Team:Weimar-Heidelberg Arts/Project/Kokoromo
From 2010.igem.org
"With the beginning of the chemical prime-age in the early 19th century most organics with their natural abilities have gotten replaced by new revolutionary synthetical substances as an basic material for medicine, food, constructional material and fuel. As a cause of this trend in society and industry even popular plants with former medical backround sank into oblivion with a bad reputation as unaesthetical weeds. And although we know today that even the most efficient chemical products can cause harmful side-effects on our bodys, like cancer for example, our association with chemicals and plants haven't changed that much over years.Thats why kokoromo, as a green project, trys not only to present itself as a buyable product, but also as a intermediator between modern human needs on one hand and a plants rights to exists on the other, via demonstrating new alternatives for a greener and more sustainable lifestyle in coexistance with plants."
Vanessa Walk
Product Description
Technical Description
Included is everything you need to start instantly:
- Petri dishes
- Bacteria starter set (bacteria culture, agar, toothpicks)
- 2 Game scenarios
- Different Game objects (barriers, forts)
Use the agar to build different landscapes and as a nutrient for your creatures. Inoculate your team on the agar and watch the game begin. Use the included game objects to evolve your team.
The concept of the game is based on the ability of some harmless wild-type bacteria to swim in soft media. Swimming enables the microbes to consume further nutrients if those in their vicinity are already consumed. All bacteria try to get away from the starting point as fast as possible to access fresh media. This mechanism can be employed for a game set-up. Selection and culturing of best swimmers leads to propagation of ideal swimming characteristics, which is why training may help gain a competitive edge. These bacteria can easily be stored in the fridge along with the supplied materials without any risk. The showdown competition is run by synthetic bacteria. Predators and prey communicate and regulate each other's density. Via molecular signals, the predator cells kill the prey while living prey rescues predators. The diverse and colorful crowd surrounding the spectacle was genetically engineered to carry different pigments, which was appreciated at the iGEM competition in 2009.