ArchaeaBot / Anna Dumitriu (GB), Alex May (GB)
This underwater robotic installation explores what ”life” might mean in a post singularity, post climate change future. The project is based on new research about archaea (the oldest life-forms on Earth) combined with the latest innovations in machine learning and artificial intelligence creating the ”ultimate” species for the end of the world as we know it. New research is revealing the mechanisms by which ancient archaea called Sulfolobus acidocaldarius can move around to seek ”food” using tails known as archaella. The archaella use cogwheel-like ”motors” to swim about. Our collaborator cryo-microscopist Amanda Wilson is studying the structure of these archaella to make tiny drills made of DNA which might be used to drill into cells to cure diseases, but the robotic archaella are made through 3-D printing.
Credit: Martin Hieslmair
ArchaeaBot / Anna Dumitriu (GB), Alex May (GB)
This underwater robotic installation explores what ”life” might mean in a post singularity, post climate change future. The project is based on new research about archaea (the oldest life-forms on Earth) combined with the latest innovations in machine learning and artificial intelligence creating the ”ultimate” species for the end of the world as we know it. New research is revealing the mechanisms by which ancient archaea called Sulfolobus acidocaldarius can move around to seek ”food” using tails known as archaella. The archaella use cogwheel-like ”motors” to swim about. Our collaborator cryo-microscopist Amanda Wilson is studying the structure of these archaella to make tiny drills made of DNA which might be used to drill into cells to cure diseases, but the robotic archaella are made through 3-D printing.
Credit: Martin Hieslmair