Ideas

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Life without form
25th May 2011

Does something living always have to have a form ? Or does there also exist life without a definite physical form ? Life and form don't always go hand in hand for example, an Amoeba is a living organism which has no defined form. We were asked to come up with crazy ideas and come out with our own creation which fits in the category: Life without form

--Pranav 03:13, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

Breath
28 May 2011

This is a concept phone that uses a certain Biobrick to produce oxygen which is triggered off by a certain frequency. The phone cover is made out of algae which produces oxygen even in the absence of sunlight. The phone also has a unique mode called the O2 mode in which the phone is constantly producing oxygen. So in the future when one feels the room is stuffy or too closed all he has to do is, pull out his phone and switch to oxygen mode...



Happy feet
29 May 2011

Smelly, dirty feet are always annoying. Hence, the idea for a new species of bacteria that will eat away the dead skin and dirt on feet, and make your feet smell good. This bacteria can be introduced into the soles of shoes and be recycled every six months. These bacteria would live in the sole of the shoes by eating the dead skin and the dirt on our feet.

In the right conditions,the bacteria will feast on your feet. These bacteria eat dead skin cells and oils from your skin. Their colonies will grow and start getting rid of waste in the form of organic acids.It's those organic acids that smell bad. Some of these bacteria include Micrococcus sedentarius, Brevibacteria, Propionibacteria and Staphylococcus epidermidis. If these bacteria were modified in order to release sweet, enticing odours instead, we would have non-smelly, and clean feet. Say, your choice of smell is vanilla. Then the BioBrick BBa_I769002 can be injected into the DNA of any of the above bacteria, in order to make the bacteria produce vanilla smells and so on.

Blend in
All of us have dreamt of being invisible. Though that is a little far fetched we did think of a shirt that takes on the properties of a chameleon and help us blend into the environment with ease. Hence giving us the power of becoming invisible in a way. We figured that we could incorporate the color blending gene from a chameleon into the E.Coli bacteria. Which in turn would be grown on a T-Shirt.This in turn would change color according to the surrounding.



40kD proteins are extracted from Xanthophores code for the color yellow. H-88 and H-89 protein inhibitor code for the color red. Genistien, a tyrokinase inhibitors which is the second layer which codes for crystals which reflect blue light.



Hair growing bacteria
The essential vitamins Vitamin A is vital because it prevents the drying and clogging of sebaceous glands, which produces sebum. Sebum is important in lubricating the hair follicles.A deficiency in vitamin A makes your scalp become dry and thick causing dandruff that could eventually lead to hair loss. Vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid are important in keeping the normal levels of hemoglobin in the blood. Hemoglobin is important because it supplies oxygen from the lungs to the different parts of the body. A deficiency in these vitamins can lead to a decrease in repairing cells of the body. Vitamin C is important in maintaining collagen in the body. Collagen is essential in keeping your body tissues connected and tightly packed. A deficiency in vitamin C results to hair breakages and split ends.Biotin, another key ingredient, promotes cell growth, the production of fatty acids, metabolism of fats, and amino acids.MSM stands for Methylsulfonylmethane. MSM is a naturally occurring sulfur found in many foods. It naturally increases your hair growth phase. This allows your hair to reach grow longer than it otherwise would.

Next The next step would be to make a biobrick that would make it possible for a bacteria to secret these imp vitamins. And then this bacteria could be applied on the hair like oil and wait for the bacteria to start its action.



Time & weather bacteria
Time

Cromatophores: Chromatophores are pigment-containing and light-reflecting cells found in amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans, and cephalopods. They are largely responsible for generating skin and eye colour in cold-blooded animals and are generated in the neural crest during embryonic development. Mature chromatophores are grouped into subclasses based on their colour (more properly "hue") under white light: xanthophores (yellow), erythrophores (red), iridophores (reflective / iridescent), leucophores (white), melanophores (black/brown) and cyanophores (blue).

Biobrick: We will have to create a biobrick that is a receptor of time and will trigger of the above proteins to secrete and change color accordingly.

Weather:

1.BBa_K098998 cIts coding region with rbs This is the temperature sensitive cI coding region from the PGW7 plasmid. It was taken from the plasmid via PCR, and a RBS was also added (BBa_B0034).

2.BBa K259006 It responds to certain wavelengths of light to give out fluorescent light. This can be modified to increase or decrease the amount of light emitted with an increase in temperature which in turn would convey the temperature through the brightness of light.

Next step

So imagine a watch that uses no battery as it is the bacteria that tells the time and temperature by emitting a range of colors. This will be the future Biowatch that uses the non-convectional source of energy to run.



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