Categories
Electronic Things Projects

Divine Interactions

 

Final artefact for PD3 Electronic Things

I made a divination rod enhanced by GPS this semester, here’s a video of it in use.

You message the stick coordinates via SMS and it quivers when pointed in the correct direction.

Over the summer a colleague told me about a nice pub in Duddingston he had visited with his boyfriend, so I looked up the coordinates to see if I could find it.

divrodwordpres

Categories
Biodesign Projects

Algae & The Shape Of Things To Come

Barriers between design practitioners and scientific researchers have blurred in recent decades – particularly within the commercial application of scientific developments – but it’s still important to acknowledge that it’s quite obvious that i’m not a practising scientist, and most scientists don’t make embracing design their prime objective.

Context is everything – current projects struggle to grip because they rely on prescient without proper historical arguments, or on technologies that aren’t fully understood by designers or the (viewing) general public – what use is a table lamp powered by moss if we can plug in a lamp at home? Producing Bio-fuel is a process; simply replacing petroleum extraction with algae growth in industrial tanks, and to consumers, the end product is identical, with the designed process completely invisible.

It’s important that synthetic biology and design is therefore relatable and applicable – Sea Me from Dutch maker Nienke Hoogvliet is a rug woven from algae cellulose, a tactile exploration of algae in design. Farma from William Patrick poises a future in which we can grow our own drugs, a future made realistic through believable form and current product vernacular.

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The Terroir Project from Jonas Edvard and Nikolaj Steenfatt is another great exhibition of how the materiality of algae within design can help the public understand real-world, actionable applications for synthetic biology.

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As far back as the Ancient Greeks, algae dyes and pigments have been utilised for rudimentary makeup and clothing dye – the production of carotenoids and chlorophylls within algae allowing for strong colour penetration without the use of harmful synthesised chemicals. leonbrown_transactions_report10

Indeed, the Algaemy project from designers Essi Johanna Glomb and Rasa Weber (amongst other projects) is an exploration into modern design of a dye system using algae. It is still rather archaic in appearance however, and fails to relate to contemporary product vernacular and modes of use – why not design an algae dying system using common home products, such as an ink-jet printer?   leonbrown_transactions_report13

A printer in form like others, but functionally opposed – CYMKA is a concept artefact that attempts to bridge gaps between current synthetic biology practises within major industry and the consumer realities that face us within the home everyday.

As a way of safely and considerately introducing synthetic biology to the mass market and the challenging thoughts around living with living things, the printer is designed to appear normal – but is created with the intention of cultivating a symbiotic relationship with an algae ecosystem that resides on top of the device, sustained by constant input and care from the user much in the same way as a fish tank, or terrarium.

By revealing symbiotic opportunities that a Synthetic Biology future can offer us within a consumer product space, CYMKA hopes to garner attention of the public and generate further consumer interest for interacting with living things.leonbrown_transactions_report14

Dependant on the quality of care given to the algae ecosystem within CYMKA, will be the quality and craftsmanship of the inks and printed media that can be gained from it. Differing environments can be constructed in ways to harvest many thousands of different types of algae – and differing textures of ink, with varying success.

European algae are commonly red and brown in tone – and have a tougher epidermis that can produce hardy and deep inks; historically reduced and strained around the Irish sea and within Nordic communities, as a natural fabric dye. Bright green algae populate warmer waters, including Asian and pacific arenas – slightly dryer in texture, emitting a more consistent ink with a thinner texture for detailed dye work.

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In choosing a printer, I have designed CYMKA to also celebrate to the long history that exists around the usage of algae as a cultural object – throughout history, algae has not only been utilised within cuisine and agriculture; but also within fashion, design, the crafts and arts. Egyptian makeup has contained algae dyes, as has clothing from cultures along the Mediterranean coast and up toward Nordic isles. CYMKA is designed to facilitate an emotional connection between man and microbe-kind, and as a tool of artistic collaboration cross-species. Care for the algae, and it will care for your printed work.

