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Bacterial Printing Press
juushin writes "New Scientist has reported that scientists at Harvard University have created a bacterial printing press that can be reconfigured to print complex patterns of bacteria. The technology is reported to have applications in studying biofilms, communication between bacteria (and colonies of bacteria), and the interaction of bacteria and surfaces. Of medical interest, these applications may lead to a better understanding of how to prevent bacterial infections."
I actually did RTFA. This basically seems like a neater way to make a Petri dish.
He uses bacteria as 'ink', and presses the bacterial mold onto a sheet to produce a bacteria pattern.
I'm not exactly sure why this is better or worse than simply pipetting bacteria into a large petri dish, though.
it's a neat process. before i read the article i'd pictured an inkjet-esque approach. probably a good thing they didn't go that way --- can you imagine how much consumables would cost? to say nothing of issues related to poor quality drivers...
He takes a tip from the silicon chip makers and uses the same type of technology to etch a pattern in a wafer. Then he creates a mold (like a mask, not like the stuff growing in the crotches of slashbots) which he can use repeatedly as a printing template.
Since a lot of bacteria grow resistant to antibiotics, it makes sense to use this kind of "printing press" to study how they create their protective biofilm. As a species, we are slowly succumbing to our own success at killing off bacteria. However the rise of super-bacteria that are immune to our medicines is a huge worry. If this type of research can shine some light on why these bacteria are so resistant and how we can control them to be less dangerous to us, then we will be able to hold off our extinction for a few more years.
Stanislaw Lem predicts it about 20-30 years ago in some of his novel.
Now I can get my [fake mail order] University Degree /and/ real [bacterial] culture diversity all on the same certificate.... just like if I had gone to Univeristy and dorm-hopped, or eaten cafeteria food.
Lets hope this doesn't get combined with the http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/03/033023 8sushi printing cartridge ...
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Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.
The radical group you are trying to piss off happens to have the same idiotic arguments as you, but is on the other side of the spectrum. And both groups are morons.
I'm tired of this trendy shit in \. where at the drop of a fucking hat people start categorizing people as either a Linux Zealot or a M$ Luvers. Technology is not meant to be worshiped, it is meant to be used to accomplish a goal, and you should use whatever best fits that goal, windows, linux or a fucking ti83. It's a minority that occupies these radical areas, albeit a vocal one. And I would like to say to both groups:
SHUT THE FUCK UP.
"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." -Mahatma Gandhi
This sounds like a good way to study computational properties of bacterial colonies. By printing them like this, perhaps they would be able to get them to behave in ways that would perform useful information processing. It might also end up acting as some sort of "interface" to DNA computation.
Whether we'd be able to get them to behave in reproducible ways would be the question.
Here are some links. The first has some interesting photos of bacterial colonies-- similar to cellular automata, because hey! They are! And the second is a link to an article on bacterial colony computation. Or maybe they're both to Goatse. You won't know until you click.
http://alnk.org/dankwish
http://alnk.org/nearseal
Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
Just remember not to use anti-bacterial soap on your bacterial printer. Otherwise, you will void the warrantry.
have a copy of my latest research on flesh eating bacteria. Be sure to note the texture!
I can't possibly be the only one who immediately thought "game of life" ... can I?
Too bad it'd never work - not unless you could find some REALLY weird bacteria, anyway.
It seems a lot of interesting science happens at the spatial/topological/geometrical level.
E.g. those bioplaques can be real killers. Models of bacteria that assume they are all evenly distributed in 2-space or 3-space really don't cut it.
Same thing with blood vessels. They aren't solid tubes, like the plumbing in your house. There's all sorts of transverse stuff happening that doctors fail to model and take into consideration.
Or materials science -- all the "edge effects" that people like to ignore, because they are necessarily messy.
If this advance allows them to study different geometries of bacteria cheaply, that will be a big step -- they'll be able to run big batches of simulations of different layouts. Hopefully they'll get their models right and do better work.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
One thing in the article that is a bit deceptive is that the article says that one can print with details as small as one micrometer . . . the size of a single bacterium. This may technically be true, but I doubt that controlling which individual bacterium are transferred (printed) or not is possible. And the neither the technique of pipetting bacteria nor regrowing bacteria on the agarose media is likely to have a resolution of one micrometer. Though the postulated one micrometer resolution may be possible, it is for all practical purposes impossible.
a thing of the past. You already have to watch out when opening hand addressed mail for anthrax and shit like that but you have just lowered the bar for spreading viri.
Now it doesn't have to come by an email either.
Send something that looks like junk mail to a congressman's home in the winter and you can just see the trail of death and destruction because the ink itself could kill you. (ebola 'flavoured' ink anyone?)
I don't think this is too smart but the cat's out of the bag now. Pretty soon we're going to need transparent exo-skins to do anything. (Think about it.)
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"Lisa, look -- I'm really sorry I've been sleeping with my secretary at work. I never thought you'd come looking for me in the janitorial closet at 2am on a Sunday morning."
"Harold -- there's no excuse for this -- I want a divorce, and I'm taking EVERYTHING! INCLUDING THE DOG!"
"But, Lisa -- I really want to apologize -- this card says it all..."
"Card? What? How pathetic...oh...wait...what a wonderful photo from our wedding, Harold..."
"Yeah -- I made it myself with a new printer we got at the labs at the office..."
[wife reads card -- eyes tear up -- lip trembles]
"Oh, Harold...I love you so much...I accept your apology..."
[wife tries to kiss husband]
"Wait -- I'm not worthy of that kind of love just yet...give it time...so you know it's real again..."
"You're right, Harold. I'll read this card over and over and remember that you're going to make an effort to be better and more faithful..."
[28 days later]
"Well, Harold -- it's the weirdest thing..."
"What's that, doc?"
"I have no idea how your wife got a case of bubonic plague. Did you guys have rats in your house?"
"Nope. Really odd. Oh, well."
"It's a mystery to me, Harold. She died such a painful death."
"Yes...she did... Well, I'm off for an appointment. Gotta pick up my secretary. See ya doc!"
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