n Massachusetts, a young woman makes genetically modified E. coli in a closet she converted into a home lab. A part-time DJ in Berkeley, Calif., works in his attic to cultivate viruses extracted from sewage. In Seattle, a grad-school dropout wants to breed algae in a personal biology lab.

These hobbyists represent a growing strain of geekdom known as biohacking, in which do-it-yourselfers tinker with the building blocks of life in the comfort of their own homes. Some of them buy DNA online, then fiddle with it in hopes of curing diseases or finding new biofuels.

Jeanne Whalen in the Wall Street Journal:

Are biohackers a threat to national security?

A few months ago, Katherine Aull talked about her hobby on DIY Bio, a Web site frequented by biohackers, and her work was noted in New Scientist magazine.

That's when the phone rang.

Decius:

What you tell Google you've told the government.

How could Whalen write this article without mentioning Freeman Dyson:

I predict that the domestication of biotechnology will dominate our lives during the next fifty years at least as much as the domestication of computers has dominated our lives during the previous fifty years.

Can it be stopped? Ought it to be stopped?

You might be able to guess his answer:

Designing genomes will be a new art form, as creative as painting or sculpture.

George Church:

"The younger generation need something they feel they can do."

Some people are what you might call risk-averse:

Marge: I'd really like to give it a try!

Homer: I don't know, Marge, trying is the first step towards failure.

What are you waiting for?

Procrastination is a calling away from something that we do against our desires toward something that we do for pleasure, in that joyful state of self-forgetful inspiration that we call genius.