Are amateur genetic engineers dangerous?

Amateur geneticists, working at home in spare bedrooms and garages, are manipulating the basic building blocks of life. Are they scientific researchers or are they dangerous meddlers?

Most of them are using home-made or cobbled-together equipment, coupled with information available on the Internet, to change the way living organisms work. One example is Meredith L. Patterson, a computer programmer from San Francisco. She is working to build a genetically altered yogurt that will change color if it is exposed to melamine, the dangerous chemical that has made some recent Chinese food products deadly. Patterson says, “People can really work on projects for the good of humanity while learning about something they want to learn about in the process.”