 

Categories
Biodesign Projects

BioMem Quick Overview

Research and Precedent Designs

Beginning this project on designing with living material, I was tasked to choose an organism to research on. I recall learning about the basic functions yeast undergo and how it is applied to food production in GCSE Science, and wanted to learn more about yeast. Yeast is a microorganism that is used for a wide range of purposes, that include: producing cheese and wine, studied and researched to inform the human body’s cell division cycle, and used to create drugs that fight cancer. Yeast is also utilised in producing biochemical commodities such as ethanol, and R&D work is in progress to increase ethanol yield through the development of synthetic biology.

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I also researched into existing designs that featuring biological material, including collection of garment made from a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast by Suzanne Lee of BioCouture, and Maurizio Montalti’s homeware collection made from mycelium. Quickly concluding from research, there appears to be a narrative building upon humanity’a dominance over microorganisms, specifically how they’re being utilised for our own benefit. If microorganisms are to play a more vital role in manufacturing consumer goods, then it is plausible for consumers to critically review, or at least be aware of, our lopsided relationship with microorganisms.

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Initial Ideas

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I envisioned creating some sort of storage device/furniture, incorporating elements of preserving bacteria that includes freezing and incubating in a freezer or autoclave respectively, but quickly abandoned as bacteria will grow in room temperature and there are alternatives to impede bacteria’s growth. Ideas were sketched out to think of that artefact that provokes my previous thought on humanity’s relationship with microorganisms. At first, I thought of an incubator-cum-freezer home appliance allowing users to grow and archive bacteria. However, the bacteria needs a purpose, perhaps something that the user can build emotional attachment towards the agar plates, for instance, a memory, that is transcribed to the microorganisms by the user, creating a sort of “biological photo” or memento of a memorable moment in time.

Development

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Development work took place extensively at the ASCUS lab. First we began with growing bacteria in agar plates, then finally sealed them by sandwiching them with two microscopic slides and an extra layer of agar. However, that method did not work and I developed customer petri dishes from the vacuum former, to also transition away from the laboratory vernacular found in lab equipment. A small sample of sizes and shapes were trialled to find the right size for my custom petri dishes. Square dishes with rounded corners were chosen in the end, as they faintly resemble the size of a square image. The custom dishes were made using polystyrene sheets and vacuum formed.

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Storage Unit

Storage/shelving unit is also designed in conjunction, so dishes can be stored. This process incorporated design affordance considerations, hinting how the users should store dishes, depending if they’re growing or sealed. The shelf was made using MDF, wihich upon refelction, perhaps is not the most suitable material, as it was spray painted white, which does not appear to be a good visual match with the transparent petri dishes, and its angular form.

Sealing Custom Agar Dishes

Next I brought the custom dishes to ASCUS and grew bacteria from swabbed material samples. A number of small test tubes were hacked to fit in cotton buds to swab materials, which is a very useful tool to be swabbing material on-the-go. A range of samples from various locations in Edinburgh, to the bottom of my shoe was swabbed hoping for a visually appealing and successful petri dish. The bacteria need at least a week to grow into something that is easily perceptible to the eye. All the work is done to simulated completing the process at home. Once the bacteria has grown to the user’s requirement, he/she can seal the bacteria (impending their growth), or continue to let them grow. Sealing the bacteria involves pouring a layer of plain agar over the previous, ensuring the bacteria won’t find sufficient nutrients for growth.

Once there’s enough agar, push the 3D printed lid gently into the dish, the liquid agar will emerge,  which is normal. Let the agar in the dish set before applying nail varnish on the sides to secure the lid against the square dish. dsc_0175 dsc_0207

The back of the lids have a small insert in the centre for the dish’s leg, which allows the dish to be displayed once the leg is inserted. The shelving unit is designed to separately place dishes that have growing bacteria from dishes that have sealed bacteria. As bacteria needs to be placed flat when grown, such dishes need to be placed face down and stacked vertically, unlike the sealed dishes that are stacked horizontally, slight resembling disc albums.dsc_0157 dsc_0154 dsc_0153 dsc_0158

