Aug 06
This swirling mass may look like some kind of LSD trip, but it’s actually fractal artwork created using bacteria.
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Jul 30
No man is an island. If anything, every man is a sentient, mobile farm for the countless quadrillions of bacteria that colonize us. And by introducing the right bacteria into that equation, you can give your body one heck of a boost.
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Jul 24
It’s safe to say that anytime bacteria develops human-like traits, we should be startled. We’ve long known that the tiny little critters have ways of smelling and tasting, and then earlier this year, we learned about their simplistic economics system. Now, scientists have learned that they use social networks, too.
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Jun 28
While it’s still questionable whether or not humans could really thrive in space, we now know that, even if our own bodies are doomed to become weak and decrepit, any bacteria we tote along has every chance of living a full, happy life. Because according to new research, space might be exactly what bacteria needs to become a thicker, stronger, superpowered mutant version unlike anything we’ve ever seen on Earth.
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May 16
Previous work on using organisms as circuitry has usually involved shoehorning parts of the digital world into a very analog environment. MIT has just found an approach that uses the subtlety of the natural world to its advantage: the circuits themselves are analog. By combining genes that produce similar molecules in response to different inputs, the school’s scientists have created bacterial cells that perform basic math — the exact quantity or ratio of a given molecule is the answer. The approach offers a much wider range of results than a binary circuit (10,000 versus 2), and it exploits the cell enzymes’ inherent ratio awareness to do some of the hard work. MIT wants more variety in genetic ingredients before it can produce a truly universal system, but its work could lead to organic sensors that are much simpler and more precise than their digital peers.
Filed under: Science
Via: ExtremeTech
Source: MIT
May 08
Viruses usually have to be rendered inert to work in humanity’s favor, as anyone who has received a flu shot can attest. Auburn University has bucked that trend by discovering a way to put active viruses to work in not only diagnosing sickness, but in preventing it in the first place. It’s using bacteria-hating (and thankfully harmless) viruses as biosensors to quickly identify superbugs, or antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can sometimes prove fatal. As the viruses change color once they’ve reached impervious bacterial strains, in this case variants on Staphylococcus, they can reveal superbugs within 10 to 12 minutes — a potentially lifesaving interval when current purification-driven methods can take hours. Auburn would like to eventually use what it has learned to develop more effective antibacterial glass and similar surfaces. If successfully put into practice, either breakthrough could mitigate what’s already a major medical crisis.
[Image credit: Bob Blaylock, Wikipedia]
Via: The Verge
Source: JoVE
Apr 12
When it comes to modding consoles there are two names that generally stand above the rest: Mr. Benjamin J. Heckendorn and the man known as Bacteria. The latter has done his fair share of portable machines, but his latest completed project takes console hacking to lofty new heights. Unity crams a stunning 15 different consoles (including classics like the SNES and not-so-classics like the TurboGrafx 16) into a single, admittedly bulky box. The one of a kind entertainment center is the culmination of three years and $700 invested in bringing this dream to life. All of the hardware inside is either from the original consoles (no emulation of clone systems here!) or custom built — such as the 16-position switch. And, it should go without saying, that it took a whole lot to get these gaming machines to share a single power supply, video cable and control pad. Now that the epic project is finally complete Bacteria has provided a rather lengthy walk though of all the various features and the work that went into it, which you can check out after the break.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Made-by-Bacteria 1, 2
Apr 05
Back in my college days, I took microbiology and spent plenty of time in the lab culturing various bacteria. My microbiology professor hated it if we drew patterns or other than random circles or zigzags in our petri dishes. I once made the mistake of growing a nice E. coli “S” and had to start over.
Zachary Copfer, a microbiologist with a penchant for art has developed a new process of making actual pictures using bacteria and petri dishes that he calls Bacteriography.
The artist isn’t saying exactly how he makes these pictures with bacteria, but I’d wager he’s using some sort of screen printing method on top of the traditional growth medium. My personal favorite artwork that he has created is the velociraptor wearing bunny rabbit ears using E. coli.
He has also created some cool prints of Einstein and other scientists using bacteria. Now if you’re wondering if his works are dangerous, Zachary says that he’s got a process that actually kills the bacteria after the work is created, then preserves them inside of resin.
Now that he’s out of graduate school and doesn’t have access to the lab, Zachary has taken to Kickstarter seeking to raise enough money to continue his artwork.
He’s hoping to start his own exhibit in an actual art studio and wants to raise $8000 by April 24. By contributing to his project, you can get photographic copies of some of his petri dish artwork for pledges of $100(USD) and under. To own an actual petri dish artwork requires a pledge of $500, while larger Bacteriographs cost as much as $10,000.
Mar 07
Have you ever seen an insect with an upset stomach, or running a high fever? Probably not. But why is that, other than the fact that you’re too busy squashing them to notice? It turns out that some insects have wings covered in nano-scale spikes that naturally tear bacteria to pieces. More »
Feb 22
Sure, your phone might look clean, but it isn’t really. In fact, it’s covered in bacteria—and this image shows how horrible they are. More »
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