# BioMonstration (english version) **URL:** \ **Category:** Présence Solidaire\ **Tags:** en\ **Created:** [May 17, 2022, 7:52am UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232 "2022-05-17T07:52:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/xavcc/32/59_2.png) [@XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/XavCC)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 7:52am UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/1 "2022-05-17T07:52:54Z")
_A translation of the original [French version](https://thx.zoethical.org/pub/presence-solidaire-biomonstration), by its author._ In a (spell) cast of desires of sorts of wacky self-ethnography I had decided to throw on walls a little description of my practices in garage biology. The #BioMonstration quickly became a signature as a marker to this loose thread, a beacon in the formulation of my thoughts. A graffiti that emerges without coherence of frequency when at the same time an urge to share meets a belief, or a hope, that I can describe simply as a small piece of something bigger. Rather than forcing a restructuring of this _proto_ canvas, I wish to transcribe it here such as it pours from my imagination onto walls of the Internet. In the order in which appeared these emanations of a _pseudo_ disorder, of an obscurity or a fog perceived by the uninitiated person. `June, 23, 2021` - **Debiogging** It’s when you correct a sequence in your sequence of a piece of the living. Not to be confused with slaughtering - **Laboratory Technician** Demonym of people who inhabit the laboratory department. - **Plasmid** : A bit like a **Hi-Fi** tech ( **High fidelity** ) system framed to see non-chromosomal DNA, often provided by bacteria or in baker’s yeast. Bacteria and yeast that humans spread all over their plasma screens. - **Bionoob** Ethnonym for a group of people living outside the disciplinary cell of biology, sometimes keen to enter it. - **Biohacker** Ethnonym of a group of people who broke into the disciplinary cell of biology and who striving to smash chains, walls, and bars. - **C** 8 **H** 10 **N** 4 **O** 2: Formulation with digit encryption like of the CAFFEINE by the disciplinary cell of chemistry. This one probably thinking that cipher quality would offer enough safety to keep the said substance at home safely. (`YouHaveBeenPwnd`) * * * `June, 24, 2021` I tell myself that I can continue this thread with a #BioMonstration with the intention of micro-narration a little differently from practices in the study and manipulation of the living. Sort of (auto)ethnography peppered with fabulation Before the continuations, hop the ears in _Bio Is The New Black: Design embarked in a laboratory of biology_ [https://cpu.dascritch.net/post/2021/06](https://cpu.dascritch.net/post/2021/06) Note: it is mentioned in the episode that Design could have as first historical emergence the year 1750 the word and concept biology was forged in 1766 by Michael Christoph Hanow; then in 1797 by the doctors Roose, Burdach and Treviranus (1800 -1802) then by Lamarck (1800 - 1802) naturalist, botanist, zoologist. As a scientific discipline. > “The positivist in biology avoids metaphysical concepts by performing a reduction in his questions. Thus, when François Jacob declares that “life” is no longer studied in laboratories, one can understand that the concept of “life” is similar to the old abstractions of metaphysics. What happens in the laboratories? We study redox relationships, methylations, different reactions between molecules: but do we ever see “life”? Instead of “life”, positive biology studies the properties of one of the levels of organization characteristic of living organisms (individuals, products, cells, molecules). > One could call up other examples: does biology study “the animal” or does it study the action-reaction sequences, reflexes, stereotyped behaviors? Does it study “the human” or only its physiology, its social behaviors?” Metaphysics and biology, by Thierry Hocquet in précis de biologie [https://fr.calameo.com/read/000015856d](https://fr.calameo.com/read/000015856d) * * * - **WetLab** (or Lavaboratory): Place for experiments and manipulation in the bathroom of people from the DIY / garage / hacking biology communities “we extracted and sequenced a DNA in the wetlab” Thanks to [@kaerhon](https://mastodon.opportunis.me/@kaerhon) for clarifying this important point Lavaboratory illustrated in pictures ![3eb0605e9ca7110a](https://thx.zoethical.org/uploads/default/original/1X/5542c4a768278a2c32eb55e6cefc2bfec7c08266.jpeg) * * * - **Paillasse** : It’s Monday, I tidied up and cleaned my bench to get back to work. A work surface that in biohacking / biopunk / #diybio you struggle to do yourself, then becomes one of your most frequent work areas. Does it hardly bear its qualifier of “plane” so much it plays and unfolds phenomena and events that destabilize, even crush, many of our established plans? Who is haunting whom? I often think about it at night, sometimes I feel trapped in its dithering. “Large canvas envelope, usually filled with straw, with which a bed was lined.” > There is not a prisoner who does not turn over in the evening on his straw mattress at the thought that the dawn may be sinister, who does not fall asleep without wishing that nothing would happen. - (Henri Alleg, The Question, 1957) [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paillasse](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paillasse) **Monstration** could have a double semantic origin in Latin with a double meaning. _Monstratio_: direction, guidance, indication, hint [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monstratio](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monstratio) _MONSTRO, AS, ARE, AVI, ATUM_: to show, to make see in a precise manner. To indicate. The thing that is indicated, pointed out, with the finger. And also _monstrum_: an unexpected fact that may be interpreted as a “warning” from a higher power. And _monstrosus_, which means bizarre, even deformed. * * * - **Malfunction** Clogged laundromat, bunged lavaboratory Contaminated Petri dish Poor Microscopy Incubator that breaks down Missed insertion of modified plasmid Etc The malfunction, the bug, the breakdown, the ‘disobedience’, the strike or more generally the ‘accident’ (in Virilio’s words) are generators of saturated spaces (of messages, of pollutions) each fulfilling a fairly precise function. Starting with allowing one to get out of a state of stupor, to ‘get going’, to un/tangle oneself (thanks to Olivier Ertzscheid) It is also an opportunity to reconfigure ourselves collectively For example, at a 2-day biohacking workshop in a library… Right from the start, one of the devices was broken. This opportunity was seized by people not initially interested in the workshop, and with profiles very different from the initial participants, to insert themselves into the group and to “twist” the initial “programme” (march) of the workshop to make it their own and to give it a new function / purpose. `7 October 2021: to be continued` `25 October 2021` - **Wrapping for shipment** : Sending plasmids, passionately prepared and packaged on a heat-screw machine in free material On a small piece of paper… heading for Ukraine. This manipulation brings back memories of a Pasteur Institute from the 1920s that we never knew. We dodge borders, customs. The mark is invisible after drying. They are even little Frankensteins (sic) for some people who have not yet discovered and practiced, not yet experienced in their flesh. This aesthetic of the stamped letter allows us to pass under the radar. Our gesture folds into itself and on an infinitesimal layer an immeasurable quantity of time, technique and acquired knowledge. It also requires a new critical thinking about correspondence and letters to emerge and develop. Enclosed, annotated, the plasmid will travel to a new adventure. ![fe8d57920cf104ba](https://thx.zoethical.org/uploads/default/original/1X/5bc76d2e3b388d3d21e82551aa22e8c57e69f277.png) ![6a3be7f530de71a4](https://thx.zoethical.org/uploads/default/original/1X/4735f81bb7eb5f0f55bbf30c2f27c16f93df09e1.png) ![b9534bbf24b1343f](https://thx.zoethical.org/uploads/default/original/1X/7b5417483ad35a209efff38f6da00a412bedb4fb.png) `5 November 2021` - **capped mRNA** : Messenger ribonucleic acid carrying something, when at some point in transcription the pre-messenger RNA escapes from inside the RNA polymerase complex (“away, to the right, fleeing fate”), which gets added to it by an enzyme, this is RNA guanylyltransferase which adds a guanosine (G) on the 5’ end. This cap has several purposes - Stabilisation - Regulation of nuclear export - Promotion of translation Who comes to my salon, my garage, or my lavaboratory to do a cap\[1\] haircut? Come and watch the hairdressing or scissor day! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-prime\_cap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-prime_cap) `6 November 2021` - **Selfish DNA** : (Field: Biology/Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.) Definition: DNA that propagates through the genome using proteins encoded by other gene sequences, with no immediately visible benefit to the organism. More accurate: Selfish genetic element Note: 1. selfish DNA has the ability to maintain, accumulate and transpose itself. 