Scientific literacy is necessary for a functioning society in the modern age. Scientific literacy is not science education. A person educated in science can understand science; a scientifically literate person can *do* science. Scientific literacy empowers everyone who possesses it to be active contributors to their own health care, the quality of their food, water, and air, their very interactions with their own bodies and the complex world around them.

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As biohackers it is our responsibility to act as emissaries of science, creating new scientists out of everyone we meet. We must communicate not only the value of our research, but the value of our methodology and motivation, if we are to drive ignorance and fear back into the darkness once and for all.

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Biopunks take responsibility for their research. We keep in mind that our subjects of interest are living organisms worthy of respect and good treatment, and we are acutely aware that our research has the potential to affect those around us. But we reject outright the admonishments of the precautionary principle, which is nothing more than a paternalistic attempt to silence researchers by inspiring fear of the unknown. When we work, it is with the betterment of the community in mind — and that includes our community, your community, and the communities of people that we may never meet. We welcome your questions, and we desire nothing more than to empower you to discover the answers to them yourselves.

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Come, let us research together.

–Meredith L. Patterson 

Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn’t want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn’t want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.

–Eric Hughes

Phage /fāj/

short for bacteriophage (coined in 1917 from bacteria + Greek phagein ‘to eat.’)

1. A virus that parasitizes a bacterium by infecting it and reproducing inside it.

 

Virus /’vīrǝs/

1. An infective agent that typically consists of a nucleic acid molecule in a protein coat, is too small to be seen by light microscopy, and is able to multiply only within the living cells of a host.
2. A piece of code that is capable of copying itself

 

Punk /pǝNGk/

1. A worthless person.
2. A loud, fast-moving, and aggressive form of rock music
3. A philosophical movement that reacts against beliefs and attitudes that have been perpetuated beyond their useful time through ignorance or stagnation.