Team:ArtScienceBangalore/Notebook
From 2011.igem.org
Notebook
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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad "Jugaad"]. Apart from the pleasure of having your own incubator which is pink in color, these exercises help us understand the science better. In these images, we have our laminar air flow, a centrifuge and an incubator. We built our own lab by constructing a geodesic 10 feet dome which will house the entire lab and will function as the future ArtScienceBLR headquarters / community BIOlab.
Experiments at NCBS
We worked in the labs at NCBS, under the watchful eye of Navneet Rai.
The BioGeographer's toolkit
Every BioGeographer needs a toolkit to collect and store their samples.
The First Prototype:
Slab to store Epindorf tubes after soil sampling:
The 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
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
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
Zoology of the Future
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
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