Biopunk
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A hobbyist who experiments with DNA and other aspects of genetics. countable
"Using equipment ordered from online biopunk shops, he is trying to manipulate the genome of a common (but not necessarily harmless) bacterium, Serratia marcescens."
- 2 A technoprogressive movement advocating open access to genetic information. uncountable
"[I]t's the biopunk revolution. Biopunks are the visionaries and biotech wizards whose imaginations were set on fire by the knowledge that scientists had finally sequenced the human genome last year. Biopunks get off on creative genetic engineering, RNA research, cloning, and protein synthesis. Biopunks hack genomic data, lining up human genomes next to mouse genomes to find out what the two species have in common and what they don't (surprise: they have way more in common than you could possibly ever imagine)."
- 3 A science fiction genre that focuses on biotechnology and subversives. uncountable
"In the early nineties there grew up biopunk, a derivative sub-genre building not on IT but on biology, the other dominating scientific field of the end of the twentieth century. Individuals are enhanced not by mechanical means, but by genetic manipulation of their very chromosomes."
Example
More examples"Using equipment ordered from online biopunk shops, he is trying to manipulate the genome of a common (but not necessarily harmless) bacterium, Serratia marcescens."
Etymology
From bio- + -punk, apparently on the model of cyberpunk. Compare biotech.
Related phrases
More for "biopunk"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.