Biohacking FAQ
Biohacking frequently-asked questions
For press and journalists
Q: How can I talk to the person in charge of the space?
A: We have a formal management structure for legal (and convenience) reasons, but it doesn’t set direction. If you come along to the Wednesday meet-up, any members you meet should be able to give you a good perspective and overview of the space and current projects.
For new members
Q: When do you meet? What's the best way to get get started?
A: Our members often meet on Wednesdays at 7.30 pm in the biolab. This is mostly a social meeting for chatting about ideas, organising the lab / clearing out old experiments, and installing new equipment.
Q: How can I join the space?
A: You will need to be inducted to use the lab. Inductions are performed on some Wednesdays by the generosity of existing members. Join the slack channel and drop a message into the #safety-inductions room. Inductions do no cost any money. They take about an hour.
Before your induction, you must be both a member of the hackspace (minimum of £5 per month as of Jan 2017) and to have already paid a minimum of £10 (per month) into the biolab bank account. More details are here: https://biohackspace.org/join/ The purpose of the induction is how not to break yourself, others or the equipment and how to stay on the right side of the law. Learning how to actually do anything in the biolab takes a lot longer.
Q: I am looking for work experience or internship opportunities. Does the Biohackspace offer any?
A: Thanks for writing in. As the biolab is a volunteer run space we can't unfortunately offer any formal work experience opportunities. We are a community lab primarily used part-time by people with an interest in synthetic and molecular biology. We take a very small membership fee which goes directly towards lab consumables, and we don’t have any funding or staff.
In particular, the lab is empty most of the working day!
That said, you are of course very welcome to visit us on one of our open evenings (every Wednesday, from 7:30pm) if you’d like to meet some of our members and see the space.
Q: I'd like to join, but I'm not sure what to work on. Can I join an ongoing project?
A: It depends on what's going on at the time. Come along to the Wednesday sessions or send out a message in slack on #general to see if anyone else is interested or already working on what you're interested in.
Q: I have another question which isn't covered here.
A: Join our slack channel: https://biohackspace.org/slack/ and drop a message into #general room with the tag #hello-a-different-question.
