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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-as-sensitive-as-bacteria dept.

Researchers at Duke University have turned bacteria into the builders of useful devices by programming them with a synthetic gene circuit.

As a bacterial colony grows into the shape of a hemisphere, the gene circuit triggers the production of a type of protein to distribute within the colony that can recruit inorganic materials. When supplied with gold nanoparticles by researchers, the system forms a golden shell around the bacterial colony, the size and shape of which can be controlled by altering the growth environment.

The result is a device that can be used as a pressure sensor, proving that the process can create working devices.

While other experiments have successfully grown materials using bacterial processes, they have relied entirely on externally controlling where the bacteria grow and have been limited to two dimensions. In the new study, researchers at Duke demonstrate the production of a composite structure by programming the cells themselves and controlling their access to nutrients, but still leaving the bacteria free to grow in three dimensions.

If manufacturing comes to employ bacteria to fabricate, will antibiotics be banned as weapons of mass destruction?

Yangxiaolu Cao, Yaying Feng, Marc D. Ryser, Kui Zhu, Gregory Herschlag, Changyong Cao, Katherine Marusak, Stefan Zauscher, Lingchong You. Programmed Assembly of Pressure Sensors Using Pattern-Forming Bacteria. Nature Biotechnology, 2017. DOI: 10.1038/nbt.3978


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:10PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:10PM (#579982)

    w00t? a collections of sensors that multiply is ... made into a sensor?

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:19PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:19PM (#579990) Journal

      Mutations mutations. Throw monkey wrenches into the sensors.

      Bacteria Self-Organize to Build Working Sensors
      Bacteria Self-Organize to Work Building Sensors
      Bacteria Self-Organize to Sense Building Workers
      Workers Organize to Sense Self-Building Bacteria
      Workers Organize to Build Self-Sensing Bacteria
      Workers Sense Bacteria to Self-Organize Buildings
      Organized Buildings Work to Self-Sense Bacteria
      Selfish Workers Sense Organized Building Bacteria
      Selfish Workers Bacteria Censor Organized Buildings

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:32PM (4 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:32PM (#580001) Journal

    . . . the system forms a golden shell around the bacterial colony, the size and shape of which can be controlled by altering the growth environment.

    The result is a device that can be used as a pressure sensor, proving that the process can create working devices.

    Okay, so a dome or shell can be constructed. And you can coax the bacteria to distribute expensive heavy metals around the shell. And one application of this just happens to be a useful device. That hardly seems like proof the process can create working devices beyond this pressure sensor.

    Maybe there is another application for bacteria forming a shell of another inorganic material instead of gold. This still hardly seems like very many useful devices.

    I can jump in the air. This proves that I am capable of flight for certain durations of time.

    I think the Mollusks example in TFA makes a better case than the gold pressure sensor. Probably more useful.

    As for the anti bio tics question as a weapon of mass destruction, maybe it would be even cooler to use artificial nano machines to construct things rather than bacteria. While bacteria may be a nano machine, how about a nano machine which doesn't interact with biological organisms on planet Earth.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @12:02AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @12:02AM (#580170)

      If they can also get the bacteria to wire up the pressure sensors into an array, there will be plenty of uses. Aerodynamics simulation (CFD) always has to be validated...a method to make many tiny pressure sensors could be a very effective way to instrument a surface. If cheap enough, this could be the feedback sensor for active aerodynamics (drag reduction).

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:25PM (2 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:25PM (#580444) Journal

        Yes, that's one. Useful application. I'm just not sure that it means there is a sudden gush of useful applications coming out of this. I suspect each new useful application requires a ton of work.

        Here's another: How about getting bacteria to build tiny photosensitive cells and self wire them into an array. Imagine the applications of that. Gigapixels. Terapixels. What if they are sensitive to other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Infrared. Ultraviolet. Microwave. Even other radio wave spectrum. What if radio astro nomers could "see" in radio telescope frequencies? What if such instruments could be placed on VGER type probes seeking their carbon unit creator?

        Okay, so maybe with a ton of work, each new type of self organizing array could have a ton of applications. I suspect an electromagnetic sensitive retina is more useful than a pressure sensitive array. But I can see pressure sensitivity as useful for robot fingertips and genitals. Lack of feeling is a huge drawback of robot hands and fingers.

        So maybe I see more potential in this than I did yesterday.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:28PM (1 child)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:28PM (#580446) Journal

          What if the FCC could "see" in pirate radio frequencies and just use their "eye" to just look around the city for pirate signals?

          What if the TLAs could "see" in mobile phone frequencies? Possibly even through buildings. Being able to "see" them, even in a blurry fashion also probably means being able to decode IMEI and keep an "eye" on the movement of a "terrist" from a van with goons outside the building.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @05:22PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @05:22PM (#580591)

            If anyone is still watching this little thread, the key to applications could be the "wiring up into an array" bit. I wonder if any researchers are working on this. It could use bacteria or any other nano-tech device, probably in a second step, after the basic array of sensors have been constructed.

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