowledge should be gained through taking a PhD or other kind of doctorate, or just studying without necessarily going to institutions, I'm not sure about. Not just because it is safer; it is actually a lot more satisfying to work with these sort of things when you really know how they work. I do believe that the projects you work on during your education should be more unregulated in regard to what kind of things or products you want to study or develop. Like he said, there are too many regulations on that. People who feel like you should work on this, and not that, or just not work at all. Many universities do advocate for this kind of freedom, which is called 'academic freedom', but not there are too many who are too strict on it.
Petra Marbun but it could also save it and/or prevent those other things oh poisonous virus get the virus run some tests until bacteria survives crispr boom cure etc.
Gtfo with your politics. They have no place with science. Do you think all of mankind scientific breakthroughs and accomplishments happened because before starting an experiment people creates laws and rules to govern said experiment? Who cares about libs, left and rights. First off it matters not in science, and second, the party system is the worst thing for politics. It's exactly that kind of division that hurts the people
Isn't it a little contradictory to talk about how people are gonna "blow our minds" with this newfound potential while at the same time saying that we shouldn't even talk about how it could be used in a malicious way because it's "not possible"? We'll go extinct from lack of wisdom long before we go extinct from disease or what have you. Regulations aren't perfect and the practice is young, let's do it right not quick and sloppy Also, keep in mind... this guy is making money off of every box he sells. It's only fair to question if what he says is genuine or motivated by capitalization on a fresh industry (ie: playing down the magnitude of the situation). Just be skeptical, it's good.. for science!
Andreas Stuermer I know what CRISPR is I've been following it for years and come summer I'll be using it for research purposes. My hesitation isn't from a lack of knowing, it's FROM knowing how powerful this practice is and will eventually be. If you actually have the insight you claim, on this you would probably agree. But what I'm really concerned with is how this will be used out of the light of the public eye. No one's making these rules to hinder scientific progress, that's ridiculous. They're to keep us in check as we work towards the direction that we, as a community, agree won't either cause a biological disaster (intentionally or otherwise) or REALY disturb the public and cause policy makers to snuff this out before it even gets a chance to do us any good.
You idiot, a fifteen year old with an old dell desktop can permanently disable our national energy infrastructure in a matter of months and here you are thinking someone is going to from the ground up design a unique internationally controlled WMD bioweapon. To make something dangerous it takes a team and resources, that includes examples of other bioweapons. Anyone into that already has the gear. This is a hobbyist kit.
He is super right! I did my PhD in the UK and for 1 day experiment in the lab I had sometimes 1 full day of paperwork to be completed. Waste of time and money and we wonder why we don’t have a cure for cancer and other major diseases yet.
my minds eye you are an idiot if you try that, if you transplant those genes, put them in other plants! the enzymes you need are known - you could let every plant produce THC or any other protein out of Weed, or just put those genes into yest and make a nice bear or bread
Max Stephens unless you want to insert protooncogene out of other species, you would need to sequence your cancer genom and your own genom for finding the right rna to apply and fighting the cancer and you would need a 100% success rate, because one surviving cell is enough - and if you just insert protooncogene out of other species that became imune to cancer, good luck, nobody knows if that would heal you, kill you or don't do anything at all
I'm Doctor Science (a self conferred title) and this scares the crap out of me! Interesting interview, though. Homer Simpson inadvertently crossed the tomato with tobacco to create the tomacco plant, which produced highly addictive nicotine laced tomatoes. I want to make strawberries that contain caffeine. With $140 CRISPER kits, you can bet half our biosphere will be producing THC within 50 years. As Hunter Thompson observed, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Eres admirable y no dejes que nadie te detenga. Siento que el mundo tiene demasiado dolor y si puedes ayudar a aliviar ese dolor, millones de familias serían felices. You are amazing ❤️
Great video :) Too many scientific developments are suppressed simply because the discovery was made by the wrong person (not being in academia, not having PhD, et cetera). Props to this man. Science must be the Number One priority of the human species. Stop the wars and focus on education!
"Who could have predicted that?" Asimov. "You don't need to think about it." That's the most compelling possible argument that we should think about it.
