Difference between revisions of "Akshaya Maria Thomas"

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'''28th May, 2011'''
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'''27th May, 2011'''
  
''' Day 5 '''
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''' Day 4 '''
  
 
Today, Aaron asked to answer a few questions-
 
Today, Aaron asked to answer a few questions-
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'''29th May, 2011'''
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'''28th May, 2011'''
  
''' Day 6 '''
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''' Day 5'''
  
 
Weekend!!!
 
Weekend!!!
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( I will upload pics soon)
 
( I will upload pics soon)
  
Mum called me the other day and asked me how my 'pets' were doing. :p
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Mum called me the other day and asked me how my 'pets' were doing. :)
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'''29th May, 2011'''
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''' Day 6 '''
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Today we watched 'GATACA'. WHAT A MOVIE!!! It's basically about the discrimination that exist in the future- genetically engineered world; and how one man changes the his 'predicted' life, and cheats his way into the better life.
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Our assignment for the day was to use a part from partsregistry.org and create a form of life. I didn't do it. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and couldn't really understand the concept of actually "creating" a form of life. So I left it.
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'''30th May, 2011'''
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''' Day 7 '''
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Revision as of 11:17, 20 June 2011


Akshaya Maria Thomas.jpg


24th May, 2011

Day 1- The Beginning

The majority of the team being Art students came to class only with the memory that high school biology provided us. As the class progressed - researching on DNA, E-coli and other experiments, I came to realize that I remembered very little of what I had been taught; though, the class discussions made it seem like hardly anything; most of what I remembered was either misunderstood or too vague. Researching more into Synthetic Biology, I finally came to the conclusion that basically a gene sequence is like a design, mixing different sequences to produce different designs.

We discussed the various elements essential to know for synthetic biology- cells, DNA, genes and proteins and genetic engineering. Durga stumbled upon a video from khan academy.com about DNA, which made things much easier to understand.

We also discussed how we as artists and designers can contribute to science.


25th May, 2011

Day 2

Our assignment for the day was to come up with different functional living organisms or bacteria. Madhul, Manasa, Achala and I worked together as a group, and came up with 5 different kinds of living organisms-

1) A bacteria that can change eye colour in the form of eye drops.

2) A bacteria that can change facial expression in the form of gas.

3) A bacteria that can control the genetics of a living organisms off spring.

4) A bacteria that can regenerate cloth.

5) A bacteria that can clean and heal wounds instantly.


We extracted our DNA, and who knew that it was a simple 4 step process:

1) Gargle salt water hard against your cheek

2) Spit it out into a test tube

3) Add pril dish wash to the salt water.

4) Add alcohol- running against the edge of the test tube.

Immediately,I found strings of DNA rising to the top of the liquid. It was wicked!!

Later, Yashas asked us to bury it anywhere around campus- apparently it's a ritual scientists do. Weird? No sh*t! But anyway, I took mine into the secret garden, poured it one a bunch of twigs and burnt it.


AMTdna.jpg





26th May, 2011

Day 3

DIY!!!

Aaron took class for us today. He told us to research on the different equipment used in a laboratory. He then gave us a list of different equipment used in a MICRO-BIOLOGY lab; making it easy to compare the two and understand the difference.


Equipment used in a Micro-Biology lab:

1) Microscope

2) Gel Electrophorsis

3) Water Bath

4) Centrifuge

5) Incubator

6) Autoclave

7) Anaerobic Jar

8) Dessicator

9) Forceps

10) Laminar Air Flow

Biswajith (Bissu), Damyanti, Prakrithy and I formed a group and decided to design the Dessicator and the Laminar Air Force.


Who would've though a simple webcam lying at home, would become a microscope! All we had to do is flip the lens of the web cam and TA-DAA!! We had to design a stand to support the microscope coz it wasn't stable on it's own,it didn't have sufficient light nor space to put slides. After brainstorming different designs, Bissu came up with a Lego structured design, which was sturdy and added LED lights to see the sample clearly.


Micros.jpg



27th May, 2011

Day 4

Today, Aaron asked to answer a few questions-

1.What is life according to me?\

Any creature that can breathe, move, reproduce and eventually die.


2.Do you think you have the rights to modify a living thing?

Every living creature is dependent on another for their survival. Basically, 'modifying a living thing' would hamper with the survival of the creature(s) dependent on the former; so, no I don't think we have the right to modify a living thing.


3.What is design according to you?

A plan for the construction of an object (in this case organism) to decide upon the look and functioning; typically by making a detailed drawing of it is a design.



28th May, 2011

Day 5

Weekend!!!

Mum was in town, so I got her to help me with my bacteria culture. She was a bit horrified at the fact that I was growing bacteria.

Agar is an important substance as it is the solidifier so an alternative for agar is gelatine and for anything to grow you need to provide it with the nutrients and food so chicken broth was the food here

STEPS.

1. Make chicken broth.

2.Make liquid gelatine.

3.Cool and allow to set at room temperature.

Next day...

4. take a clean swab and wipe it against the source where you assume there'll be alot of bacteria - I chose cell phone and kitchen sink

5. Swipe each across the one of the two agar substitutes (make sure it's properly solidified)

6.Leave for a day and watch them grow.

( I will upload pics soon)

Mum called me the other day and asked me how my 'pets' were doing. :)



29th May, 2011

Day 6

Today we watched 'GATACA'. WHAT A MOVIE!!! It's basically about the discrimination that exist in the future- genetically engineered world; and how one man changes the his 'predicted' life, and cheats his way into the better life.

Our assignment for the day was to use a part from partsregistry.org and create a form of life. I didn't do it. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and couldn't really understand the concept of actually "creating" a form of life. So I left it.


30th May, 2011

Day 7