Difference between revisions of "Biswajith Manimaran"

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http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html
 
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Next we went over Koch's method of identifying causal agents in reference to diseases. Simple and elegant: the essence of scientific method.

Revision as of 06:19, 4 June 2011

Day 1

As our first real assignment we were asked to dream up a form of life that has no form. I chose to restrict myself to those formless lifeforms that had some practical value


Needle-Shy.jpg


Day 2

simple DNA extraction

Aim: to extract DNA using detergent and alcohol

Table.jpg


Qwerty.jpg

Qwert.jpg

Qwer.jpg

Qwe.jpg


What I did with my DNA

Rituals are a large part of being human and spill into the scientific field as well. We took it a step further by coming up with our own rituals.

You know the old saying: “What Mary eats, Mary is”*? So I swallowed it.


Cringe.jpg



Day 3

We began the long process of building our own lab today. Sure the equipment won't be the finest around, but we will know exactly what each device does and how each part functions. The group I am in is responsible for making a desiccator and a laminar airflow bench. We spent several minutes researching the devices and their functioning and several more figuring out how to emulate them. We will start building them next week. Also each group made a microscope from a webcam. This is how we made the microscope: [Link to come] This is how we made the housing for the microscope: [Link to come] The microscope has a magnification factor of slightly over 100.




Day 4

We started the day by considering the following questions:

1. What is life?

2. Do we have the right to modify living things?

3. What is design according to you?

And here are my answers:

1. Life™ is a board game. Just kidding. Actually, life is a journey. No, but seriously. The term life refers to anything that can reproduce its own kind and reacts to its environment in a way that favours this reproduction, but most importantly life is choice.

2. The only laws that restrict us are those of God, the ones that do not need reinforcement because they CANNOT be violated: what we have labeled as the laws of physics. If we are capable of doing it we have the right to do it. However, we also have our discretion.

3. To me design is combining aesthetics and function.


The rest of the day we spent documenting the construction of our microscope and planning out our bacteria cultures.


Growing Bacteria

To grow bacteria we must provide them with a few things:

File:House.jpg A home For this we will use gelatin.

File:Food.jpg And food For this we will have several carbohydrates, proteins and fats

File:Bac and most importantly: The bacteria! I collected my sample from stagnant pond water

File:Qaz.jpg Wsx.jpg File:Edc.jpg

I prepared chicken broth and used some of the liquid as a substitute for water in the gelatin recipe. Finally I added a few ml of the pond water.



Day 5

using biobricks from partsregistry.org to imagine a (useful) form of life

I am unsure on the exact mechanism, but I dare postulate that if e. coli could be coaxed into producing the enzymes mentioned below (with the help of the named biobricks) one could breed a layer of the bacteria on breath strips and then freeze them to put the bacteria in a state of cryostasis. The strips would then be refrigerated until they were in need at which time they would be placed in the user’s mouth (one strip should suffice per user per “situation”). The heat from the surroundings would trigger the bacteria back to their natant state. The bacteria would then secrete the enzymes that would in turn begin to convert the alcohol into aldehydes, which have fruity or nutty odours (as long as their concentration remains low). This would definitely be useful to those who like to drink but dislike the resulting smell of breath.

Breathstrips2.jpg

NOTE: I do not support inebriation. The proposed product is NOT intended to cheat breath analyzers.


The following were taken from partsregistry.org, which receives full credit for the information below and have my gratitude.

BBa_J107054 adhB inducible system (aTc) D: This part is an aTc -> alcohol dehydrogenase II inducible system. Alcohol dehydrogenase II enzyme (adhB gene, BBa_K173017) of Z. mobilis catalyzes the transformation of acetaldehyde into ethanol. This enzyme, as reported in literature, is also able to work in the opposite direction, oxidizing ethanol to acetaldehyde. The expression of adhB in this part is constitutive in commonly used E. coli strains, but the promoter becomes inducible when the tetR protein is overexpressed, such as in DH5alpha-Z1, W3110-Z1 or MG1655-Z1 strains. In these strains, the promoter can be induced with aTc molecule.

BBa_M11042 alcohol dehydrogenase II (adhB) S: alcohol dehydrogenase II (adhB) D: Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) is an enzyme discovered in the mid-1960s in Drosophila melanogaster. Since then, there has been extensive research on the enzyme. Alcohol dehydrogenase is a dimer, weighing 80 kDa. Alcohol dehydrogenases are a group of seven dehydrogenase enzymes that occur in many organisms and facilitate the interconversion between alcohols and aldehydes or ketones with the reduction of NAD+ to NADH. In humans and many other animals, they serve to break down alcohols which could otherwise be toxic; in yeast and many bacteria, some alcohol dehydrogenases catalyze the opposite reaction as part of fermentation.



Day 6

I saw the lab site for the first time today. After taking measurements I began working on the floorplan and discussing the building materials with my peers and mentors. We finally decided on an umbrella-cut tarpaulin covering over a dome-like metal framework as our main housing. File:Dome.jpg


Day 7

Today we experimented with our microscopes and took a few pictures of fungal spores. Later we watched David Cronenberg's Shivers. It was an interesting movie but I will not discuss it here to avoid spoilers. However, I will say that the movie gave me plenty of ideas.


Day 8

We started the day by going through the Cyborg Manifesto. If you are interested in reading it the link is here

Qazwsx.gif

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html

Next we went over Koch's method of identifying causal agents in reference to diseases. Simple and elegant: the essence of scientific method.