Hackteria Lab Jan 31 - Feb 14

Week 1

Day 1 - introduction to scientists, artists, participants of the hackteria lab 2013 Bangalore.

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On the first day we were introduced to the artists/participants and had a presentation of the kind of work they do. It was a combination of various new fields that people come from. It was entirely new, especially having them all together - seeing that kind of a collaboration, which doesn't happen at all. Not even at schools or now at colleges. Most of us try to be open minded but stay stuck in one field for some reason.

Wine brewing had began, experimenting with the local fruits. There hasn't been much done (at least not well known) in brewing the local fruits and consuming such wines. I guess they're not commercially successful or advertised, so nobody is willing to experiment more. The process of brewing itself is engaging and being able to produce something you can later use.

Sachiko's presentation

Here Sachiko explained how the DNA of E.coli has been modified how it's used to detect arsenic contamination with a limit of 5 µg/l

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Day 2 - Paper circuits & preparing growth mediums for E.coli

After a brief on how we can create paper circuits we worked on making something in groups. I worked with Reuben and Sreemoyee. It was an all day struggle to create parallel circuits at which we succeeded [1] only the next day. It reminded me of school and how at least i thought it was supposed to be easy. Again, circuits, electrical devices (as tiny as led lights) is something foreign or rather hard to find in our design school, nobody's taken any of that further yet. I really enjoyed working with different mediums and would like to explore more.

Day 3

We got to work on Sachiko's project after the growth mediums had been in the shaker overnight, diluting the samples on agar plates for the bacteria to grow. This involved a lab experience , using the different objects and seeing the lab of NCBS. It was odd being in an environment where you don't know what most stuff is.