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【科技新闻】卧室生物技术 .....像早期的信息技
卧室生物技术
就像早期的信息技术一样，生物技术开始孕育HEIKE。
许多计算机公司是从家庭车库或者十几岁少年的卧室里诞生的，计算机病毒也是如此。在计算机技术先行一步的地方，生物技术就可能跟随。当遗传信息成倍增值，而硬件成本下降，生物HEIKE就会出现。
生物HEIKE 还没有达到十几岁少年靠着星期六打工和父母的零花钱就能企及的范围，但是这个价钱在不断降低。可能用不到5万美金就可以攒一个二手仪器的家庭生物实验室。因此可以理解，现在的生物技术业余爱好者还屈指可数，但这种状况即将改变。
那一群刚离开大学校门梦想着以生物技术创业成为百万富翁的生物专业学生最容易被这种家庭作坊式的生物技术所吸引。他们受过科学家式的训练，大多数情况下在家里也会采用和大学或公司实验室同样的防范措施。现在已经有成功的先例，一家农业生物技术公司，Agribiotics最近被以2千万欧元（2千四百万美元）的价格收购。它就是从一个家庭住宅的地下室里成长起来的。
在这种传奇故事的鼓励下，生物技术正在成为各种各样人的业余爱好。像ＤＮＡ HEIKE这样的网站和生物技术爱好者这样的杂志给人们提供基本生物技术方法的指南。一位生物技术爱好者声称创造了可以耐受美国最常用的除草剂Ｒｏｕｎｄｕｐ的野草；还有人通过链接一种珊瑚虫的基因创造了可以在紫外光照射下发出彩色光的皮肤组织；还有一些克隆了树。
科学是艰巨的，但计算机革命给人们显示了可以直接登上新技术的时代快车而不顾其技术困难的可能性。就是玩具制造者也注意了这种趋势，一种适合十岁以上儿童的DNA发现探索者玩具可以帮助儿童提取和构图DNA。
假如这种趋势持续下去，就应该在传授实用技术的同时教给人们伦理学的问题和对恶劣行为惩罚的规则。赏玩最新技术的激动心情是很难遏制的，但就像赏玩最危险的野兽，最好的办法就无所畏惧但计划周密防范完备。
Bedroom biotech
Aug 31st 2006
From The Economist print edition
Like information technology before it, biotech is starting to spawn hackers
MANY a computer business has started in a garage or a teenager's bedroom. So, though, has many a computer virus. And where computing led, biotechnology may follow. As genetic information multiplies and the cost of hardware falls, biohackers are emerging.
Biohacking is not quite yet within the range of a teenager with a Saturday job and a parental allowance, but prices are falling. Using second-hand equipment a basic home-biotechnology laboratory could probably be put together for less than $50,000. Understandably, therefore, those biotechnology hobbyists who now exist are few in number. But that looks set to change.
The hordes of biology graduates leaving university hoping to become biotechnology start-up millionaires are the most likely to be tempted by homebrewed biotechnology. They are trained scientists who, for the most part, take the same precautions at home as they would in a university or industrial laboratory. And some have had success. Agribiotics, an agricultural biotechnology firm recently sold for ?20m (then $24m), grew from a business run in the basement of a family home.
Encouraged in part by such stories, biotechnology is now becoming a hobby for all sorts of people. Websites such as DNAhack.com and magazines such as Biotech Hobbyist serve as guides to basic biotech procedures. One biotech hobbyist claims to have created a weed resistant to Roundup, America's most popular herbicide. Others have created skin-tissue cultures that glow colourfully under ultraviolet light by splice in a gene from a species of coral. Some just clone trees.
The science is hard, but the computer revolution showed the tendency for people to jump on the bandwagon of a new technology, no matter the intellectual difficulties. Even toymakers have noticed the trend—the Discovery DNA Explorer, suitable for those over ten years old, helps children extract and map DNA.
If the trend persists, ethical issues and definite penalties for wrongdoing will probably be taught alongside practical techniques. The excitement of playing with the latest technology is hard to tame—but like any dangerous beast, it is best approached not with fear but with caution and a plan. 所以创新性社会决不是喊口号喊出来的，而是要在地下室里干出来的！ 没想到这一天来的那么快 [标签:content1][标签:content2]
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-09-02 17:13
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