The Community Labs Built on Silicon Valley’s Junk

Trash from biotech startups are citizen scientists’ treasure

Natoya Lee sees Bio-Link Depot as a way to help students from marginalized communities improve STEM education. Photography: Drew Costley

One Saturday in August 2018, Patrik D’haeseleer raced down to Silicon Valley with two other members of Counter Culture Labs, a community science lab and maker space in Oakland, California. D’haeseleer and other scientists around the Bay Area had heard that the controversial…