Categories
Biodesign Projects

Mycelium Futures Documentation

Making mycelium material

Context

Transactions began with a very limited understanding of what microorganisms were and their potential within the field of art and design. Over the past two years I have heard of many projects involving the design of living things such as 3D printing mushroom canapés (C.Rutzerveld, 2014) and growing bacterial cellulose into endless rolls of material (Domestic Futures, 2015), but it had remained a mystery as to how you would go about doing it yourself. Over consumption and subsequent waste being sent to landfill has lead to governments employing energy efficiency standards and sustainability development around the world (M.Braungart and W.McDonough, 2009). Although having said this, when we dispose of our waste, recycled or otherwise, we know it goes “away”, but we don’t have a connection with the remains of what has been consumed(M.Braungart and W.McDonough, p81, 2009). Where is “away”? By putting the job of recycling and waste disposal into another’s’ hands we feel justified in ignoring our responsibility when thinking about what could be done with our leftovers (be that food, packaging, old clothes etc). What would the world look like if we had to keep everything we ever bought? If we couldn’t throw anything away and had to physically recycle our waste ourselves? I had heard about growing material out of agricultural by-products and mushroom mycelium (Ecovative design, 2016), but how could people do this with their own waste in their own homes? Mycelium is the root structure of mushrooms that is made up of threads called hyphae that spread out like glue to connect substrates together. It grows all over the world in different strains and 90% of the earth’s plants are connected by it. This project looked into how I could make my own mycelium material at home with limited knowledge, and how I could communicate my designs and method effectively with others.

Context

Process and Outcome

My research started by looking into projects that use mycelium to make structures. These included Maurizio Montalti and his ‘Growing Lab’, Ecovative designs packaging ‘MycoMake’ and MycoWorks’ leather. These projects helped to feed my imagination about what could be possible when growing mycelium materials. I looked into waste and by-products from the manufacturing and natural systems that are already in place around me, such as scrap fabric pieces from the fashion department at ECA, waste paper from illustration and graphics, used coffee grounds, waste cardboard and dead leaves fallen from trees around Edinburgh. If I could grow a useful material on such by-products, perhaps people would not think of the substrates as waste, but as food, for the mycelium to grow on.

It was essential to start making my own mycelium and testing its capabilities. I started by following Youtube tutorials and then, after looking at the outcomes, I could refine the method to make them more successful. For example, in order to prevent contamination it was essential for the components and working space to be sterile, as well as this, the mycelium needs air circulation to grow so it should have air gaps in its container. After two more experiments using different substrates for growth (including ground coffee, dead leaves, cardboard and malt agar), I was able to refine my experiment even further and after speaking to mycologists in both the Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh and Kings Buildings at the University of Edinburgh I could confidently set up my final tests for my project outcomes.

I used:

  • sterile equipment
  • a strong strain of oyster mushroom mycelium (bought mycelium from Ann Millers)
  • a range of substrate (cardboard, scrap cotton calico and dead leaves, individually soaked in sugar)
  • a sturdy container for them to grow in
  • a warm, dark place in order to store them and encourage growth
  • cling film to cover the tests with pin holes to provide air circulation

This meant I had nine samples showing the stages of growth and four final baked outcomes to show the possible material types from these substrates.

TestsMaking and refiningpresentation

Reflection

Diving into the world of microorganisms was difficult at first; there was a definite knowledge gap, but I found that if you showed an interest and asked questions then researchers, scientists and students were eager to show you what they were working on. It helped to remind myself that I wasn’t meant to understand everything they said, but that I could extrapolate the important characteristics of the microorganisms that could potentially be useful for my project. Sometimes I spent a couple of hours speaking to researchers who were not very helpful in terms of the area of their research, such as focusing more on the fruiting body of mushrooms or having expertise in lichens, rather than the root structure of mushrooms. Nevertheless these interviewees helped lead me to those who would be more helpful within my project, hence my being able to find Dr Patrick Hickey, a doctor of mycology, and the first conversations were still valid and useful components of my research.

When looking at the current resources for how to grow your own mycelium I was working from YouTube videos and various tips from the Ecovative Grow-It-Yourself guide, but one thing stood out, I needed to stop researching and tangibly get hold of some mycelium. By getting my hands messy, armed with cardboard and oyster mushrooms from an Asian supermarket, I was able to discern what worked well (using cardboard as a substrate) and what needed to be improved (ensuring sterile conditions of the work place). Trial and error helped me to refine and adjust my methodology. There was a risk with this project that the mycelium would not grow and therefore would leave me with small piles of chopped up cardboard and leaves. This risk, alongside being uncertain of how best to generate mycelium, meant there was a reasonable amount of failure. Having seen these errors and refining my methods I am more confident to continue with my project; knowing the pitfalls such as contaminated apparatus means I can work to avoid infecting the mycelium by sterilising all components in the process.

