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Photos from the first BioHack Academy at the Waag.
Learn how to design, grow and extract your own biomaterials using only Open Source hardware you fabricate yourself. Whether it's a new type of bio ink, bio polymer or bio fuel, we'll show you can grow it yourself and share the results with others.
Biohacking is een trend die naar Europa is overgewaaid vanuit de Verenigde Staten. De beweging onderzoekt de maakbaarheid van het leven, onder meer door het aanpassen van genetisch materiaal. Tijdens deze avond onder leiding van scenarioschrijver Ine Poppe werd aan de hand van videobeelden van biologische experimenten gekeken naar de ethische en politieke aspecten van biohacking, en er waren lezingen en interviews met bioloog en filosoof Ellen ter Gast en kunstenaar Floris Kaayk.
Foto's: Matthijs Immink
When I met Eric Topol at Scripps Research, he greeted me with an easy calm, the sort of quiet steadiness that settles a room without ever trying to command it. There is no theatricality about him. No hint of the celebrity doctor, even though he easily could play that role. His curiosity comes first. You feel it immediately. He listens closely, as if the next idea might arrive from anywhere.
Topol has spent decades at the frontier of cardiovascular medicine, genomics, and digital health. He trained as a cardiologist at a time when heart attacks were often a sudden, devastating surprise. Much of his early work focused on clot-busting therapies and transforming acute cardiac care. That alone would have secured a distinguished career. But he did not stop there. He moved into genetics and then into the rapidly evolving intersection of medicine and data, asking how sequencing, wearable sensors, and artificial intelligence might change how we prevent disease rather than simply react to it.
He founded and directs the Scripps Research Translational Institute, where the emphasis is clear: translate discovery into real human benefit. Not hype. Not products. Not a quick fix. In a landscape crowded with longevity influencers and supplement stacks, Topol stands apart. He does not take sponsorships to push powders or pills. He is not interested in monetizing fear. If anything, he seems slightly allergic to the noise.
His focus is more austere and, in many ways, more radical. Diet. Sleep. Exercise. Social connection. The fundamentals. He talks about “super agers,” people who reach their eighties with the physiology of someone decades younger, and he does so with data in hand. What patterns do they share? What biomarkers remain resilient? How does inflammation behave across time? For Topol, longevity is not about chasing immortality. It is about compressing morbidity, extending healthspan, and preserving function.
In his recent writing, particularly in his book Super Agers, he leans into the evidence that aging is not a single uniform decline but a mosaic. Some systems falter early. Others remain robust. With genomic insight and longitudinal data, medicine can begin to map this mosaic and intervene earlier. But he is careful. He does not promise magic. He points instead to measurable behaviors: regular aerobic activity, resistance training, high-quality sleep, nutrient-dense food, minimizing ultra-processed diets. He is skeptical of supplement culture because most of it runs ahead of the evidence. If a molecule works, he believes, it should prove itself in rigorous trials.
There is also a democratizing instinct in his work. He has been outspoken about the need to make genomic testing and advanced diagnostics more accessible. He sees a future where medicine is individualized, where a person’s risk for atrial fibrillation or Alzheimer’s disease can be flagged early, and where prevention is not reserved for the affluent. He is equally vocal about the ethical tensions of AI in healthcare. Algorithms must augment clinicians, not replace empathy. Data must serve patients, not corporations.
When I photographed him, I was struck by the absence of cynicism. He has seen enough of the system to justify it. Yet he still believes that medicine can be reoriented toward prevention and personalization without losing its human core. There is a steadiness in him that mirrors his message. No flashy claims. No performative biohacking. Just the disciplined accumulation of evidence and a commitment to follow it wherever it leads.
In the end, Eric Topol represents a particular kind of authority that feels increasingly rare. Not the authority of charisma, but of rigor. Not the seduction of miracle cures, but the persistence of science. In a culture that wants shortcuts, he keeps returning to first principles. Move your body. Sleep deeply. Eat real food. Stay connected. Let the data guide you. And above all, protect the integrity of medicine from the distortions of commerce.
Standing in that quiet room at Scripps, you sense that his project is larger than longevity. It is about restoring trust in the idea that health is built, patiently and measurably, over time.
The interdisciplinary project Open Source Estrogen combines biohacking and “speculative design”* to show the public the dominance and biological power of the hormone estrogen.
credit: tom mesic
The 'Biohacking: Do It Yourself!' lab installation at Medical Museion showcases homemade lab instruments - it also showcases the biology that is part of traditional, household skills like making yoghurt and sourdough. Photograph to be credited to Martin Malthe Borch. Originally uploaded to MaltheBorch's flickr stream.
Os Pequenos Inventores conheceram um pouco mais sobre o universo da genômica partir de materiais de dia a dia. Eles conseguiram visualizar o DNA de frutas a partir de métodos de baixo custo.
Biohacking e Transhumanismo com Luli Radfahrer - Campus Party Brasil 2013, 30/01/2013 - Foto: Cristiano Sant'Anna/indicefoto
Photos from the first BioHack Academy at the Waag.
Learn how to design, grow and extract your own biomaterials using only Open Source hardware you fabricate yourself. Whether it's a new type of bio ink, bio polymer or bio fuel, we'll show you can grow it yourself and share the results with others.
Curators Karin Tybjerg and Louise Whiteley discuss exhibition texts for the 'Biohacking: Do It Yourself!' lab installation at Medical Museion with interaction designer Martin Malthe Borch. Photograph to be credited to Sara Krugman and Martin Malthe Borch.
The interdisciplinary project Open Source Estrogen combines biohacking and “speculative design”* to show the public the dominance and biological power of the hormone estrogen.
credit: tom mesic
Photos from the first BioHack Academy at the Waag.
Learn how to design, grow and extract your own biomaterials using only Open Source hardware you fabricate yourself. Whether it's a new type of bio ink, bio polymer or bio fuel, we'll show you can grow it yourself and share the results with others.
The interdisciplinary project Open Source Estrogen combines biohacking and “speculative design”* to show the public the dominance and biological power of the hormone estrogen.
credit: tom mesic
Biohacking e Transhumanismo com Luli Radfahrer - Campus Party Brasil 2013, 30/01/2013 - Foto: Cristiano Sant'Anna/indicefoto
Photos from the first BioHack Academy at the Waag.
Learn how to design, grow and extract your own biomaterials using only Open Source hardware you fabricate yourself. Whether it's a new type of bio ink, bio polymer or bio fuel, we'll show you can grow it yourself and share the results with others.
The interdisciplinary project Open Source Estrogen combines biohacking and “speculative design”* to show the public the dominance and biological power of the hormone estrogen.
credit: tom mesic
Photos from the first BioHack Academy at the Waag.
Learn how to design, grow and extract your own biomaterials using only Open Source hardware you fabricate yourself. Whether it's a new type of bio ink, bio polymer or bio fuel, we'll show you can grow it yourself and share the results with others.
Students of world's first BioHack Academy graduated and presented their work on Tuesday, April 21st, 2015.
In ten weeks, students from Waag Society's Biohack Academy built a fully functioning lab. They built everything, from homemade microscopes and centrifuges to handmade spectrometers and incubators—all with materials commonly found at home!