To further my knowledge of microbiology, I’ve utilised a range of primary and secondary sources.
Lynne Boddy speaking on Radio 4 series ‘The Life Scientific’ about fungal biology.
Some of the statements Boddy made that I found interesting were concerning the importance of fungi, saying that there’d be no life on earth without them and that if we wish to continue surviving on the planet at human beings, we need to know a lot more about them. The fundamental nature of these organisms, as well as the relative scarcity of resources and interest in the field of mycology, make this an inviting subject for my artistic practice. It seems ripe for discovery.
Mycelium can be single-cell organisms, but they can also form huge networks or ‘cultures’ as Boddy refereed to them (the largest living organism on earth is a fungus). They are present and alive throughout the year, even when we don’t see any evidence (mushrooms, the ‘fruit’ of the fungi). Boddy’s research was concerned with the interaction between different types of mycelium, and how they behave differently when placed next to each other. She described staging ‘wars’ by placing different types of mycelium next to each other in a single Petri dish and seeing which one won, and how. One application of this research is to develop new kinds of antibiotics that replace the antibiotics that bacteria have become resistant to.
Boddy also described the difference between mycelium and bacteria, which is a question my research had raised earlier. She says that mycelium forces long thin tubes into the things it grows on (and feeds from), whereas bacteria, which are only single cells, do not enter into the substrate in the same way.
Boddy discussed the difficulty of her area of research (and scientific study in general) and suggested that the hard part is to ask the right questions. Another difficulty was the scale associated with working in the field. ‘The field’ engenders variable factors, so while it is important to test theories in a laboratory, Boddy asserts that it is also crucial to test them in the field. This makes me reflect on ‘the lab’ and ‘the field’ as models for different types of working, and how this could be represented in a creative project (for example, the studio vs socially engaged practice).
Another factor of the difficulty that Boddy described pertains to the hierarchy and ‘fashionability’ of different sub-branches of science. She suggests that microbiology may appear rudimentary to some, because of the tools they use such as “a saw, a hammer, a chisel” (here, again, she provides stimulus for my thinking about materials and approaches). While they may not appear as highly technological as in other fields such as molecular biology, she insists that they are “the tools for the job that are appropriate”.
It is interesting for me to hear about these internal battles within the scienctific community because they parallel with those found within the artistic community.
MicrobeWorld
This incredibly useful and comprehensive online resource was created by The American Society of Microbiology and is intended to make the field more accessible to those outside it. It promotes awareness of key microbiological issues and better understanding of the significance of microbes in our lives.
I have browsed the site to pick up some basic information, such as the differences and similarities between bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Bacteria are larger than viruses and contain all of their DNA and can reproduce by themselves, while viruses are much more simple and need to attach to another cell in order to reproduce. Fungi are still involved in the study of microorganisms because their cells behave differently to plant and animal cells: instead of having a clear wall/membrane between cells, they have openings between cell (or sometimes no divider at all) which allows proteins and even the cell nuclei to flow from one cell to another.
I have flagged up a few podcasts for future listening, and have started to watch the series Intimate Strangers: Unseen Life on Earth, which was broadcast on PBS in November 1999 and is now available on MicrobeWorld. The first episode explores evolution and how we can understand more about our origins by studying microbes. The episode follows prominent scientists Dr. Karl Stetter and Dr. Carl Woese both in the field and in their labs, and it is interesting to witness their process. From the episode I learned that microbial life is far more diverse than plant and animal life: if plants and animals were 2 twigs next to each other on ‘the tree of life’, the rest of the branches are microbes. Dr. Carl Woese undertook 10 years of painstaking, solitary work to categorise microbes and trace evolution back to the origins of life on earth. The image of his labour is interesting material for this project.
Dr James Redfern
My SciArt tutor Dr Sam Illingworth put me in contact with Dr James Redfern, who is a postdoc researcher in microbiology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
I will be meeting with him soon, and I hope from our conversation to get a better understanding about the different types of microbes and their relationship to mycelium. I also want to learn more about how these organisms are so fundamental to our lives. Additionally, Dr Redfern will give me advice on growing microbes for my SciArt project in a safe and effective way.
References:
BBC (2016) Lynne Boddy on fungi, the life scientific – BBC radio 4. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082hfw9#play [Accessed: 14 December 2016].
ccondayan (2014) Types of microbes. [Online] Available at: http://www.microbeworld.org/types-of-microbes/ [Accessed: 14 December 2016].
Redfern, J. (2011) James Redfern on Twitter. [Online] Available at: https://twitter.com/DrJamesRedfern [Accessed: 14 December 2016].