Chromatography Forum

An extremely entrepeneurial friend and I were recently discussing a TED talk we watched about open source molecular biology labs. They are lab spaces that are open for people to run their own experiments--with my favorite example being the man who was able to gather definitive proof which of his neighbors dogs was leaving him presents by playing fetch and collecting the tennis balls in clean plastic bags. We were wondering if it would be possible to open such an open source chemistry lab.
We know that safety would need to be a concern, as well as making sure that it didn't become a meth lab...but how feasible do you think it might be? Even more importantly, how popular or useful do you think it might be? Especially in a small state with lots of small colleges and private schools/public shools/home schoolers. I'm curious what you all might think.
Thanks!
mty

I see some issues here, such as supervision and control. There are many people who would want to experiment with compunds with interesting pharmacological properties and with high energy compounds.

Liability issue and control might make this business impossible. One fire by non-qualified individual can wipe out earnings from 1000s of other customers. In addition to that overheads can be expensive (equipment, waste, regulation in specific states/countries...you better off cooking meth

I must say, if I ever won the lottery this is probably what I would do. I would build a laboratory stocked with some really great equipment(GC, GCMS, LC, LCMS, triple quads, TOFs, NMR, ect) and work out arrangements with the smaller colleges near by to help with their research projects. Those projects would need to be submitted and reviewed before granting access. Otherwise it could be considered somewhat open source as far as letting them keep the IP.

Of course it won't open this week, someone else won the Power Ball

Why would you d that if you win a lottery? I used to work 50-60 h a week, but there are so many things to do and see without work. Just came back from 2 weeks backpacking in Patagonia, and had hard time working even 20 h a week. So if you win a lottery TRAVEL

Why would you d that if you win a lottery? I used to work 50-60 h a week, but there are so many things to do and see without work. Just came back from 2 weeks backpacking in Patagonia, and had hard time working even 20 h a week. So if you win a lottery TRAVEL

The trick is after you build it, hire someone to run it and then you can just play with the instruments when you want without having to worry about being there every day

One place I would love to see if I did win would be Lake Baikal. A friend sent me photos from there and it is beautiful.