My project has been able to identify how to grow my own oyster mycelium locally, but in the time allocated for the project I have not been able to grow any other strains. As another result of the time constrains I found it best to order mycelium spawn from Aberdeenshire in order to inoculate my substrates for the tests three (B) and four. The result was a fast growing feathery mycelium that spread throughout the substrates within two weeks, which was exciting to see and document. The answer is, yes, I can produce it locally, but there is still a lot of research that could be done in order to create different mycelium strains that have different material properties when being grown on various substrates. My challenge was to be able to communicate my design and making process, in order for others to be able to understand better how we can grow mycelium materials. The difficulties here were being able to document all stages of growth, since the mycelium wasn’t always growing in the same place, from the ASCUS lab to the studio to my flat, and therefore get a rounded view of the best conditions for mycelium growth.  Having said this, my final artefact shows a development from the oyster mushroom, to the home grown mycelium, to the mycelium growing in different substrates and then finally to the baked samples where the mycelium has been prevented from growing further. This development helps to explain the journey of growth and that is very satisfying to see in a final outcome.

Reflections

Bibliography

E.Bayer. (2010). Are mushrooms the new plastic?. Available: http://www.ted.com/talks/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic. Last accessed 24/10/16

M.Braungart and W.McDonough (2009). Cradle to Cradle: Rethinking the way we make things. New York: North Point Press. p1-280.

Content. (2015). 3D Printing With Living Organisms “Could Transform The Food Industry”. Available: https://3dfoodprintingconference.com/food/3d-printing-with-living-organisms-could-transform-the-food-industry-video/. Last accessed 03/12/16.

Domestic Futures. (2015). Growing a roll by Stefan Schwabe. Available: http://www.domesticfutures.com/stefan-schwabe. Last accessed 04/12/16.

Ecovative Design. (2016). We Grow Materials. Available: http://www.ecovativedesign.com/. Last accessed 04/12/16.

Fungal Futures. (2016). Fungal Futures / Growing Domestic Bio – Landscapes. Available: http://www.fungal-futures.com/Projects. Last accessed 04/12/16.

J.Hutton. (2011). Mycorrihizial Rejuvination. Available: https://issuu.com/johnhutton/docs/mycelium_technology_paper. Last accessed 24/10/16.

Dr. G.Mazza. (2016). SHORT NOTES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE MYCOLOGY. Available: http://www.photomazza.com/?Fungi&lang=en. Last accessed 24/10/16.

A.Miller. (2016). Shop. Available: http://www.annforfungi.co.uk/. Last accessed 05/11/16.

MycoWorks. (2016). Redefining Leather with Mycelium. Available: http://www.mycoworks.com/#about. Last accessed 24/10/16.

Oude Hortus / Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht. (2016). Fungal Futures / Growing Domestic Bio – Landscapes. Available: http://www.fungal-futures.com/Tour. Last accessed 24/10/16.

schinosi. (2013). Mycelium. Available: https://greengineers.wikispaces.com/MYCELIUM. Last accessed 24/10/16.

C.Rutzerveld. (2014). Edible Growth. Available: http://www.chloerutzerveld.com/. Last accessed 04/12/16.

Categories
Biodesign Projects

DNA Encoding Program

A quick sketch of a program that will allow users to encode messages into RNA codons.

What will be the impact of biological data storage if it becomes commoditised?

Categories
Biodesign Projects

Algae, People and Design

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The term ‘algae’ represents a large range of photosynthetic organisms.

Seaweed is a type of algae, sometimes known as micro algae and generally live attached to rock or other hard organisms in coastal areas. It’s primary requirements are  seawater and light (for photosynthesis). The presence of algae in an ecosystem is imperative as seaweed removes undesired nutrients from water and is a natural filter.

Algae farming: Growing cyanobacteria ( a group of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis) and algae does not require arable land. Researchers say that algae could be 10 or even 100 times more productive than traditional bio energy feedstocks. Furthermore, algae fuel is now known to be an alternative to liquid fossil fuel.

