You may have heard by now that we're expecting high winds tomorrow and
Thursday, and PG&E is planning to shut down power across large parts of the
Bay Area.
On the last map I was able to check, the Omni was supposed to be well
outside the area of power cuts, but that could of course change with the
weather...
Who actually has physical keys to the Omni, and could let people in if the
battery on the front door keycard mechanism runs out?
Patrik
Would it be possible to increase the file size of emails that can be sent
to the discus list for pseudo room? Sometimes it is necessary to attach a
couple of images to an email. the current limitation is too small to allow
me to attach 3 photos.
Thanks
Let us rejoice!
Thank you, Michael, for demonstrating such amazing commons stewardship.
Our minds, hearts, and butts thank you a thousandfold~
Jenny
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Michael Arent <arent1506(a)gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 4:52 PM
Subject: Toilet seat in Sudo/CCL area...
To: Jenny Ryan <jenny(a)jennyryan.net>
Hi Jenny,
FYI. I replaced the grotty/broken wooden toilet seat in Sudo/CCL area with
a clean/sanitized excellent condition plastic toilet seat that I had extra.
M i c h a e l A r e n t
Counter Culture Labs
we cannot use the pick-and-place machine until the cover has been rebuilt
or is on a sturdier table. I have tested opening the heavy wooded cover,
And the hinges for it that are bolted into the shelf table, are starting to
tear and giveaway. the cover is also lifting up particle board platform.
The machine is sitting on as well.
I highly recommend that we do not attempt to use the pick-and-place machine
until we have a solid stable environment for it. Instead of a shelf unit.
Thank you Robert.
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
