D.I.Y. Bio: Innovative or hazardous?

The glowing plant is a symbol of the future, a symbol of sustainability, a symbol to inspire others to create new living things. Help us light the way.Antony Evans, Glowing Plant project

It's true. A group of biologists in California really are trying to create a glowing plant that may one day shine bright enough to replace streetlights. And that's not the only reason the project is raising eyebrows.

Funding for the glowing plant project came from online donations crowd-sourced through Kickstarter and all attempts to genetically engineer this plant will happen outside of a formal laboratory ... without guidance of a university or a corporation.

As lab equipment gets cheaper and scientific techniques get easier, do-it-yourself biology is steadily on the rise. But what are the consequences? We heard from:

• Antony Evans: One of three founders of the glowing plant project. Evans and his fellow glowing plant researchers are eager to demonstrate the potential of DIYbio labs.
  
  
• Pat Mooney: He is executive director of ETC Group, a technology watchdog that is determined to stop the glowing plant project from moving forward.
  
  
• Gaymon Bennett: Co-founder of the Center for Biological Futures, a bioethics project at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
  
  
• We also headed off to Victoria, B.C. to visit Biospace, Canada's first bio-tech community lab. Special thanks to CBC's Michael Tymchuk for the tape.
  
  

This segment was produced by The Current's Karin Marley and Vanessa Greco.

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