Algae is a bioindicator of water pollution as they change and adapt in relation to water chemistry, an intelligent reaction to problems that eco systems and humans face. Certain algae species’ flourish in polluted water. Many blue green algae occur in nutrient poor water, while some grow well in organically polluted waters..

Stigeoclonium tenueis- heavily polluted water

Nitzschia palea- mildly polluted

Cocconeis + Chamaesiphon- unpolluted

Navicula Accomoda- presence of sewage and organic pollution (this species occurs in the most heavily polluted water

How do we percieve algae?

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The presence of algae is perhaps often seen as negative; dirty water that is unclean to enter and is unhealthy.

Categories
Biodesign Projects

Acellular Slime Mould

Background information

  • Slime moulds are catagorised in two distantly related families: “cellular” and “acellular”.
  • Cellular slime moulds spend the majority of their life cycles as individual, single celled amoebas. Once they have exhausted the resources of their immediate environment the individual cells join together to form a slug which travels to fresh pastures before fruiting and dispersing spores.
  • Acellular slime moulds have a “plasmodium” stage in their life cycles. Plasmodium is made up of millions of nuclei which share a single, gigantic cell without any membranes to separate them.
  • Much of the research around slime moulds is focused on the acellular variety (usually Physarum polycephalum), as it is a much more unusual life form, with many unexpected properties. For the remainder of this research, the term slime mould is used to refer to acellular slime moulds.

General

  • Although it lacks a brain or a central nervous system, polycephalum is capable of performing complex behaviours such as finding the shortest path through a maze, solving computationally difficult puzzles and making decisions based on multiple objectives.
  • polycephalum is part of the Protista kingdom, which contains a variety of unicellular eukaryotes (an organism with a complex cell or cells) that do not fit into the other kingdoms.
  • They are where the world of cellular biology collides with the macroscopic world.

How we perceive them

  • Due to their unusual biological properties and ease of culture, the acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a favourite amongst cell biologists.
  • More recently, due to the way it constructs networks, it has become the become a model organism for a variety of disciplines including behavioural ecologists, town planners, computer scientists and artists.

How it grows, how it nurtures itself

  • Life cycle diagram
  • Plasmodia of acellular slime moulds form a fan-like sheet at the front, followed by a network of interconnected veins through which cytoplasm flows.
  • Because it forms a network with several fronts, polycephalum can feed from multiple food sources simultaneously.
  • Under nutritional stress and when exposed to light, vegetative growth stops and the slime mould fruits, releasing male and female sexual myxamoebas into the environment.
  • The myxamoebas feed and divide, and when a male and female amoebas meet they fuse to form a binucleate cell, which develops into a plasmodium.
  • In the natural environment slime moulds feed on bacterium, fungi and detritus.
  • In labs they are cultured on moist filter paper, agar or rolled oats.
  • Their optimal diet consists of 2 parts protein to 1 part carbohydrates.
  • Plasmodium are self-repairing, and can regenerate when part of it is cut away.
  • Slime moulds grown from different inoculations are repellant to each other, but can merge if the environmental factors force them to.

How it lives, how it interacts with its surroundings

  • When a vein contacts a food source, biochemical oscillators give rise to propagating waves, redirecting cytoplasm to that vein. The vein becomes thicker at the expense of those which do not form a direct link between the two parts of the organism. This combination of positive and negative feedbacks allows the organism to connect food sources via the shortest path.
  • Slime mould leave a thick mat of non-living, extracellular slime behind their path. It uses this as an external memory to avoid areas where it has been before. Using this, it is capable of solving the U-shaped trap problem, a test of autonomous navigational ability used in robotics.
  • The slime mould is capable of using a hierarchy of rules, for example: it will crawl across extracellular slime if they detect the presence of food.
  • There is evidence that slime moulds also have an intracellular memory which allows them to anticipate periodic events. A slime mould will rhythmically reduce their speed of movement if they become attuned to a light flashing on and off – even once the light remains permanently off.
  • Slime moulds are capable of making intelligent decisions. When offered a choice between food sources of differing quality (concentration of oatmeal), it is capable of choosing the source with the highest concentration.
  • Plasmodia trade off risk against food quality, a food needs to be 5 times higher in concentration before the slime mould will forage in the light.
  • Speed of decision making affects the accuracy of those choices. Then stimulated to make a fast decision between two food sources of differing concentration by the presence of light, it was less likely to make the correct choice.
  • Slime moulds also alter their search pattern depending on the quality of food sources they are already exploiting. When consuming a high quality food source the plasmodia will perform an area-restricted search. When feeding from a low quality source it will move away from the source before sweeping the area for alternative food sources.
  • Plasmodia can distribute their biomass proportionally across multiple food sources of differing nutrient quality to receive an optimal diet.

