wet dreams. living machines

My kombucha experiment is going well i think. About 3 days ago I finally received my bottles of kombucha tea in the mail. (Such a long long processes) So I have since followed some instructions I found on the internet to grow my own mother. At this stage no changes have taken place but it may take several weeks before a decent result is seen. I’m hopeful that I can gain some result in the time we have left. This result will then hopefully be able to clearly inform my final outcome. Bellow are some pics of my making process…

So…… Basically my idea is a speculative design hoping that in the near future tailored probiotics will be just as effective as pharmaceuticals in fighting disease etc. I aim to design my outcome as a possibility for the near future.

For my final project I am planning on designing an online web site that allows users to purchase DIY probiotics kits of the internet. As users then undertake there own fermenting/growing at home they can update there progress on the site. The website in turn will then inform the home grower of the process so that they can compare features between a controlled grown culture and there own, allowing them to check for contamination or mould. The idea of the website is to help the aid the home grower as much as possible.

On this site I also plan to make it similar to 23 and me where a customer can send in samples of there DNA and probiotics can be tailored to their, size, weight, blood pressure and illness (whatever). This section may be potential used for the fighting of bigger illness etc where it may not be possible to home grow.

Deliverable format:

So for my deliverables I plan to make a poster presentation with mock up screen grabs of the website and how it would work. As well as growing my own kombucha mushroom which will inform what is required to grow culture at home. (I finally sourced the items off the net)

Hope this an good outcome because I have started….

Just going through some of my research I thought that it be a handy idea to post up some useful links…
Kombucha
Probiotics overview current research and potential benefits
Probiotics and athletic performance
Probiotics may protect against food poisoning

Future research paths

These paragraphs bellow were also taken from the wikipedia reference list. They are possible university studies which may benefit my final idea. All are directly related to the effects of probiotics being used in medical trial and are potentially a great start for my final research. I have also generally found that the wikipedia reference list is a great source of information…

A 2007 study at University College Cork in Ireland showed that a diet including milk fermented with Lactobacillus bacteria prevented Salmonella infection in pigs.[48]

A 2007 clinical study at Imperial College London showed that preventive consumption of a commercially available probiotic drink containing L casei DN-114001, L bulgaricus, and S thermophilus can reduce the incidence of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and C difficile-associated diarrhoea.[24]

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled therapeutic study on the effects of a probiotic coktail on pancreatitis at University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC), 24 out of 296 patients died between 2004 and 2007, with more deaths among those receiving the probiotic coktail directly in the intestine. According to the spokesman of UMC, it is likely that some of these deaths would not have occurred without the probiotics [49], although other therapeutic trials conducted on probiotics were more positively conlusive [4].

So at the moment I have narrowed down my design project into looking at probiotics and how they can potentially be designed to benefit human life. I believe that probiotics could possibly be designed in a way similar to microbes to serve designated purposes inside the human body. E.g. Microbes are used in bioremediation and bio waste treatment to cleanup contaminated environments. These microbes were designed for this purpose and do the job more effectively then any man made device. So what if probiotics could be design specifically to clean up problems with internal functions? Instead of using drugs to minimize pain, or trigger internal functions why not design bacteria that can be induced into the body to eliminate a desired, disease, illness or body malfunction. It is already slightly proven in clinical trials that probiotics can lower blood pressure, cholesterol and possibly reduce diarrhea. These tests are all still in the process of clinical trials and are looking successful.

I have various resources on probiotics application and what stage this research is at but I think it will be very interesting just to explore where this research may take the field of medicine and how they may be potential be used in line with drugs or as a highly recommend alternative to fight disease or illness in the near future. I aim to explore and present these ideas. I am still in the process of figuring out how I will present this idea but I am still really keen to make my own probiotics from scratch.

Over the last week I have been doing some further research and found that its actually not that hard to grow probiotics from scratch. Just getting the starting gear might be a little more difficult. Bellow I have posted some very interesting you tube videos explaining how to grow a kombucha mother mushroom from scratch and another video explain how to make the probiotic tea.

