Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science

About this book

Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science explores fundamental changes occuring in the circulation and ownership of scientific information. Alessandro Delfanti argues that the combination of the ethos of 20th century science, the hacker movement and the free software movement is producing an open science culture which redefines the relationship between researchers, scientific institutions and commercial companies. Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science looks at the emergence of the citizen biology community 'DIYbio', the shift to open access by the American biologist Craig Venter and the rebellion of the Italian virologist Ilaria Capua against WHO data-sharing policies. Delfanti argues that these biologists and many others are involved in a transformation of both life sciences and information systems, using open access tools and claiming independence from both academic and corporate institutions.

Contents

Preface

1. Cracking codes, remixing cultures
2. Forbidden, public, enclosed, open science
3. Hackers, rebels and profiteers
4. Sailing and sequencing the genome seas
5. Just another rebel scientist
6. We are the biohackers
7. Conclusions: how to hack biology

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Alessandro Delfanti teaches New Media at the University of Milan and is an editor of the open access Journal of Science Communication.