News
NESCAC News
By Min Sohn '15
October 27, 2011
Tufts: Researchers develop living ink
Everybody remembers either playing with invisible ink or at least reading a children’s mystery that employed it for secretive purposes, but at the time, the ink was merely a mixture of chemicals with a unique property. Researchers at Tufts went one step further: They made it alive.
This “living ink” is made of genetically engineered E. coli bacteria and is the “brainchild” of Tufts chemist David Walt and Manuel Palacios. A total of seven strains, each one glows a different color when exposed to blue light. Secret messages sent through genetic manipulation are not a new development, but the employment of bacteria has proven to be the most efficient process. To decipher other messages, one usually needed a lab fully equipped with high-tech equipment. With bacteria, one can easily biologically engineer it to look and act according to a predetermined plan, and then one simply dabs tiny spots of these bacteria onto nitrocellulose, a paper-like substance.
The recipient simply presses the sheet of nitrocellulose onto a plate of agar, and the bacteria will multiply and display their message under blue light. But what is the use of a message that can be so easily deciphered by anybody? To account for this, Walt and Palacios, the creators of these microscopic messengers or SPAM (Steganography by Printed Arrays of Microbes) as they call it, went the distance—they developed strains that can only grow in specific combinations of nutrients, so unless somebody else figures out the contents of your formula for your nutrient mixture, these micro-messengers will remain invisible to all unwanted eyes.
Bowdoin: Aftermath of Religious Controversy
Following a controversial sermon and the temporary suspension of funding from the Office of Multicultural Student Programs, The Bowdoin Orient reports that the BCF (Bowdoin Christian Fellowship) will no longer seek financial support from the College.
Starting in 2008, the Office of Multicultural Student Programs provided the BCF with a $100 honorarium each week to compensate speakers at campus chapel services to help jump start the Protestant chapel services which averaged less than 10 students. Since then, the BCF has grown with over 100 students on its mailing list and offers supplement events such as weekly Bible studies and prayer meetings. The increased effect from the controversial sermon on Sept. 18 that prompted two students to walk out of service for what they regarded as homophobic comments may have been an indirect result of the increased student participation in this organization.
This has not been the first case of controversial sermons sponsored by the BCF. Two years ago a professor from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary spoke on the subject of sexual ethics regarding Maine’s referendum on same-sex marriage.
The decision to cease funding comes at a good time. Reported by The Bowdoin Orient, according to Tim Foster, dean of student affairs, the honorarium was an initiative to help get the BCF back on track, and “if there is something that is going to be a longstanding tradition, then I think you should have a longstanding source of funds.” The BCF continues to be Bowdoin’s main source for Christian service and continues to generate discussion on moral issues within the BCF and the broader community.