[mechanical_fish]

I agree that the DIYbio folks et al are incredibly exciting. But saying that those projects have to do with "building a Github of science" is putting the cart before the horse. To extend my metaphor for a moment, it's as if the engineers of 1963 had decided to popularize open source software by inventing and promoting Github, instead of inventing the personal computer and Ethernet first.

(As an aside, there are fascinating historical examples of people who did invent the web before inventing the personal computer, like this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Otlet

Of course, he ended up as many of these slightly-too-early visionaries did: His work lost all its funding and he was kind of sad.)

Build the gel box and then worry about the social network. Or better yet, don't worry about the social network at all: These gel box users will network themselves, no problem. It would be a challenge to stop them from finding each other online.