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.