Danny @danwchan@scholar.social
Upcoming #events at #Biotech without Borders (Brooklyn, NYC) in December. I painted some watercolour cute things to promote.
Here are three little things I #painted for social media for some upcoming #events at #Biotech without borders. Links are below. Please share!
Synthetic biology class (Dec 7, 15 & 21): https://www.eventbrite.com/myevent?eid=82969890175
Cutting DNA workshop (Dec 5):
https://www.eventbrite.com/myevent?eid=83186429851
Luxterna journal club/discussion (Dec 11):
https://www.eventbrite.com/myevent?eid=83181912339
https://gmodetective.com/ this is an amazingly conceived and executed open source class on gmo detection
Its been eye opening to see the different ways in which diy bio around the world integrates with their localities and begin to build international relationships
This panel on education is amazing and there is a high school student from my alma matter!
Biosummit 2019 begins and i like that we're explicitly being shared some culture norms that seem to be designed to facilitate the safe and open sharing ideas.
After a nice interview about ethics im at the harvard natural history museum! Basically just to read everything in this room
tentative anxiety reducer concerning microplastic ingestion
WHO says there is no evidence microplastics in drinking water are dangerous to human health. Of course more studies are needed! And we should be limiting how much we're making
linked WHO report with detailed disucssion: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/326499/9789241516198-eng.pdf?ua=1
Openplant, lacking the will to work on it the plants have fallen into ill-health
Luckily a new member has expressed interest in the project which has reignited my motivation. We tried to salvage some gemma from dried adults onto new plates and I tried to thaw gemma I had previously stored in liquid N2. I think the incubator might be broken and that might have impacted the success of the thaw. Once the incubator fully operational again I may ask the genspace group for more gemma.
queer liberation march 2019
Just wanted to share a photo of myself and the sign I painted at the march in NYC this weekend because I'm proud of my efforts. It was so great to see how many people wanted to support and amplify the messages of Reclaim Pride NYC. I was happy to celebrate #pride in a space where corporate power was in question and people stood together to proclaim "none are free until all are free"
Open Plant, DIY bio
Oh man here's a long due update about the Open Plant project I has started to work on at Genspace: I moved to Biotech without Borders (BwoB) because I wanted a more flexible space near my home. I ordered a bunch of reagents, but then I realized that BwoB doesn't have heat and the incubator only cools. So a few weeks later and I revised the code to used the millis() timer and 2 relays (OLED display needs more memory). Still fixing up the documentation: https://github.com/danwchan/openplant_incubator
open plant
Oh I realized I haven't updated on this project in a while. Members successfully propagated the wild samples in axenic conditions and the incubator has really helped with their growth. We received samples from the UK of cam and tak strains so we have the common lab strains now. They were a little dried out so we're hoping that gemma will revive.
The group exercise for tonight.
Tonight I'm at biotech without borders for a NSF funded talk about genetic engineering of humans. Looks like it'll be a discussion format. Before we start Dr. Jorgensen is explaining the challenges of opening up the scientific enterprise.
The first iteration of an #incubator for #liverworts is made! It features PID cooling and heating, cool white light (day/night cycle) and fan speed control. A timed log of those parameters is kept on an SD card. It's still under development so I'll post more updates as we bring together documentation and add features. #openscience
Jackson heights has a great market feel. I really like this city.
open plant
So the project has been going on for a month and a bit so far. We're waiting on our Marchantia samples to clear the authorities, meanwhile we have been talking about how to build our incubator, we got some "wild" plant samples and are trying to grow them and we're figuring out how to best engage the most people in the work. I've already learned a lot of electronics I didn't think I would. Hopefully we barcode something soon. I sense things will speed up but right now it's a simmer :D
This was the Genspace hosted bio event @ Caveat on Friday. I learned about photo microbial fuel cells and got to touch various mycelial materials while sharing a drink with experts and enthusiasts. Great start of a night and even better conversations.
birdsite, a summary of a paper describing inter-subreddit conflicts
RT @yasmind@twitter.com The Internet's One Percent:
1% of Reddit communities initiate ~3/4 of all conflict on the platform.
Communities creating conflict (in red) are rare and clustered in social regions. They attack communities similar in topic but different in view point.
https://snap.stanford.edu/conflict
https://twitter.com/yasmind/status/976213300433301504