What affects its health in positive and negative ways

  • The distribution of a slime mould’s biomass across an environment displays the organism’s relative comfort level in each location. By observing this, researchers have been able to isolate which factors encourage and inhibit the growth of a slime mould.
  • Attractive substances such as oats increase flow of cytoplasm to a location, repellant substances such as salt reduce it.
  • Low light levels and high humidity increase flow, high light levels and low humidity reduce it.

How it eventually dies

  • When the resources in the slime mould’s environment become exhausted, or it becomes too large to maintain itself the plasmodia diverts all its energy away from growth and into producing spores.
  • The spores spread out, leaving the slime mould to decompose.

Additional properties

  • Cytoplasm veins are conductive and can carry voltages high enough to power an LED without killing the slime mould.
  • Nano particles can be picked up by the plasmodia and transported along it’s veins.
  • Magnetic nanoparticles (barium hexaferrite crystalline nanoparticles) are bio-compatable with the slime mould. Magnetic fields can be used to deflect the path of magnetized slime moulds in order to control their path.
  • Plasmodia have been found to have memristive properties.
  • Because separate colonies of slime moulds repel one another, multiple inoculations on nutrient rich agar spread out and form voronoi diagrams where their boundaries meet. Voronois are materially effiecient – potentially load bearing structures.
  • This semi-self-repelling nature also allows physical Boolean logic gates to be made.
  • Physarum is photo-sensitive, and experimental data suggests it can tell the difference between red and blue light.
  • When a plasmodia’s vein is heated up to 40oC its resistance increases 1000 times, making it a biological thermic switch. In about 10 minutes the slime mould reforms and continues unharmed.
  • To produce biodiesel efficiently an organism requires a high concentration of lipids in their bodies, which is true of slime moulds. Because they produce biomass at a rate that exceeds algae, they could be an alternative biological factory for the fuel.

Its applications in the world

  • polycephalum can be used to model network formation in a biological system.
  • Network performance involves a trade-off between cost, transport efficiency and robustness.
  • Inspired a mathematical model “The Physarum Solver” which is able to find the shortest path between many points in a real world network, such as the Tokyo subway.
  • The slime mould’s ability to anticipate periodic events hints at the cellular origins of primitive intelligence.
  • The slime mould’s networking behaviours have been used to explore and model creative thinking.
  • People migrate towards sources of safe life and higher income. Physarum migrates into environmentally comfortable areas and towards sources of nutrients. Plasmodium have been used to model pathways of migration from Mexico into the USA.
  • Slime moulds have been used as biological sensors, using their aversion to light to steer a small hexapod robot. 
Categories
Biodesign Projects

Research into Coral and Algae:

When I started this project I looked into various micro-organisms ranging from slide mould to forms of fungi. I found myself particularly interested in ‘Algae’. The first thing I did was type  ‘Algae’ to Google and it gave me an array of definitions, wikipedia’s was the easiest for me to understand: a simple non- flowering, and typically aquatic plant part of a large assemblage that includes seaweeds and many single- celled forms. Algae is very popular, diverse and found all over the world, just from this initial research I wanted to explore more.

Algae is photosynthetic which means it releases oxygen because of this quality, the organism makes up a high percentage of the earths oxygen supply. This helps plants and marine life grow while also being many animals main food and oxygen source. Algae are single celled and  float on water, they absorb food through their cell walls. They can multiply and that’s how they can cover large surface areas.

Algae is a very large and there are many different groups. subgroups and forms of this organism. The two largest sub groups were red algae and green algae.  Green algae is most commonly land plants from marine and fresh waters. There are many various forms in this group such as Eugkenoza, Cecoza and Glaucopyta. Red Algae always inhabits marine environments and is multicellular.

