Brooklyn, New York, April 21, 19:00 hours: Molecular biologist Ellen Jorgensen and I spread a plastic tarp over my cherry table and parquet floor. Then, one by one, we set vials and pipettes down, preparing a lab in my living room. We had dubbed it DNA and Pizza Night on the DIYbio message board, inviting aspiring amateur geneticists to gather and learn the rudiments of bioengineering. Not a bad deal either—a lab followed by beer and pizza, all for $10 per person.
As the aficionados and the curious made their way to my Brooklyn home, Jorgensen and I laid out our genetic-makeover patient, a sealed Petri dish of E. coli. It was our first meeting working with live bacteria, and it had already taken on an illicit air.
In May, The Wall Street Journal asked whether amateur gatherings like ours were “a ...
