Danny @danwchan@scholar.social

Last week I finally coloured in a drawing from 2021 that encapsulates my feelings about Biotech without Borders at the time. I'm super proud of how it turned out

At a new HOPE this weekend. My first time meeting this community and seeing what it's about.

Excited to hear what sort of science nyc high school students in collaborations with an academic lab have been doing. This talk os called: Viruses in the city and why we should care about them. Hosted at NYAM by Biobus

Unpacked some glassware and found some strange pieces. I doubt anybody has used these before rather they're likely salvage from some lot of chemistry stuff. Not sure what they are though, neither nurdrage or nile red have prepared me for this. I suspect the piece with the stoppers is some sort of distillation apparatus, but that's all I can guess.

Friendzymes group library is full and I'm waiting for organizers to decide if they want to transfer ownership to the Biotech Without Borders account for increased storage or expand it themselves.

Anyhoo snapped this picture of the first plates I've streaked in some time. Bacillus subtilis OKB105 and 168 in a bag at RT. The former a derivative of the latter transformed with a chunk of ATCC 21332 making it a better surfactin producer.

https://vimeo.com/15205275

A hour slideshow painted with coffee and wine (and inked) with accompanying music with a very exaggerated but (I think) classic story of changing the world set in a bicycle-powered dystopia with mustached cats.

My friend bought me a ticket to it some time ago and then got me the DVD which I lost somewhere in No Nation Gallery (Chicago). Luckily it's on Vimeo. Transcribing it now and laughing at the campy writing.

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

Learning about LAMP for a hands on session

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

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

via NPR: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/22/753324757/who-study-finds-no-evidence-of-health-concerns-from-microplastics-in-drinking-wa

linked WHO report with detailed disucssion: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/326499/9789241516198-eng.pdf?ua=1

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.

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"

https://reclaimpridenyc.org/

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