[sudo-discuss] sudo make me a circuit
Patrik D'haeseleer
patrikd at gmail.com
Tue Sep 24 10:45:24 PDT 2019
Hmm... just saw this clause in the rules
<https://www.asm.org/Events/2019-ASM-Agar-Art-Contest/Submission-Rules>:
"Non-microbial props within the piece are also not allowed."
So I say Fuck'em - let's do it anyway, and do such an awesome job that they
get so embarrassed that they have to make a special prize just for us! :-D
Patrik
On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 10:40 AM Patrik D'haeseleer <patrikd at gmail.com>
wrote:
> I have a potentially prize winning idea, but I need your help...
>
> As you might know, I've been teaching Agar Art workshops at CCL - painting
> with colored bacteria! Next session is this coming Monday
> <https://www.meetup.com/Counter-Culture-Labs/events/264878488/>. The
> American Society for Microbiology is holding a yearly Agar Art Contest
> <https://www.asm.org/Events/2019-ASM-Agar-Art-Contest/Home> that we can
> submit some of our best work to.
>
> My idea is to embed a little LED circuit *in the agar* in a Petri plate,
> light up a UV LED, and then trace the circuit on top of the agar in
> fluorescent E. coli!
>
> Here's the part I need your help with... we'll need to experiment a bit
> with different circuit implementations to figure out what works best. I can
> easily solder a little "throwie" circuit myself, but I don't think I'll
> have time to go through half a dozen designs to see what works best (or at
> all). So ideally I'd love to partner up with somebody why can crank out a
> couple circuit versions while I focus on the wetlab side. You'll get full
> share of the credit and any prize money of course.
>
> A couple complications:
>
> - I would love to be able to autoclave the circuit before embedding it
> in agar, to eliminate any possible contamination. This involves heating to
> 121C/250F for 20 minutes under steam. Not sure which materials will stand
> up to that (batteries? plastic LED?)
> - The normal E. coli growth medium is quite conductive. We should be
> able to use a medium without salt, but it will likely still have some
> conductivity. We could try coat the entire circuit in clear epoxy to
> insulate it though.
> - The circuit will still need to give off enough light after been
> embedded in agar for several days. Coin cell throwies do last a couple
> days, but UV LEDs are a bit more power hungry, so perhaps we could try a
> AAA?
> - Having the UV LED on continuously may not be healthy for the
> bacteria growing on top, so we may need to include a Reed switch or some
> other mechanism to turn the LED on remotely.
> - More complicated circuits = extra awesomesauce! Can we build a
> circuit that measures the pH in the agar under an acid producing bacteria?
> Create a grid of electrodes that affects the growth of bacteria growing on
> top of it?
> - Ideally, the whole circuit would fit inside a 10cm Petri dish -
> let's call it 9.5cm diameter, and no more than about 1cm in height. If
> necessary, we do have access to larger and deeper Petri dishes though.
>
> Patrik
>
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