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Interview with Natalie Jeremijenko
cynical writes "From releasing packs of Feral Robot Dogs that sniff out chemical contamination, to teaching Yale engineering students socially responsible design, to co-authoring Biotech Hobbyist Magazine, Natalie Jeremijenko's work merges engineering, biology, politics and art. Enviro-tech blog WorldChanging has an exclusive interview with Jeremijenko where she discusses how art and technology mix, garage biotech, and being the "Q" (from James Bond) of the activist community."
Anyone got pictures?
WorldChanging has an exclusive interview with Jeremijenko where she discusses how art and technology mix, garage biotech, and being the "Q" (from James Bond) of the activist community."
It would have been more interesting if she was the Q (from ST:TNG) of the activist community.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
From an interview at BoingBoing... "Of course they say they'd use it to bring down 'problem people', i.e. direct action leaders."
Doing the right thing so often means fighting the power... Sometimes, leading is leaving. Or pissing off. If you do what everyone wants you to do, you will have no real influence on the world whatsoever.
I like her attitude.
reading articles such as this always make me feel better about the world. I am already well aware of the misfortunes of it, but it is truly inspirational to read about someone fighting for what they believe in such as 'NJ' is.
It is one thing to read about the various 'rebel without a cause' types who merely want their voice heard, but to read the words of an educated person who is using that education to attempt to make the world a better place is imo the realization of an ideal in a otherwise rather compromised world.
I had no idea this woman existed before now (perhaps I am not all that well read) and knowing she even exists inspires me to press onward and continue.
I wish her the best of luck in this battle and hope to aid the cause some day soon.
Of course, I will have to begin researching more about her to ensure that I am not a complete moron by making the former statements... But at far as I can tell presently she is an awesome human being.
First there were Cyberpunks....
Then there were Cypherpunks...
Then there were Steampunks....
How about Genepunks or Biopunks (I can't decide right now which one sounds cooler)?
Biotechhobbyist is right along the lines of a PostNuke forum I set up a few years ago and have been slowly updating. I'm so pleased to see more of this sort of thing.
I strongly believe that biotech is the logical next place for the DIY revolution or the hacker approach to innovation or whatever you want to call it and that a key to getting there is for people to digest the journal articles and make it doable for people at home.
This is such a hot area for the DIY enthusiast because its an intersection of so many skills that are already honed by being a computer geek.
I'm quite impressed and I can't wait to see more.
Interesting that Biotechhobbyist seems to be from UCSD. I've covered a really cool story coming out of the same campus called the Discode project which calls itself an open-source biotech hardware project. It uses CD-ROMs and inkjet printers to enable DIY molecular interaction screening. Amazing stuff.
I hear they're still looking for Linux kernel hackers with good understading of CD-ROM drivers. If you're in San Diego and you're a CD hacker, you should check out the project.
See, this is what I'm talking about. I hadn't even thought of going to a pet supply store to look for cell culture incubators. This stuff is still so ground level for the home market. Sharing these sorts of tips is invaluable.
Of course what's more intriguing is doing the elctronics to make your own, but knowing where to get stuff that is easily adaptable is good too. Sometimes it's good to improvise completely from scratch, sometimes it's better to take something that gets you halfway there.
For kitchen cultures like yogurt and sourdough I've used a variety of incubators from rice cookers and crock pots to all sorts of lamps. While the DIY lamp jobs are more fun and impressive looking, the crock pots are easier to clean which is an important issue once you get beyond the first experiments.
I really recommend sourdough to anybody. It's so simple and even if you skip the bread and just make pancakes it's awesome.
It's incredibly simple to make starter, but don't trust me. Google for the sourdough FAQ and then look for the answer to how to make starter. It's amazing how it works.
Anyone got pictures?
Here we have a story about a brilliant young woman and and the first thing you do is ask for pictures of her? Maybe asking for pictures of her is your first instinct, but it is not mine. Mine was to do a Google image search...
That's a tin foil hat, you stupid! Put it on your head!