Jonathan:
You’re quite right, I was probably focusing too much on a packaged solution with a built in trace. Perhaps a pair of devices would be appropriate: one which can be connected to anything, essentially an open-source temperature controller, and another which integrates everything. But I feel that the former is already so “trivial” to those who’d know how to use it at all, that it might as well be left alone. In other words, if you know how to put a board that requires any electronics assembly into use as an incubator, why bother with a prepackaged solution when it’s probably a trivial task for you to do it yourself?

Besides, water heating is already neatly handled by aquarium heaters, which provide the equivalent: a drop-in heating coil that raises and senses temperature at once. They do require external circulation to work correctly, and rarely go above a certain temperature, so a kettle-element may be required as a separate item.

A drop-in solution would be beneficial for those who know more about wetware hacking than hardware hacking. Set your temperature, plug it in, and put the device into an insulated container.

It needn’t be any more complicated than the long trace on an arduino shield with screw-holes for a standard computer casefan and an LM35 temperature sensor. The cost and complexity would be very low, and the reliability very high. That’s really all DIYbio *needs* right now, and let anyone with more advanced requirements implement them in a derivative of the open source board.

At least that’s my opinion, and it’s something I’d like to see. In answer to Bob’s question as to why incubators are difficult, it’s because a full incubator would cost so much to make and ship that it puts people off from bothering unless they can guarantee a sale. And with the costs so high, DIYbioers are likely to just DIY it. But not everyone is motivated to try DIYbio if they first have to transition through DIY hardware, so I’d like to see a simple solution.

The exception is the Calcium Chloride. From what I know of its chemistry (limited), at higher pH it is insoluble, and will pretty much always leave a sediment. At lower pH (as the bacteria grow), it ought to start dissolving as it buffers the acid. However since I’ve never bothered clarifying my medium yet, silt-is-silt and I haven’t observed this directly. When I return to making DIY broths I’ll experiment more with this.

I think this is one area where diybio can make a meaningful contribution. I’ve seen UV lamps in biosafety hoods, though never known them to be used, but never for an entire lab. Why is that? Does it work? Is it too expensive? Concerns about UV exposure? Small labs custom designed by an enthusiast could be a good place to test this and other similar ideas.

“Finally, if you’re dedicating a room to your biotech hobby, it would make sense to dress appropriately. Wear low-dust clothes, wear a natural-fibre* labcoat over this, and tie back hair or wear a hair-net.”

I’ve never been in a lab where hair-nets are provided and despite it being policy everywhere I’ve worked that lab coats are worn all too often they’re treated as optional. It’s re-assuring that far from compromising on safety as some in the media and elsewhere seem to fear we’re matching and in some cases improving on industry norms.

I’m not sure I share your pessimism about building an incubator. I do some tissue culture work which requires 37 degC and 5% CO2. Maintaining 5% CO2 might be a little tricky but following a quick google it looks like CO2 sensors can be had for ~$100.

It’s been a while since I did any bacterial work but my understanding is all you need is an enclosed shaking platform which you could maintain at 37 degC. I’m not clear on what the advantage of that makerbot heated platform would be over a piece of nichrome wire for our context. The ability to buy a kit which just works is appealing but the heat source is the easiest part of the problem to solve. A controller you could connect an immersion heater to for a waterbath or a hairdryer to for an incubator would be a more useful product in my opinion. Of course that doesn’t stop you from selling the heating source as well as part of a premium product.

From what I understand there is usually quite a markup on purified protein prices. I formed this impression second hand and in relation to lesser used proteins (interferon perhaps?) but the general principal probably still holds true for most proteins. It would be nice if for the most frequently used proteins an expression system and purification protocol could be established and circulated within the community.

I’ve also replied to the diybio mailing list thread.

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=44

Also dont forget sonoporation, alot cheaper then Calcium Chloride, though slightly more complicated.

For agarose and other consumables, perhaps the ‘co-op’ method could work. The model I have is the food co-op that my mother ran when I was a kid – order in bulk, co-op members com and split the order and package it for redistribution. Payment is required upp-front. Those doing the work are considered ‘members in good standing’ and paid a 2% markup to cover consumables and to pay down the debt of capital expendidures (scales and knives in the food co-op case), whereas others would have to pay a higher percentage. The organization of my mother’s was a local one, it will be much more difficult to get volunteers into one spot at a specific time to divide up orders, so it may be that the overhead percentage is higher to cover the costs of paying for labor.

Maybe there’s something I am missing, but what’s the difficulty in making an incubator? I am certainly less knowledgeable in the biology field than you are, but my understanding of an incubator is a temperature controller environment. A large, insulated box with a thermostat seems pretty easy to make, to me. Or is there something I am missing?

While I like community, non-profit orgs for such hacking projects, it may not be practical all of the time. Some businesses might be started to provide low-cost equipment and supplies to the DIYbio crowd. My only qualification to become ‘a friend of the DIYbio community’ is to have have low minimum quantities, good prices, good quality, and good support.

International shipment can be problematic. Customs regulations, tarriffs are a problem, shipping is another, and currency / payment mechanisms third. Perhaps whatever suppliers are organized can have distribution points in the EU, the US, and other locations where there is a concentration of people within a regulatory domain.

As to my little thermal cycler.. it didn’t ramp that much because I couldn’t deliver the needed amps from those batteries or through that motor controller. I was planning to learn more about high-current MOSFETs or to co-opt one of the excellent extruder controller boards from Makerbot.com for that purpose, but there’s no longer any need for me to do so.