2. sometimes the term “junk DNA” is still used, or _selfish genetic elements and their silencers_ Foreign equivalent: ADN poubelle, ADN égoïste, ADN non-codant unique This “junk” DNA, that part of the genome which at first glance serves no purpose (the kind that pisses off capitalistic productivists?), well, actually plays an important role in epigenetic processes. Vocabulary of biology at LégiFrance (2012) [https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000025990940/](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000025990940/) Let’s think about Barbara McClintock, who made this discovery, and one of the 58 women (including Marie Curie twice, and her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie once) who won the Nobel Prize (1983 medicine and physiology), compared with 885 men. > [@On another topic](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/192/9): > > _Junk DNA_ was indeed a term used before we knew what these sequences meant. Nowadays, we could discard this term and use instead _Potentiated_ DNA to take up a distinction made by Stéphane LUPASCO between what is latent (potential) and what is present (actual).. - **Who am I? What am I?** : Who am I? What invisible others make me what I am? My body is made up of about 10 to 100 times more bacterial cells than human cells. I am 10 times more non-human genes than human genes! I am billions of billions of bacteria, fungi and spores, parasites and micro-insects, viruses, yeasts, archaea… On me and deep inside me. I am alive through and with the lives of others. * * * 1. certificate of professional competence (CAP), or 5’-cap ---
**Author:** ![Milouchkna](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/milouchkna/32/285_2.png) [@Milouchkna](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/Milouchkna)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/2 "2022-06-27T21:50:56Z")
took the liberty to continue directly from where ya stopped, with just the text (ya may have to recheck vocabulary to smooth things out, some of the links and add in the images, of course) Bench : It’s Monday, I tidied up and cleaned my bench to get back to work. A work surface that in biohacking / biopunk / #diybio you struggle to do yourself, then becomes one of your most frequent work areas. Does it hardly bear its qualifier of “plane” so much it plays and unfolds phenomena and events that destabilize, even crush, many of our established plans? Who is haunting who? I often think about it at night, sometimes I feel trapped in its dithering. “Large canvas envelope, usually filled with straw, with which a bed was lined.” There is not a prisoner who does not turn over in the evening on his straw mattress at the thought that the dawn may be sinister, who does not fall asleep without wishing that nothing would happen. - (Henri Alleg, The Question, 1957) Monstration could have a double semantic origin in Latin with a double meaning. Monstratio: to show [https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/monstratio#la](https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/monstratio#la) MONSTRO, AS, ARE, AVI, ATUM: to show, to make see in a precise manner. To indicate. The thing that is indicated, pointed out, with the finger. And also monstrum: an unexpected fact that may be interpreted as a “warning” from a higher power. And monstrosus, which means bizarre, even deformed. Malfunction Clogged laundromat Contaminated Petri dish Poor Microscopy Incubator that breaks down Missed insertion of modified plasmid Etc The malfunction, the bug, the breakdown, the ‘disobedience’, the strike or more generally the ‘accident’ (in Virilio’s words) are generators of saturated spaces (of messages, of pollutions) each fulfilling a fairly precise function. Starting with allowing one to get out of a state of stupor, to ‘get going’, to un/tangle oneself (thanks to Olivier Ertzscheid) It is also an opportunity to reconfigure ourselves collectively For example, at a 2-day biohacking workshop in a library… Right from the start, one of the devices was broken. This opportunity was seized by people not initially interested in the workshop, and with profiles very different from the initial participants, to insert themselves into the group and to “twist” the initial “programme” (march) of the workshop to make it their own and to give it a new function / purpose. 7 October 2021: to be continued 25 October 2021 Wrapping for shipment: Sending plasmids, passionately prepared and packaged on a heat-screw machine in free material On a small piece of paper… heading for Ukraine. This manipulation brings back memories of a Pasteur Institute from the 1920s that we never knew. We dodge borders, customs. The mark is invisible after drying. They are even little Frankensteins (sic) for some people who have not yet discovered and practiced, not yet experienced in their flesh. This aesthetic of the stamped letter allows us to pass under the radar. Our gesture folds into itself and on an infinitesimal layer an immeasurable quantity of time, technique and acquired knowledge. It also requires a