This is one area where I happen to completely agree with the libertarian stance. One thing I've seen first hand is psychiatric medication, where there are drugs which are both less harmful and more effective, but doctors advise people not to take them because they're going through unnecessarily long clinical trials.
Must say, he proves that you just can't judge a book by its cover. At first I saw the piercings and I was like, what's with this loser? Then I listened to him, and I now feel kinda small.
this is happening in a very small warehouse in Ann Arbor Mi. the possible result will be the first "living" bio screen for hand helds. super tough, but if it does break, the material is "grown" back. literally just a few years, FEW! away.
From what I understand, he only supplies the tools. What you do is up to you. It's possible to create a new super plant for example, or to make glow in the dark mice... I'm guessing you need to supply the RNA yourself.
CRISPER CAS9 uses the cell's own machinery to edit the genetic code of that cell (and only those cells that are treated our descended from cells that were treated). You can use this to add any gene from one plant or animal to another. You could use this to make plants phosphorescent, make beer yeast that produces vanillin, or with some legislative barriers removed you can replace genes that cause Huntington's with healthy versions. You could also use this technology to make bacterial meningitis immune to current therapies, or a bacteria that targets people with sickle cell anemia, or possibly (though I'm not sure) create a nasty virus by first having the target virus carrier infect a bacteria, then editing the viral DNA while the bacteria is suspended, then having the bacteria produce the virus DNA that has now been edited to do whatever you want it to do. I'm a libertarian so I'm against government regulation of this, but I'd be a fool to not admit that I see the possible danger.
You can only make bacteria resistant to an antibiotic, and then grow the bacteria on media that has the antibiotic. You cannot do anything else with just the materials he gives you
Adam Billman You make designer viruses sound like a walk in the park. Viruses have evolved over millions of years. If you change anything - sometimes just one single amino acid, the immune system starts recognising it better and you wasted 10000s of euros and a few years of work
Andreas Stuermer well everything sounds like a walk in the park when viewed from abstraction. You will note that I didn't mention the expensive supercomputers that deal with protein folding simulations to ensure the virus protein shell functions properly, or the difficulty of producing entirely synthetic DNA, or the years of testing and clinical trials that would be required for therapeutic use. There is a difference between possible and easy.
This guy has the right idea. Imagine if no one but the big companies could develop videogames? The world would lack LOTS of awesome projects and ideas. Its the same situation with biotech. Currently its hard to experiment free but hopefuly projects like this guy's will become a thing
Did anybody try this? I am curious how it's supposed to work. As far as I know (only began as undergraduate) you need to know the genome of whatever you're editing, okay, so maybe you find that in a data base. Then you need to make a template for the part of the genome you want to add. I found out there's computer programs that you can use and that you can then order these templates by mail. Then the problems really begin, you now got your buffer, templates, the genome you want to edit and everything else necessary. You need a centrifuge to properly mix it. You need a special oven that keeps the temperature exactly right for the enzyme. Even if you manage all that without the proper machines and you can do the next steps at some point you need to know whether it worked and for that you need a sequencer. So you'd have to send samples of what you made to an actual laboratory to make sure. This is absolute bogus if you ask me. Every time you want to do a single experiment it would cost you a hundred dollars just for all the mail. Plus the machines you need and the computer programs and the books (because you sure as hell aren't smart and skilled enough to do it without all of that). Crispr/Cas9 is easy, for people having the right equipment and experience in molecular biology. That's also why the dude isn't worried that anybody could produce something dangerous (which is entirely possible if scientists would put their mind to it). It's just not going to happen with a few chemicals and pipettes you ordered online, the idea of democracy in science is nice but genome editing isn't the best place to start, it goes way over the head of the general public and it certainly will require a few thousand dollars investment if you seriously want to get somewhere. In my opinion this guy is more likely running a scam than seriously trying to help people invent new stuff. If he was serious about that he'd be explaining how exactly Crispr/Cas9 works and how it can be done in your own basement.
5:20 not something that should be thought about? Really? This guy has all wisdom of one his beer yeasts. Yes institution have revue boards because people were suffering due to unethical research. IRBs are big awful committees but the alternative is not necessarily better. What if people start getting cured? What if people start getting sick?
