Re: [DIYbio] Re: I'm working on a novel that mentions DIY bio

The Martian DIYBIO flavoured? goood :)

The idea is to be scientifically correct or some "new concept" for the common readers?

I would recommend to read George Church or Craig Venter (sorry if anyone dont like them). They have a long way on academia and there are some interesting ideas in their books. 

I believe is hard to bring new ideas on this field (Blade Runner, Neuromancer, The Island of Doctor Moreau ...), BUT a few years back, The mechanical girl, showed me that there is room for new ideas. So.. go for it!!!

Greenhouse and plant/yeast modification (drug production) is the first thing one may thing. What about if they are truly biohackers/scientists and instead of modify organism, they select and hybrid? Like the old good days. Or even re-developing medical procedures or tools (i'm thinking about a diy gynaecologist project right now)

What about building bio-houses? Grass on the top, mushrooms for the walls, bacteria for composte organic residues, ...

Virus. What about them? Little machines to insert DNA. The zombie-path i'ts burned, but how about use them to evolve (like Darwin's Radio) or direct evolution?

Also (and maybe off-topic), spaceships based on organic life instead of steel is a topic not deeply developed by sci-fi (I think the wraith, from stargate may be the "best" developed. And there is room for improvement)

I think that the situation (nuclear winter, world war, no humanity left, world dominated by state-corporations, new virus/bacteria/organism found...) or the friend's objective (they want to live or survive? they want to fix something?) can help to know which needs they will have and will be more easy to "invent" something that can help them.

El martes, 7 de febrero de 2017, 14:13:01 (UTC+1), A. Ekergård escribió:

Hello
I am just a Swedish guy with limited experiment of diy-biology and hope this is the right place for me to ask. The reason I am writing here is that I am at a quite well renowned writing course working on a novel project. I am trying to write a novel about diy-biology. The novel is about a couple of friends dreaming of living as hermits on an uninhabited island (my first thought was one of the Galapagos Islands) with a greenhouse they can grow plants in. Plants that can be genetically engineered.

1. General speaking, is it anything, any aspect at all, you think should be in a novel about diy-biology? Are there any writers here that works on a project about DIY bio?

2. I'm brainstorming about what they should dream about growing in the greenhouse. First I wanted to link their "product developmenting" to anti aging medicine and have them make their version of the tomatoes engineered to produce as much resveratrol as found in 50 bottles red wine. But it could be simpler have them make a bioluminescent plant. (My favorite flower is waterlily, - so glow in the dark water lilies?). Or they could make plants that can produce expensive proteins for medicine or industrial use. Or fruits that produce chemicals normally formed during maillard reactions, so they tased cooked even when raw. Or to be really advanst maybe one can do something with the "machinery" that responds to touch in plants like the venus flytrap or in minosa. For example make a plant that spray a bad smelling liquid if touched, as a biologic defense.

So any thoughts about my brainstorming? It's fiction so a little extravasation of what can be done with diy-bio is acceptable.


Ps. If you have any good tips I could contribute to your next crowdfunding campaign, or something else if you have a better idea.

Pps. The joke simply is if this sounds boring, I'll just make the protagonists create a zombie virus, by mistake.

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