new critical thinking about correspondence and letters to emerge and develop. Enclosed, annotated, the plasmid will travel to a new adventure. (3 Illustration images: Xav’: “Wrapping for shipment: Sending plasmids…” - Todon.eu) 5 November 2021 capped mRNA : Messenger ribonucleic acid carrying something, when at some point in transcription the pre-messenger RNA escapes from inside the RNA polymerase complex (“away, to the right, fleeing fate”), which gets added to it by an enzyme, this is RNA guanylyltransferase which adds a guanosine (G) on the 5’ end. This cap has several purposes Stabilisation Nuclear export Translation into protein Who comes to my salon, my garage, or my lavaboratory to do a cap ¹ haircut? Come and watch the hairdressing or scissor day! 1: certificate of professional competence (CAP), or 5’-cap [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coiffe\_(biology)](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coiffe_(biology)) 6 November 2021 Selfish DNA : (Field: Biology/Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.) Definition: DNA that propagates through the genome using proteins encoded by other gene sequences, with no immediately visible benefit to the organism. Note: 1.selfish DNA has the ability to maintain, accumulate and transpose itself. 2.sometimes the term “junk DNA” is still used. Foreign equivalent: junk DNA, selfish DNA. This “junk” DNA, that part of the genome which at first glance serves no purpose (the kind that pisses off capitalistic productivists?), well, actually plays an important role in epigenetic processes. Vocabulary of biology at LégiFrance [https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000025990940/](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000025990940/) Let’s think about Barbara McClintock, who made this discovery, and one of the 58 women (including Marie Curie twice, and her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie once) who won the Nobel Prize (1983 medicine and physiology), compared with 885 men. Water Junk DNA was indeed a term used before we knew what these sequences meant. Nowadays, we could discard this term and use instead Potentiated DNA to take up a distinction made by Stéphane LUPASCO between what is latent (potential) and what is present (actual). Who am I? What am I? : Who am I? What invisible others make me what I am? My body is made up of about 10 to 100 times more bacterial cells than human cells. I am 10 times more non-human genes than human genes! I am billions of billions of bacteria, fungi and spores, parasites and micro-insects, viruses, yeasts, archaea… On me and deep inside me. I am alive through and with the lives of others. ---
**Author:** ![how](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/how/32/1310_2.png) [@how](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/how)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/3 "2022-06-29T15:18:42Z")
When this is ready we can merge with the first post and link to the public post. ---
**Author:** ![Milouchkna](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/milouchkna/32/285_2.png) [@Milouchkna](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/Milouchkna)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/4 "2022-06-30T02:18:48Z")
some notes: > [@XavCC](#): > > crazy not sure i’d use crazy for foutraque… maybe messy or wacky? crazy est psychophobe alors que foutraque ne l’est pas du tout. > [@XavCC](#): > > came to give why not just “became”? > [@XavCC](#): > > slaughtering maybe dissect? or hack or cut? à voir. (pour dépiauter) > [@XavCC](#): > > willing to eager to or keen to? > [@XavCC](#): > > who craft to striving to? > [@XavCC](#): > > by making a reduction by performing a reduction? > [@XavCC](#): > > or only action-reaction sequences, or does it study the action-reaction sequences répétition involontaire dans la trad je crois? = \> “or only action-reaction sequences” should be enough (sorry @XavCC j’ai conscience que c’est des broutilles but ya already know my tendency à vouloir trouver le mot juste^^") ---
**Author:** ![how](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/how/32/1310_2.png) [@how](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/how)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 7:54am UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/5 "2022-06-30T07:54:24Z")
Même sans le contexte plus large du texte tes choix me semblent appropriés. ---
**Author:** ![XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/xavcc/32/59_2.png) [@XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/XavCC)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 8:42am UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/6 "2022-06-30T08:42:49Z")
Très grand MERCI \<3 mille fois ! j’adore, j’avais vraiment besoin de ça. Je vais m’y plonger ---
