Truelife: My Roommate is a Biohacker.

So I came home today, back to my house that I share with a roommate. When I opened the front door, I automatically knew something was wrong. There was an odd smell and in our dinning room, huge sets of trays and what looked like mini refrigerators. After taking a history of science class the semester before where we read Biopunk… I knew what was going on. True life: My roommate is a biohacker.

         My reaction was speechless. I had so many thoughts going at the same time… “what the heck is she thinking?”, “I hope this stuff did not get into my room.”, “Does she even know how to do this stuff?”. Well to answer my questions, no she did not have a clue what she was doing. She is a journalist and wanted a little experience so she could write an article. She has had zero training and zero lab experience. Also, there was stuff in my room, everything of mine from the living and dinning room, so moved it to have more room.

         After analyzing the situation, I sat her down and explained my thoughts about this little endeavor. First off, this is our house, not just hers. She could not just waltz around doing whatever she pleased with out even asking me first. However, she probably knew that I would have said “Heck to the NO!”. Second, she has no idea how to do any of this correctly. She had open dishes and her insulators were not even plugged in. She probably had not been using gloves and who knows what kind of germs and bacteria are spread around our house now. Last, but certainly not least, there is no telling what she was messing with or creating. Biology is much more invasive and complicated than it appears. When you mess with it, it can cause major consequences. I am completely one hundred percent against just anyone doing this kind of stuff. If you have training and knowledge about what you are doing, it might be okay. In all reality I want trained scientists dealing with biology and it should be in a controlled environment.  You never know what could happen if it was out in the open for everyone, and that scares me. 


*disclaimer: My roommate was not really a biohacker, I just wanted to make my blog post a bit more interesting by telling it in story form. It does however display my personal opinions on biohacking and amateur biology.

Citizen Science

After classifying about 100 galaxies, my eyes hurt, my brain is mush and I need a nap. With all the aftermath aside, this was so cool! I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the pictures and classifying and learning all the terms and ways to classify these pictures! I personally did not have any unusual or new galaxies which was a bummer. I can only imagine coming across a picture that could not be classified. The task was fairly simple, answer the questions according to the pictures. It got a bit tedious and repetitive at times but when a different type of galaxy came up, it was nice to have some different answers. 

            With the Zooniverse project, I choose to classify stars with planets around them. It had a short tutorial about what to look for and how to mark the data. Again, it was very simple and to the point but very tedious work. I did not classify as many of these as I did galaxies but it was pretty much the same. I got bored fairly quickly and was not as into the classifying as I was with the galaxies.

            Citizen science is a very interesting concept and I think as a whole, it can be very beneficial. It is clear that these scientists have so much data that they need some help that a computer cannot do. Citizen science helps them and can be very beneficial to the scientific community. We all know that galaxy zoo has enabled average people to discover new types of galaxies, that is just cool. 

Fairy Tale Magic

In today’s use of slang, I would be considered a Twi-hard and I am not afraid to shout it from the roof tops. Other people are potter-heads, and others are just simply wizards and fairies. Whatever floats your boat I guess. I have never really stopped to think about how we live in this world with amazing scientific discoveries and huge inventions that we never could have imagined before, yet, we still have this giant fascination with the magical world. After thinking this over for a while, I started to think about how I even came to liking these kinds of things? I personally am a reality over fantasy in most aspects of my life, except entertainment.

My theory about why the world has such interest in fantasy is that our imaginations like to run free. In the world today, we have become a place with things we always thought were the future, so its not imagination anymore. With fantasy, it is a way for our minds to be free again, imagine what ever our hearts desire just for fun, no strings attached. With science today, it all is worth something, and is accountable. That makes it not as much fun for some people. Fantasy and magic is a strictly entertainment outlet, which everyone needs every once in a while.