Alright I haven’t posted for a few weeks as i haven’t really had direction in my studies. Initially i was very interested in genetic manipulation and its potential to have genetic objects manipulated to suit a greater purpose or to be the most ultimate of anything. Although i’m still interested in this area of study I cannot see any future potential that isn’t really already taking place. I.e. animals, food and general human use. I tried to take a step backwards and use this technology on a smaller scale to benefit a household. My ideas include vege patch manipulation for ultimate fruit and veg etc………. Anyway I was a little stuck on this area of study. So decided to look further in to household and pharmaceuticals biotechnology. Both different areas of biotech I find interesting and amazing. Doing basic research I found household biology has uses I can easily relate to and experiment with. Although pharmaceuticals can not necessarily be made at home I found a strand that can PROBIOTICS.

Although probiotics are not necessarily drugs, they are taken and used in the same way as to manipulate the bodies internal function. Throughout doing more research I found that probiotics are just a fermentation process and can be made at home with the right gear.

So for my design project I have decided I want to either look further into the potentials of pharmaceutical drugs and there potentials. E.g. Boo a couple of weeks ago mentioned designing drugs to manipulate our learning capacity or overall performance. I find this area amazing can actually see this happening in the modern world. Other questions I would also wish investigate questions such as, is society becoming drug dependent and by looking at the drug possibilities in the future maybe be able to answer this question or at least shed some light on it. This idea would be a speculative design.

Idea two would include looking into microbes and probiotics. and possibly make some probiotics as a design outcome. The fermentation behind some of the probiotics out there sounds weird and interesting. If i were able to get a hold of some Kefir grains or something this would be a fun and interesting project. I could then possibly eat it and see if i spew…….

These are some links i have found in relation to probiotics that may help me potential make some….
Fermentation is fun
Wild Fermentation

Human cloning is at the front of the control and responsibility debate when it comes to genetic engineering. The possibility of human cloning or trialing human cloning has been avalible since Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned in July 1996 at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. The technology is now there but is it ethical to continue in such studies? After reading through several of the cloning articles found online at the Center for Bioethics and Human Diginity. The center is responsable for looking at bioethical issues and presenting their findings to the appropiate parties when possible. The organisation is a tax-exapt and non profit. Using their site I was able to understand and get an idea of the arguments out there towards the ethics of human cloning.

Reading through these articles i was able to draw on one particular problem which i found ethically wrong with possible human cloning. As cloning is not yet a full proof method how many attemps would it take to produce a successfull human being. It took scientist 272 attempts to create dolly. This means that a large majority embryos were discarded, defective or deformed. In some of the cases the embryos were miscarried. Those that were successfully born were highly abnormal or showed major health problems and died very early in there life time. Look at Dolly although a successful clone she died at an early age of 6 with lung disease, when commonly a sheep has a life expectancy of 10 – 12 years

Now what if this was applied to humans with human trials? It seems that a large number of human lives may have to be comprimesed as a direct result of these trials. Deformities miscarrieges and birth defects. All highly likely side affects we would wish upon no fellow human being. Although in the long run possibly benifiting the company and finally reaching a desirable result. But is it really ethically possible to take the steps that are need to acheive this. This is my biggest concern with cloning and i feel that humanity is not ready for such a technology.

This post is regarding a question I received about posting links. This is how I have done it in my first post so I hope it works for everyone else.

To create a link firstly type your chosen title of your link where ever you may want this to be presented in your post. Then highlight your title and hit the blue link button at the top of the box. A box will appear, type your address in this. That should be it.

i.e.

Wet Dreams

Good Luck

I have always been interested in the idea of genetic/engineering or manipulation… This concept to me has the potential to be the ultimate in design as far as bio-technology goes. Although this is an extremely controversial area and has many people both for and against it I’m only looking at it from a design prospective.

The understanding and knowledge of this area allows us to manipulate or enhance the DNA structure of a living organism and grow or alter its features ,traits, or genetic makeup to whatever we may like. I feel that the possibilities are only as limited as the designers imaginations. Learning to use this technique to the best of our ability has the potential to create a new revelation in design.

I gained some valuable understanding from these pages…

Although this is aimed at children it gives a very easy and basic understanding of what genetic engineering involves…
www.geneticengineering.org
Design and Genetics
Pros and Cons involving genetic engineering