Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/5039
9 www.hplusmagazine.com do it Yourselfers, the new naturalists Before science became so specialized, professors taught courses in the general field of Natural History and their students often went out as amateurs to carry out exploration of the Natural World. These amateurs were referred to as Naturalists. The seventeenth century's Age of Reason produced some of the greatest Naturalists of all time, including some of our personal heroes — Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Descartes, Thomas Boyle, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Amateur collectors and natural history entrepreneurs played an important role in building the large natural history collections of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. We have reached a stage again, partially because of the proliferation of knowledge via the internet, and partially because the availability of second-hand equipment on eBay, Dove, etc., whereby a new type of amateur scientist/Naturalist is gaining ground. The DIY'ers are setting up labs in their homes and garages and conducting experiments for fun and (hopefully) profit. They work on everything from genetic sequencing, to anti-aging (see "DIYBio: A Growing Movement Takes On Aging"), to synthetic biology (see "Why DIY Bio?"), and robotics. We think this trend is highly encouraging, and portends the rise of many new innovations in these fields. We will provide references at the end of our articles for organizations which serve as resources and rallying points for such DIY'ers. We would like to encourage "The New Naturalists" to not only push forward, but to strive to get to know their fellow DIYers and collaborate on experiments, ideas, lab space, and equipment. We need orders of magnitude more individuals doing OPEN DIY Bio, SynBio, AI, Robotics, Nano, and Neuro research in order to make the kinds of breakthroughs which will bring about radical life-extension, human-level intelligent machines, and cheap fuels. Now go out there and get to work! Best wishes, Dan Stoicescu & James Clement James clement co-Founder Dan stoicescu co-Founder