[DIYbio] Re: Help needed: BBC Documentary in need of guidance

Hi all,

The other night I attended the biohacking lab at the London hackspace and a few of you recommended I put my requests to the collective hivemind on here.

I'm a producer for a BBC Radio 4 Specials in the UK and we're doing a documentary on synthetic biology for our Futureproofing series (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04hyy1p). To help give a good idea the ease and the limitations of doing synthetic biology with DIY lab equipment we want to get our two reporters to begin the show with an experiment, which we will then use as a strand to tie the whole story together.

As such could any of you suggest an experiment that shows off the potential of the technology that two journalists un-trained in biology and largely ignorant could do with minimum supervision?

We have a few requirements:

1. the ideal would be something that works on radio - perhaps bacteria that produces a gas/bubbles that we could then record popping, or produces radiation that can then be picked up on a Geiger counter, which we can in turn record beeping and whatnot - though this is not vital
2. we must be able to start and complete the experiment in two weeks
3. the experiment can be carried out using only basic kit or the equipment at the London hackspace (https://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Group:Biohacking )
4. it must be interesting enough to capture the imagination of the outside world

Any ideas, musings or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,

Sam