Applied biotechnologies should not be left to big companies and private interests. In our field, the analogues of Microsoft and Google are called Danone, Kraft Foods, Mondelez, NestlĂ©, Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer… By the way many of their so called discoveries in are pseudoscientific in nature, and sometimes not far from scientific misconduct (Think of Danone's Actimel).
In fact, as we will see, all civilizations, present and past, had some basic practice of biotechs. Kimchi, Sauerkraut, and plenty of other lactic fermantations were common almost everywhere until recently. Nowdays, it is the interest of some private companies to steal, hide and patent this common knowledge.
The purpose of those pages is to keep track of these traditionnal techniques involving bacteria and ferments. And also to go further, to show that innovation in this field can thrive outside of the R&D departments and academic labs.
Of course a lot of modern techiques are, for now, out of reach without a huge huge budget.
But, first of all, this may change. In other fields of science (computer hardware, robotics,…) one begins to see the emergence of open collaborative projects that results in more accessible machines.
And, more importantly, the current limitations that we face may be turned into advantages. They will force us to explore sideways, to compensate the brutal power of the big science by the beauty of simple ideas. Remember that the most important discoveries often came by accident (penicilin, …) and were not the outcome of some planified internationnal research programs.