ALGAE TREE
This is a diagram which show’s the different groups of Algae

Morover, algae is not only common in sea and lakes but can even be found on animals (like turtles), it is essential to some underwater animals as it can provide shade to them when needed. Some forms of algae have high levels of unsaturated fatty acids, this is eaten by many types of fish. Fish oils contain omega three which is surrounded by algae, it is eaten by the animals and passed up the food chain

 Having lots of types of algae is good and healthy for the eco system, the ocean being one of the largest. Algae absorbs nutrients, ammonia and phosphorus as too many of these can be bad for the overall health of water. From this I wanted to focus on something that heavily depends on algae to survive, I looked into coral due to the fact it is necessary to our oceans eco system and how coral reefs face many threats.

coral bleaching
Diagram illustrating the effects of coral bleaching

Initially, I looked into the relationship that the algae and coral have. A healthy coral relies in the algae to survive, they depend on each other. Once the coral begins to get stressed to due ‘coral bleaching’ then the algae will leave the coral. The coral is then left bleached and vulnerable, without the algae it looses its food source, causing it to turn pal and more to susceptible diseases. The main causes of coral bleaching are:

  • Change in the ocean temperature– This is the number one cause for coral bleaching and it is due to climate change and the increased temperature.
  • Run off and pollution– storm generated precipitation can rapidly dilute ocean water and runoff can carry pollutants, these can bleach near shore corals.
  • Exposure to sunlight– when the temperatures are high, high solar irradiance contributes to bleaching in shallow water corals.
  • Extreme low tides– exposure to the air during extreme low tides can cause bleaching in shallow corals

In coral polyps there is a symbolic relation between the algae and the coral and this relation is called zooxanthellae. The coral provides the algae with a protected environment and the compounded needed for it to photosynthesise. This is described as a yellowish brown dinoflagellate in large numbers in the cytoplasm and many marine invertebrates, including coral polyps. This ‘zooexanthellene’ lives in the coral tissues and when coral becomes stressed the relationship is broken.

coral
This image shows the ‘zooxanthellae’ in the coral

Finally,  E.chromi, this is an idea of based of synthetic biology which theres a colour indicator added They engineered bacteria into produce a variety of coloured pigments, visible to the naked eye. This can help detect diseases and hopes in the future to help warn people about excess pollution in the sky. I could relate this idea to coral bleaching, if the coral is showing signs of being stressed it could change colour and this could somehow be communicated to marine life and not harm the eco system.

Categories
Projects

Algae, Edible Culture, and Contemporary Design

The vast fields of deep sea grass and thick diffused fog of iridescent river microbes share a common ancestry – both of Familiae Eukarayota, or Algae, in a partnership going back 1,600 million years.

Human interaction with algae came after hundreds of million years of evolution, first introduced as edible seaweed to Chinese nobility around 2700BC – alongside the birth of the silk trade and the Pyramids of Giza.

Algae has been found in pre-Christian fabric dyes along the Mediterranean coast, and in medieval fertiliser along the Irish sea – with Victorians even finding art in leaves of seaweed, the first photo-book published in 1843 featuring cyanotypes of pressed algae samples collected around the Kent coast. Diatom Arrangement even became quite popular during the later 19th century, being the practise of arranging micron-sized algae into patterns under a microscope.HistoryofAlgae1

 

So from the fields of shallow water surrounding Yokohama Bay to the scrapbooks of Victorian housewives, algae has been found woven into a number of historical uses, cultural narratives and practises.

Algae is therefore safe from the public eye and will likely continue to be used within cuisine, fabrics – but the emerging talents of synthetic biology and design will be amongst the first to promote new uses for algae.

The field, however, suffers from an image issue – conceptual projects are too elitist and abstracted for the non-designer, attracting parody and mockery instead of provoking serious discussion. It is a disgrace to the synthetic biology industry that great ideas are hindered by public perception – both due to collective ignorance of the subject from the public, and the arrogance of the scientists and designers that work with synthetic biology.

Realistic design futures make them selves known in developed steps, rather than leaps of imagination – as William Gibson famously said of first-world development; “The future has already arrived, it’s just not evenly distributed yet”.

HistoryofAlgae2

HistoryofAlgae3

HistoryofAlgae4

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Syn Bio… On MARS?!

