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Notebook

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Building our own BioLab

The thing that sets us apart from most IGEM teams is our ultra-tight budget and our desperate attempts at making our own lab equipment. In Hindi, this is called "Jugaad". Apart from the pleasure of having an incubator which is pink in color, these exercises help us understand the science better. Down here we have our laminar air flow, a desicator and an incubator. We built our own lab by constructing a geodesic 10 feet dome which will house the entire lab and function as future ArtScienceBLR headquarters and a community BIOlab.

F

Experiments at NCBS

We worked in the labs at NCBS, under the guidance of Navneet Rai.

The BioGeographer's toolkit

Before our expeditions to collect soil samples, we came up with a tool kit that holds all the essentials required to be carried on the field while working:

The First Prototype:

Fold-able cloth toolkit

Slab to store Epindorf tubes after soil sampling:

Epindorf Bag

Soil Sampler ..for stylish soil extraction

The Post-Natural BioGeographer

Sidharta poses with his Soil Sampling toolkit

Outreach with (skeptical) Friends

As we all know aerial photography is quite expensive; owing to our tight budget, we had to come up with a simple and cheaper way of the same- balloon mapping.

We invited students from our campus to show them our cost effective way of aerial photography. They were quite impressed of how a easy it was to make a useful gadget out of simple day to day objects- helium filled balloons, a strong thread and a digital camera.

Watching some David Cronenberg

Shivers (a movie directed by David Cronenberg) is about a doctor’s attempts to bring out the inner sexual animal in man, using a parasite. He fooled his co-workers, and sponsors, into thinking that he was working on creating an alternative to organ transplant, by using parasites. The doctor was unable to accurately predict what the modified parasite would do. This lead to the parasite spreading from his teenaged mistress to quite a few other residents of a “sterile” high-end apartment block, and spreading uncontrollable sexual desire. This movie highlighted the unpredictable nature of the effects, the consequences of any modifications that we make in any organisms. It also highlights the unpredictability of the behaviour of the organisms. The behaviour of the modified organism in the laboratory is not adequate enough to predict its behaviour in the outside (real) world. The parasites modified an entire society and, in a manner, the entire purpose of a community.

We also watched The Fly...and here are a few of the reactions!

Some Early Speculative ideas

Spices like chillies & pepper feel "hot" beacuse they contain certain chemicals like capsaicin and piperine. Our body (mainly our mouth) feels a sensation of burning pain, as a result of these chemicals. Our sensory neurons contain a functional cDNA encoding for a capsaicin receptor. The receptor is a non-selective cation channel that is also activated by increases in temperature. Similarly, other spices will all have acting chemicals, mostly organic. Each spice will also have corresponding receptors, or mechanisms, to induce responses. Most of the spices and condiments used are plant parts. This implies that they do contain cells (living or dead. Cells contain DNA, which would be responsible for the production of the chemicals responsible for the flavours of the spices. We would be able to identify the exact DNA sequences that code for the necessary chemicals by DNA sequencing. Once the sequences are identified, they can be introduced into the DNA of a suitable, safe bacteria. This bacteria would produce the different chemicals (for the spices) in certain fixed quantities when introduced into the food. This would reduce the chances of dishes getting "spoilt" due to the usage of incorrect mixtures and quantities of spices.

Brainstorm of Soil Mapping

Urban Bacterial Theater

Desire Line Drawing Capture the paths of people on a park using Stop Motion Sample along those paths

Hospital Waste Samples Human Parts thrown out back? Nurse Costume

Family History

Super Hero Saving the Day Radiation / Mutation i.e. Spiderman, Incredible Hulk

Disaster Mapping Fukishima, Chernobyl, Bhopal etc... E-Waste Sites

"Space Dusters" / Space Crashers = Mediorite Landing

Retracing a walk Recursion / Remembering Gandhi Sea March Silk Road Ghengis Kahn

Topography / BioTrekking

Farmer / Drought / IR Mapping

Costume = Bullet Belt

Blood Soil Conflict Areas / Borders Israel / Palestine Kashmir Tropic of Cancer - Bhuj

Tea Plantation Basket Costume for Collecting samples Terroir

Ant Hills / Termite Mounds Costume = A Bacteria Zoologist / Arcehologist

Paranormal Activity Soil Ghost Hunters

Soul in the Soil Graveyard / Tower of Silence

Sending Soil on a Journey Put a potted plant on a train and take samples at each end

Soil Sadu Ask for soil samples instead of alms Wiseman / karma

Culture Soil Compare different cultures / paint clothes

National PCR Compare national data (GDP, GINI) with PCR data

Sunrise Sampling Grab samples as the sun comes up across the world

Airplane dust Collect samples on the plane

Sea beds Since it is no ones land. International waters

Oil Refinery / Shipping Ports Look for oil contamination / Map the flow of energy

Shadows & Soils Micro-climates on ONE site based on where sun hits or doesn't

Tracing the path of Ganga

Zoology of the Future Junkyard is separated out by object - sample each site

Old vs New Old vs. New Airport in BLR Oldest Building in BLR and site that is being built on now Schools vs. Old Age Homes

Royal Soil Difference between "holy" soil & normal soil

Neighborhood Soil

Cultural Soils

Walking / Imagery of Feet

Defense Areas / BSF DRDO Air Force

Lake / Garbage Disposal

Evolution Mapping the evolution of borders/city limits Soil samples along different border

Trace a day Follow a cow/street dog/goat across the city, and take soil samples along the path say, every 30 mins. Follow people from "contrasting" walks of life

Deadly Differences Samples from different types'/societies'/religions' burial grounds/crematoriums

Soil "Classes" Soils from different classes of places "Holy", Royal, "Dirty", Common, etc

Life Soil Trace all locations in a persons life Birth, Education, Settlement, Entertainment, Employment, Retirement, Health, Death, Graveyard, Paranormal activity