**Author:** ![how](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/how/32/1310_2.png) [@how](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/how)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 12:22pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/7 "2022-06-30T12:22:30Z")
Biomonstration et Cannibalismes sont les deux derniers textes à traduire et nous aurons une traduction complète de Présence Solidaire. C’est chouette ! ---
**Author:** ![XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/xavcc/32/59_2.png) [@XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/XavCC)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 1:05pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/8 "2022-08-07T13:05:18Z")
> [@Milouchkna](#): > > not sure i’d use crazy for foutraque… maybe messy or wacky? crazy est psychophobe alors que foutraque ne l’est pas du tout. J’ai utilisé _wacky_ qui me convient bien et évite un terme psychophobe comme tu le soulignes ---
**Author:** ![XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/xavcc/32/59_2.png) [@XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/XavCC)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 1:25pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/9 "2022-08-07T13:25:30Z")
J’ai aussi appliqué des corrections depuis les suggestion de @Milouchkna (mille merci encore une fois). Je suis un peu coincé à le « jeu » de mot entre _débioguer_ et _dépiauter_ (enlever la peau, enlever la peau d’un⋅e vivant⋅e) et en anglais _Debiogging_ et ``, peut-être _deburring_ pour garder des semblants de consonances et aussi l’idée d’enlever de la matière ? ---
**Author:** ![how](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/how/32/1310_2.png) [@how](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/how)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 5:26pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/10 "2022-08-07T17:26:05Z")
> [@XavCC](#): > > _dépiauter_ En anglais on dirait plutôt _to peel_ ou _to skin_, _de-something_ est plutôt rare. Mais on peut ajouter du contexte pour rendre la chose plus explicite… > [@XavCC](#): > > Not to be confused with slaughtering _Not to be confused with peeling._ _Not to be confused with peeling onions._ ---
**Author:** ![Milouchkna](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/milouchkna/32/285_2.png) [@Milouchkna](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/Milouchkna)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/11 "2022-08-07T18:04:04Z")
> [@how](#): > > En anglais on dirait plutôt _to peel_ ou _to skin_, _de-something_ est plutôt rare. Mais on peut ajouter du contexte pour rendre la chose plus explicite… ou même _cut up_ selon un dico en ligne. (dans le sens d’éplucher un aliment) ---
**Author:** ![how](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/how/32/1310_2.png) [@how](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/how)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 2:44pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/12 "2022-10-06T14:44:47Z")
Est-ce que cette traduction est achevée @XavCC ? ---
**Author:** ![XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/xavcc/32/59_2.png) [@XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/XavCC)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 3:45pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/13 "2022-10-06T15:45:09Z")
Manque juste une relecture par moi et/ou vous avec commentaire, questions. Oui, c’est la fin. ---
**Author:** ![how](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/how/32/1310_2.png) [@how](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/how)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 1:05pm UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/14 "2022-10-20T13:05:02Z")
Made a few adjustments, tell me if you like it, or you can refix the fixes 🙂 The whole book is now available in English. ---
**Author:** ![XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/xavcc/32/59_2.png) [@XavCC](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/XavCC)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 10:32am UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/15 "2022-11-10T10:32:01Z")
It sounds great! Did you publish the english version of the whole book? ---
**Author:** ![how](https://thx.zoethical.org/user_avatar/thx.zoethical.org/how/32/1310_2.png) [@how](https://thx.zoethical.org/u/how)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 11:27am UTC](https://thx.zoethical.org/t/biomonstration-english-version/232/16 "2022-11-10T11:27:05Z")
Not yet. Only each article is available. If you’d like to try and make it from the existing git repo with an EN\_screen and EN\_print branch it would be awesome. Not sure though that it’s not too much work.