Biological research is dominated by proprietary, black-box tools. This is hindering reproducibility, accountability and the advent of a more open scientific ecosystem. In this talk, we show the reverse engineering of two devices used in nearly every molecular biology experiment: a pipette and a -80ºC freezer. We show how reverse engineering these tools is not only fun, but necessary to enable open science. We will also put this work within the larger context of our effort to create open, interoperable data in biomedical research.