Mother of Storms - John Barnes (book) - A distopian future scifi epic that looks at gene modification from both sides - light and dark, legal and illegal - and then takes it to a whole new level entirely. It'll really make you think.
I work in a research lab that uses crispr on a somewhat daily basis. These kits aren't really going to change things. Crispr is as much an art as a science tbh. Even if you design your templates perfect, even if it's an easy flip, it's not simple and often times takes many trials. And that is just for cell lines. Doing crispr on things you can't do a selective marker for is even harder, and above that trying it on something like a human is just as far off. Crispr allows precision and basically fewer steps between what we would have done previously. Personally i think it will have the biggest effects on the amount of effort into gm crops because it is amazingly more simple than previously. This is a good thing. However we should always have some level of caution introducing those kinds of organisms. Honestly academics probably could set a reasonable regulatory line for this simply because they will appreciate a caution level that is sensical but allows them to not be tied up.
I'm very sure through this man we could make plants that we already use, make even more useful i.e. remove the toxin Solanin from the fruit of Potatoes and remove both Solanin and Tomatin from the Tomato so we can use the entire Tomato plant. Through Genetic Modification, we could also save endangered plants like all the Sequoia trees by increasing their low germination rate that is pretty low or introduces genes that allow the trees to build anti-freezing chemicals.
year 2050: the biosphere is broken and mutant spores invaded every plant and living thing, making it grow strings a fibrous material in insanelly massive ammounts from every sqaure inch of surface
As a bio engeneer, this makes no sense. The reason why people need a proper study is that you know what you're doing. It's like saying everyone can fly a space racket so we Will learn the best way to fly. But People without knowledge Will not even get the rocket of the ground. You can press buttons but chance of you finding a better way to fly are like 1in billion compared to an austronat.
Yupaki Eidemo How would you add new proteins to a virus without making it visible to the immune system? Nature has billions of years head-start over us
Yupaki Eidemo People may try but it's extremely hard. Even 20 years from now. Trust a science guy on this. Also there will be good biohackers writing biological anti-virus software/vaccines
the way you make it sounds is like you would be playing a game of who can out code who. 140$ and anyone and everyone could bio engineer a super bug . seems a bit irresponsible .
So as I understand it, he's packaging equipment he sourced from publicly available sources. Nothing groundbreaking there. I think the real story here is that the equipment sources *_are_* publicly available, and the start of the discussion about what you can do with it.
***** He didn't dismiss it out of hand. He clearly said that the kit doesn't contain anything that can be used to cause harm or put a weapon in the hands of the wrong people.
can that statement be verified? there are lots of pro-gmo activists that dismiss the threats that will outlive them. it's not courage when it's stupid recklessness. some people just don't care as much as others so naturally the more dissatisfied will be more eager to take their chances with untested tech. +BadlyDrawnFrog
The only sensible thing he said is "its too hard to make anything dangerous with this". This should make you realise that its also too hard to make anything useful with what he is selling.
TheBenrollo chemicals can degrade, if released in the environment. Organisms can survive and breed, if released. A realistic problem could be like so: an engineered bacteria that makes soil richer causes reduced fertility in another organism(say it out competes another bacteria). Something simple that could be a real problem.
You're making something BIG here. I gave up on genetic because of the same problems you've had yourself! And yes you're selling something that can be dangerous, don't say you don't. Just say it's worth it!
I worked for the Australian government for 8 years, my last 4 years was spent sitting on my ass doing nothing for 90k + a year. Thank fuck i took a redundancy and got back into the private industry.
I have an amateur chemistry lab with a decent amount of equipment including 3 neck RB flask, condensers, beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks, claisen adapters and a few other bits and pieces. Haven't discovered anything new but i work away at my projects every weekend, trying to synthesize interesting compounds. Unfortunately though i don't know anybody else that does this sort of thing except the other chem nerds on the internet. I talked to the cops about it and they said im the first amateur chemist they have come across for decades, atleast in my area. :(
meanwhile Im 37 years old married and two children under 7 yrs old and Ive been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. I shouldn't have to die and leave my family in ruins because of greed and ignorance.
