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I should have loved biology

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Re: I should have loved biology

#81

Post by [deleted] »

axiom92 wrote: post #48
joshuamcginnis wrote: post #41

After 15 years in tech and a life-changing psychedelic trip, I decided to self-learn genetic engineering and share it with the world[1][2] while I look for a meaningful biotech venture to found. What you can do today from your kitchen or home lab is remarkable. For instance, I taught myself PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and recently published my first genetic sequence at GenBank from fungi that I cultured, extracte…

>life-changing psychedelic trip Fascinating stuff. Any chance you could expand on this?

[deleted]

Re: I should have loved biology

#82

Post by ketzo »

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #65
axiom92 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>life-changing psychedelic trip Fascinating stuff. Any chance you could expand on this?

I suffer from pretty bad depression and have been battling with it for a while using all available treatments. Someone recommended I try psilocybin mushrooms. I learned how to grow them, grew them and then had my wife help facilitate a safe well-intentioned trip using 7g of dried mushrooms. Happy to answer any questions about it. It was a profound experience. It isn't a cure but it's certainly a tool in my toolbox th…

Sheesh, 7g is no joke. How “hard” was your trip?

Re: I should have loved biology

#83

Post by koeng »

xrd wrote: post #69
koeng wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you interested in? Synthetic biology? Bioinformatics? Something else? Biology is really broad - As an analogy, not sure if you’re interested in how to build a gaming computer or want to learn how make web apps.

I don't know. Which of those is the most fun? I suppose I don't care as much about building something or a career as much as I want to learn something new. Can you suggest a focus for me?

A book I loved when I was first learning is called “Unraveling DNA” from 1988. I remember it reading like a detective novel, as back then the folks writing were mentored by the OG molecular biology folks. It can be yours for only $4 https://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-DNA-Maxim-D-Frank-Kamenets...

“A genetic switch” is another fantastic unraveling of a single virus. If you like diving into like a framework and learning piece by piece how it all works slowly, that is a GREAT book. For a while this was my favorite book.

https://www.amazon.com/Biology-Viruses-Bruce-Phd-Voyles/dp/0... This book started my career. The first chapter, specifically, started my career. It got me hooked, not sure why. You can learn about other WILD things viruses do there too!

On the experimentation side, try a transformation kit https://www.the-odin.com/colorbacteria/ it’s $30, and at least you’d be able to tell friends and family you’ve genetically modified life before. That is a nice intro into synthetic biology. This is how I got started.

On the bioinformatics side, miniPCR has some nice kits to go barcode environmental strains. I personally hate doing PCR and don’t care about barcoding, so I’m biased here. I’m much more of a synthetic biologist, so bioinformatics study is only relevant to me in context of the things above.

I’d probably buy some books + the transformation kit and then see what interests you from there. There are a couple things that are 1 step away from transformation kit plus some learning, which is why I recommend that path.

Re: I should have loved biology

#84

Post by joshuamcginnis »

ketzo wrote: post #82
joshuamcginnis wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suffer from pretty bad depression and have been battling with it for a while using all available treatments. Someone recommended I try psilocybin mushrooms. I learned how to grow them, grew them and then had my wife help facilitate a safe well-intentioned trip using 7g of dried mushrooms. Happy to answer any questions about it. It was a profound experience. It isn't a cure but it's certainly a tool in my toolbox th…

Sheesh, 7g is no joke. How “hard” was your trip?

It was difficult and I wouldn't recommend it for newcomers.

Re: I should have loved biology

#85

Post by koeng »

achenatx wrote: post #74

I have microbiology and electrical engineering degrees. Started a PhD (microbiology and immunology) and washed out with a masters to go into the dot com boom. There is so much potential for biology to be engineering, but the reality is you can spend your whole life studying one tiny aspect of something esoteric. You can spend your whole life trying to find one amazing cure (or not). Biology is great if you are intere…

Synthetic biology is pretty good for creating things. Agree with other points tho

Re: I should have loved biology

#86

Post by koeng »

LetThereBeLight wrote: post #71
ampdepolymerase wrote: post #17

Ah yes, the recurring obsession hacker news has with biology - except that no startup would pay a biologist a software engineer's wage. Talking about biology is nice. But what's nicer is dismantling the elephant in the room.

Doing biology, as in culturing cells and performing biochemical assays does not come cheap. Software and wetware development are totally different ball games in terms of upfront costs and risk levels. Just building a wetware proof of concept without university resources is non-trivial in terms of the resources it requires. I don't think biology fits at all in the standard startup model.

It only fits the startup model if you know what you’re doing, which is in pretty short supply. You can definitely create a shockingly good lab for ~3000 though.

Re: I should have loved biology

#87

Post by nynx »

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #41

After 15 years in tech and a life-changing psychedelic trip, I decided to self-learn genetic engineering and share it with the world[1][2] while I look for a meaningful biotech venture to found. What you can do today from your kitchen or home lab is remarkable. For instance, I taught myself PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and recently published my first genetic sequence at GenBank from fungi that I cultured, extracte…

This is a really inspiring comment. I'm an engineering student who's kind of mentally stuck between the worlds of computing and bio. I want to do research in biotech, but I'm having trouble finding the will to do it for some reason.

In a different vein, I've recently started designing a really cheap atomic force microscope, which I plan to open-source, so I think that may be a valuable addition to the bio and nanotech diy community.

Re: I should have loved biology

#88

Post by entangledqubit »

StillBored wrote: post #54
_jahh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this terrifies me, some crazy makes a gene drive super corn pathogen and civilization crashes.

Enjoy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93448.The_White_Plague

A childhood favorite of mine. It seems infinitely more plausible today than when I read it.

Re: I should have loved biology

#89

Post by joshuamcginnis »

neitherboosh wrote: post #76
joshuamcginnis wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suffer from pretty bad depression and have been battling with it for a while using all available treatments. Someone recommended I try psilocybin mushrooms. I learned how to grow them, grew them and then had my wife help facilitate a safe well-intentioned trip using 7g of dried mushrooms. Happy to answer any questions about it. It was a profound experience. It isn't a cure but it's certainly a tool in my toolbox th…

Wonderful to hear it’s had such a positive impact on your life. What part of the experience made you decide to learn about genetic engineering?

By serendipity, I discovered a few YouTubers around that time who were showing how to do synthetic biology and biotech step-by-step on the cheap. After the trip, it dawned on me that perhaps I should put my intellectual abilities to work in this new field as it might bring the connection to life and meaning that I've struggled to find in tech.

Re: I should have loved biology

#90

Post by stef25 »

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #84
ketzo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sheesh, 7g is no joke. How “hard” was your trip?

It was difficult and I wouldn't recommend it for newcomers.

Weren't you a (very depressed) newcomer yourself?

Don't take it bad but someone in an already bad mental state taking 2g more than what McKenna considered a god dose is pretty ... irresponsible (?)

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