In the just-published Biopunk, journalist Marcus Wohlsen surveys the biohacker movement, which has been made possible by a convergence of better and cheaper technologies.

The bio DIYers believe that individuals have a fundamental right to biological information, that spreading the tools of biotech to the masses will accelerate the pace of progress, and that the fruits of the biosciences should be delivered into the hands of the people who need them the most.

Some of the possibilities are frightening. If biohackers can engineer organisms to cure diseases, they can engineer organisms to inflict them. Wohlsen, however, isn’t overly concerned. The technology just isn’t in place for biohackers to bioengineer weapons worth worrying about, he says.