I’ve been really interested in Elon Musks mission to Mars idea that he spoke about just recently at one of Space X’s conferences. He has an in depth, ambitious plan to get us to Mars within the next 6 years… It’s totally mental, but also a lot sooner than the current 100 year plan that Nasa had predicted. It’s inspired me however, to look at our brief from a different perspective, and think about how to redefine peoples understanding of synthetic biology by using it to make living on Mars in the not so distant future an actual probability.

Its tricky, however, as I’m not a scientist, and don’t want to sound like I’m claiming to be. But I’ve looked into a couple of ways of integrating synbio into creating a ‘better’ living space on the currently uninhabitable climate of Mars. I’ve looked a lot into algae, and its many benefiting factors, and finding that it is the main reason Earth has oxygen in its atmosphere today all started from algae and similar bacteria millions of years ago. I firstly, looked into how we could try reconstructing that on Mars to eventually change its atmosphere to a hospitable and breathable environment. However it turns of that a lack of oxygen isn’t the only factor that makes Mars inhabitable, and going about terraforming Mars would take 1000’s of years… a good long term solution but something to leave to the professionals.

So after more research of other benefits of algae and a couple other types of helpful bacteria – and also a quick read of “The Martian”, which goes into amazing scientific depths of a man stranded and left to live on Mars – I’ve tried to think of other ways that synbio could be of use on a much smaller scale.  Currently I’m considering a couple routes; Could we start terraforming on smaller scales, just small parts of land to create biomes of good climate without the need for machines to create our atmospheres for us? This could lead down to designing algae tanks or photobioreactors to cultivate bacteria. Or instead of trying to purify the air, use it to purify the water extracted from Martian soil? Perhaps then just using algae, or cyanobacteria to act as fertilisers or ‘soil conditioners’ with Martian soil. Now as I OBVIOUSLY don’t have access to Martian soil or really any way of recreating it, it would mainly focus on what the best conditions would be for the specific plants one would need in small areas dedicated to growing crop. So could I design these areas for optimised plant growth? Or could I design a fertilising machine that uses genetically enhanced bacteria? Would that be for adapting to Mars atmosphere or for in biomes?

I need a push in the right direction with this project though. I’m wiling to follow a different microorganism if it would fit the narrative better, its just finding the right approach that is convincing. It’s a crazy narrative to follow, but I like it, and I think it could go some where fun and challenging. Also the fact that it is at first seen as an unrealistic approach, might make it a successful project for redefining people perspective of synthetic biology, and just how much of a change it could make… If a stranded astronaut can make potatoes on Mars – supposedly – why can’t we design a way of starting life on mars the right way, through bacteria?

Here are just some of the websites I’ve used in my research:

http://www.biofabricate.co/about/

http://allaboutalgae.com/commercial-production/

http://algaebiomass.org

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2014/09/08/where-build-off-world-colonies/#.V_JWYjvfHHh

http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/931/biomass-from-algae/

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852410011648

http://www.wur.nl/en/show/Daynight-cycles-in-lipid-accumulating-microalgae.htm

http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2014/15420

http://ec.asm.org/content/9/4/486.full

http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/62/8/765.full

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3628235/The-final-countdown-Mars-One-100-remaining-candidates-controversial-one-way-trip-undergo-intense-testing.html

http://www.universetoday.com/14883/mars-colonizing/

https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=ihLtV-asEs_v8AeV4I3ADg&gws_rd=ssl#q=can+you+rehydrate+seaweed

http://www.bioflora.com/benefits-of-algae/

https://www.erpublication.org/admin/vol_issue1/upload%20Image/IJETR021560.pdf

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/can-plants-grow-with-mars-soil

http://www.mars-one.com/faq/health-and-ethics/will-the-astronauts-have-enough-water-food-and-oxygen

 

 

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In the beginning…

Started diving into the world of fungi and mycelium…first things first: what does a fungi family look like? Knowing the basics about the material we’re working with will help along the way, as well as learning how it interacts with its environment and other organisms. This is Transactions on a micro and macro scale.Fungi Family Hunting for fungi in Roslin Glen

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Microorganisms now in

IMG_5683
I dropped our rock star microorganisms at ASCUS today. Our introductory workshop will take place on the 12th October and the open sessions at ASCUS take place  every week on Wed 4pm – 10pm and Sat 10am – 4pm.