[HN Gopher] 1-Bit Pixels Encoded in E. Coli for the Display of I...
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       1-Bit Pixels Encoded in E. Coli for the Display of Interactive
       Digital Media
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 80 points
       Date   : 2024-01-31 06:48 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (docs.google.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (docs.google.com)
        
       | crtasm wrote:
       | I'd seen the RPS piece but didn't realise there's a paper,
       | thanks.
       | 
       | https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/you-can-play-doom-using-gut...
        
       | Loughla wrote:
       | God bless the people who do these things
       | 
       | But the payoff is at the end.
       | 
       | >Doing the math, this means that it would take 599 years to run
       | Doom on cells, according to this simulation.
       | 
       | Regardless of where you stand in the regular debate, that's a
       | noticeable framerate drop.
        
         | ainiriand wrote:
         | So there is a way.
        
           | Log_out_ wrote:
           | For a brief, but beautiful moment all of humanity was doomed
           | and running doom at the same time
        
       | RichardoC wrote:
       | While cool, this is just a model rather than real cells.
       | 
       | Still an interesting thought experiment!
        
       | jl6 wrote:
       | I like the bit where it uses the deadly food poisoning bacteria.
       | Feels thematically on-topic.
        
         | dekhn wrote:
         | E Coli is not a deadly food poisoning bacteria; it's an
         | essential part of your gut. There are toxin-producing e coli,
         | and also salmonella, but I don't think those get used in iGEMS
         | competitions.
        
           | jszymborski wrote:
           | Regrettably, most folks only are aware of EHEC strain of E.
           | coli [0]. Other strains of E. coli are a workhorse in the lab
           | and are harmless.
           | 
           | [0] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-
           | diseas...
        
             | dekhn wrote:
             | I was thinking of O-157
             | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli_O157:H7) as
             | it was associated with ground beef contamination back in
             | the 90s.
        
               | jszymborski wrote:
               | So I made an error in calling EHEC a strain, rather, it's
               | an umbrella for all E. coli that produce Shiga toxin and
               | cause human disease.
               | 
               | The best known strain in this category is O-157:H7.
               | 
               | Of course, I may have made some errors, my background is
               | in biochem not microbio.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigatoxigenic_and_verotoxi
               | gen...
        
               | jl6 wrote:
               | Whatever the most deadly one is, that's definitely the
               | one to use to run Doom.
        
               | nrml_amnt wrote:
               | MyHouse but it's straight to the bathroom and then the
               | demons come to you.
        
       | CoastalCoder wrote:
       | When I look at the document, all of the images are just grey
       | rectangles.
       | 
       | Maybe the document was infected with penicillium?
        
         | jkestner wrote:
         | If antibacterials will brick my screen, airgapping won't stop
         | the moldy bread attack.
        
       | ganyu wrote:
       | Can we play Bad Apple with it?
        
       | Decabytes wrote:
       | I've always been excited about Biocomputing. I think that it is a
       | super cool, yet very sci-fi idea. Everyone once in awhile I see
       | things like this and it keeps the dream alive
        
         | thomashop wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenobot
         | 
         | Xenobots built to date have been less than 1 millimeter (0.04
         | inches) wide and composed of just two things: skin cells and
         | heart muscle cells, both of which are derived from stem cells
         | harvested from early (blastula stage) frog embryos.[7] The skin
         | cells provide rigid support and the heart cells act as small
         | motors, contracting and expanding in volume to propel the
         | xenobot forward. The shape of a xenobot's body, and its
         | distribution of skin and heart cells, are automatically
         | designed in simulation to perform a specific task, using a
         | process of trial and error (an evolutionary algorithm).
         | Xenobots have been designed to walk, swim, push pellets, carry
         | payloads, and work together in a swarm to aggregate debris
         | scattered along the surface of their dish into neat piles. They
         | can survive for weeks without food and heal themselves after
         | lacerations.[2]
         | 
         | Other kinds of motors and sensors have been incorporated into
         | xenobots. Instead of heart muscle, xenobots can grow patches of
         | cilia and use them as small oars for swimming.[8] However,
         | cilia-driven xenobot locomotion is currently less controllable
         | than cardiac-driven xenobot locomotion.[9] An RNA molecule can
         | also be introduced to xenobots to give them molecular memory:
         | if exposed to specific kind of light during behavior, they will
         | glow a prespecified color when viewed under a fluorescence
         | microscope.[9]
         | 
         | Xenobots can also self-replicate. Xenobots can gather loose
         | cells in their environment, forming them into new xenobots with
         | the same capability.[10][11][12]
        
           | nextaccountic wrote:
           | Is this entirely simulated, or did someone built xenobots out
           | of live cells in a lab culture? The wikipedia page is not
           | clear
           | 
           | Also about self replicating, does this mean reproduction? Are
           | they a new species?
        
             | filoleg wrote:
             | Looking at the wikipedia page, I think they were built irl.
             | They have many pics comparing "xenobots generated by a
             | computer" to their "created in real life" analogs.
             | 
             | That's just what I got out of reading the page though, so I
             | would be glad if someone with more subject knowledge could
             | either confirm or deny the correctness of my understanding
             | here.
        
       | golem14 wrote:
       | I'd pitch the short story (really, a fictitious book review)
       | "Eruntics" by Stanislaw Lem. I believe it's published within the
       | "Imaginary Magnitude" Anthology. Published in 1985.
        
       | amenghra wrote:
       | This belongs in Sigbovik.
        
         | lbeckman314 wrote:
         | Was just thinking the same! Someone let Ren know that the
         | submission deadline is March 15, 2024 [0].
         | 
         | [0] https://sigbovik.org/2024/
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-31 23:01 UTC)