[colechristensen]

You can get your feet wet with genetic engineering for surprisingly little money.

This guy shows a lot of how it's done: https://www.youtube.com/@thethoughtemporium

Basically you can design/edit/inject custom genes into things and see real results spending on the scale of $100-$1000.

[com2kid]

We actually did this in my highschool genetics class back in 1999! We made bacteria change color by splicing in a gene. Awesome stuff.

The (public!) school had a grant from one of Seattle's biotech boom companies.

[someuser54541]

Is there something like this in text/readable format?

[_zoltan_]

My main concern is using fungi. If it ends up in my lungs I'm most likely screwed, right?

[nurettin]

Yes, but most students produce their best work while infected.

[colechristensen]

This is the classic meme https://www.reddit.com/r/labrats/comments/mmv2ig/lab_strains...

Lab strains of things tend to be extremely sensitive and not human adapted. You shouldn't study and modify human-infecting organisms in your basement anyway. While you shouldn't ignore protective equipment and proper procedure... paranoia about infecting yourself with a lab leak isn't warranted.

[_zoltan_]

I'd love to experiment with this stuff, just literally have no idea how it would be safe to start.