Today I was streaking some more E.coli and I noticed the way in which the bugs from last week had sucked up all the red mineral salts from the media. When the salts run out the media returns to a translucent yellowish colour.

In order to grow up enough E.coli to make freeze dried packages of it – ‘Artist’s E.coli’ – I am experimenting with broth culture. This means that the bacteria is grown in a liquid medium rather than streaked out on plates. Once the media becomes turbid with bacteria then I will filter it with a [...]

I was doing some fiddly work involving the use of dilute Acetic acid. Thinking ‘oh it’s just vinegar’ I neglected to wear gloves as it made the whole process a lot quicker. I didn’t feel anything from the acid at the time but a few days later I developed a huge blister on my thumb. [...]

Amazingly we have been able to hear the bone sound unmediated by any electronic amplification using a stethoscope. This is quite exciting as I had totally given up hope of ever being able to hear the speakers due to the vibrations being too small. Below is a picture taken by Will of the bone speaker [...]

Even better results for vibrating tissue culture today. I left the tissue flask on the vibrator for 6 days without moving it and when I stained it there was a definate standing wave pattern visible! This is pretty exciting as I had got to the point of thinking that it was yet another hair-brained scheme [...]

I spent all of Sunday dissecting six rats tails. It was exhausting – I had cramps in my hands by the end of it. Then I went through the collagen extraction process again. I kept all the tails separate so I needed six magnetic stirrers to stir the tendons overnight in Acetic acid. They are [...]

Well after killing quite a few cells and doing many adjustments to my vibrating apparatus I have finally come up with my first real results. I am using 3T3 cells now as they require less complex conditions than the bone cells that I eventually want to work with. The photos below are of some cells [...]

So I left the Petrifilm plates smeared in poo in the incubator for two days. When I took them out this afternoon they all had all turned a purplish red colour and had lots of little air bubbles in them. This is gas produced by the E. coli colonies which can be found in proximity [...]

Hmmm. I have just discovered that plasticine disintegrates into a fine powder under a high voltage EMF. Its weird to think that all the sticky rubberyness of it comes down to a patterned coupling of charge. It is no longer quite the same to touch. It is less substantial. I can feel the holes, the [...]

Today I began the process of extracting E.coli from my own shit. First I had to collect the sample and disolve it in a concentration of 10:1 sterile water. Then I had to adjust the ph to between 6.5 and 7.5. I tested the poo solution and found that the natural ph was about 6 [...]