Chris Nataline Sorry to hear that! There is a Universal cancer vaccine based on a Malaria peptide that has been found but until FDA approval it will take 10-15 years assuming fully funded (100 Millon-few billion $).
I think this young man is onto something here....we are pushed into the computer technology world but lets look back to one of my favorite movies Blade Runner it is based on a book called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" .....this is the beginning of the future .....
I love the topic. I liked the video. Just one thing though. Devices that have access to a culture/species collective knowledge is a common and ancient theme. Being "portable" is even a super old idea even though slightly less common idea also. The idea and/or desire for such a thing has always been around. What I think he meant to imply was that, "nobody accurately predicted" that it would be the phone to fill the niche. Science fiction, fantasy, religion, and even folklore all have this very concept somewhere in them. Overall though, I'd give it a 8/10. Only because I feel like there is important content missing. I can only presume to guess that either more questions were asked and then just edited out, or, you didn't even ask some of the best questions. This feels like a teaser for a really good interview.
I've read things of this bio hacking when I was in middle school and you fast forward 10 years to now and this has simply became more advanced. I've read how you can alter the genetics of a child to the specifications of your choosing. Anything from height to intellect. I can see this being useful but it's like fire playing with fire.
"My daddy's SMARTER than Einstein, STRONGER than Hercules and lights a fire with a SNAP of his fingers. Are you as good as my daddy, Mister? Not if you don't visit the Gatherer's Garden, you aren't! Smart daddies get spliced, at the Gardens!"
He makes a great point! There are many limitations in research. Bill Gates dropped out of school to build Microsoft. Overcoming these limitations by allowing the access is key to move CRISPER technology forward
We need independent progressive scientists who are willing to find crispr9 solutions for psoriasis. Example: why psoriasis reacts aggressive after eating tomatoes or other nightshades.
Science was democratized hundreds of years ago, when there were no general ethical, ecological or medicinal standards that a government would enforce. We did a good job to regulate it.
as a fellow scientist i dont know how i feel about this, granted i am a physicist who in the worse case scenario can build powerful weapon, but i would need a ton of funding to do that, things are slow in physics world and super expensive, so if a physicist is given unlimited freedom to do whatever they want and that physicist turn out to be some kind of evil mad scientist, they would still be bounded by many other factor before they can cause some serious damage, factor like money, lots and lots of money, and tools, and extremely expensive lab, and permit to build such lab, etc. On the contrary, biologist can cause a serious damage even with limited funding and limited equipment, its so much easier to do harm with biology than with physic, within a boundary of course but still much easier. So giving a powerful tools and practically no regulations to biologist seems rather dangerous dont you think? isn't that why regulations exist in the first place? but on the other hand as a scientist i also crave such freedom to do whatever the hell i want with my own time with my own experiment without reporting to anyone, so i am not sure where i stand on this issue of not regulating science, and how i feel about this guy, its a bit of envy/fear/admiration all together
This guy remind me of Steve Jobs, he put savant, 1950s mainframe super computer in a rectangular boxe, that you can put on your table office to type letters, play card games. This guy is doing the same thing, with science
like your way of thinking. am not in your class in terms of education on science but even I can see this idea of yours to spread knowledge and ability to the masses might harvest some wonderful new possibilities that may without you have taken generations to unfold given the "authorities" reign over sciences advances. carry on!
The original idea of a device using bioluminescent genes as a part of it could potentially be a step forward toward organic / biomechanical circuitry which actually does have merit as computers able to grow replacement parts simply thru cell division could have relevant applications to space travel among other things
I have always had a hard time understanding why futurists claim that bioengineering/hacking will become as huge of a shift for our society as AI will. But if regulations don't get in the way - maybe. I guess it only takes a genius, or two, to create a monumental leap in this direction, pulling enormous attention towards these fields in the process. Exponential growth like we see in computer technology might then become a reality. Come to think of it,- crisper sound almost as scary, and potent, as AI.
This was posted over a year ago. With all the RU-vid scientists in the comment sections you would think that someone would have spent money to buy the kit and post a video on how they created another solar system in their basement. Where are the people buying this kit and making things happen?
