Open Science Minutes 7/15/2012, start time: 3:32 PM

Anthony is moderating.

Present: Greg, Anthony, Ben, Jenny, Sheila, Sacha, Will, Molly (Northwestern), Katie Hoff (nuclear engineer at Argonne), Gerry (bg in molecular & cell bio), Alan, Trae, Meg, Dan (14 people)

Review of last meeting, general announcements: Higgs boson discovered!

-need to go down to warehouse area and stake claim for lab space

-Sacha: need to start talking to board of directors about area host for science lab; need point of contact--> can be anyone who is willing to put in the time, PS1 will pay for your full membership & 500 dollar budget per year to work on the lab

-Anthony volunteered to be area host; everyone voted yes

-introductions

Topic 1.) New Coordinator needed! Take on responsibility for keeping group together, time commitment would be creating agendas & taking minutes

-Sheila said she can help

Topic 2.) Seth Darling-Argonne National Lab, solar energy lecture—organic solar cell panels, talked about sustainability, really general lecture aimed at the public, talked about lack of funding for alternative energy research

Topic 3.) Anthony—Berkeley lecture about optical DNA reader; DNA being read off base pair by base pair

-Greg & Gerry talked about feasibility of mechanism--> Greg: holy grail of bio? Advances in nanobiotech

Topic 4.) DIY Bio: Sacha & Sheila: link in open science about DIYBio  (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1052iEzsrDxmhBqxn_d2fMDg_Xjsr9wiUmrETv8mWOwI/edit)—DIY bio google group; conference held in Mountain View, Cali, hosted by FBI

-why is DIY bio being supported by FBI? FBI wants to get ahead of trend; point is to share info so it's open, but they want to know who you are because you might be contacted by someone wanting to use DIYBio for nefarious reasons; they're willing to de-escalate situations

-met Chicago's weapons of mass destruction coordinator, going to visit PS1 (Matt)

-can coordinate with police department, fire departments--> we don't want to seem scary

Sheila: got to meet people from all over world, various DIY experiments, such as involving skinnerbox

-got to visit BioCurious (San Francisco's bio hackerspace), got different exercises people can try—petri dish with bioluminiscence project, dinoflagulates?  (hello world activity)

-Sacha: do we want to do bio? We need bio safety level 1-a third of people interested in bio lab

-Gerry: need separate space without foot traffic from random people, some projects like DNA genotyping project don't require special safety reqs, biosafety fume hood needed (blocks particles from coming in & out, self-contained?)--> glovebox not really necessary

-need to plan ahead for when we need more safety features

-level 1: have barriers, wear gloves, lab coat, very basic—work with nonpathogenic bacteria, e.coli, bacteriophages

-biohazard level 1 according to wikipedia: bacteria & viruses noninfectious (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety_level#Biosafety_level_1)

-level 2, 3, 4-->level 4 is dealing with ebola, level 3 is very pathogenic to humans

-level 2: higher quality hood, more procedural

-none of labs at DIYBio had higher than level 1 controls; past level 1 you deal with human pathogens

-level 2 needed to deal with human cancer cells? -needed for antiaging projects, Biocurious has level 2 lab?

-no major structural needs for either level, need to choose equipment first!

newcomers: what projects do you want to do?

Molly: magnetic tasers to move things in cells; need magnet, optical microscope, video tracking setup

Katie (bg in reactive physics): no projects in mind, interested in energy related projects

-next meeting need someone to come back & having looked at prices; mailing list has pricecheck by Trae

-Will & Alan recommend supply store; called American Science and Surplus

-need hot plate

-Will: Maker magazine with open science, making own lab equipment—someone made actual electron microscope

-discussion on making own microscope; Sacha working on scanning tunneling microscope--> needs help with project, on Github

-PS1 already has some equipment: 3 or 4 vacuum pumps, centrifuge, scale, glassware?

-tour of space: garage still needs to be built, inconclusive

-discussion about funding for projects, like DNA genotyping; pairing with companies for funding DIYBio--> cultural mismatch, not feasible

-openness is needed for security--> FBI workshop, Biocurious specifically designed their lab so you can see everything, very open; GenCurious in NY is open

-Sheila: any experiments should follow principles of Open Notebook

-1st project: need to build a space, talk to Build Out Committee

Endtime: 4:48 PM

Next meeting is August 19!

next month: Gerry will talk about genotyping project