Armpit Cheese? Every time I am reminded of Christina Agapakis’ unique twist on synthetic biology research, I smile. It’s such a wonderful blend of design, art and pure cool. I had the pleasure of helping her with one of her “body bacteria” projects at this year’s SXSW conference. To put it bluntly, the cheeses you are looking at were cultured using bacteria swabbed from the armpits (and elsewhere) of human bodies. The species of bacteria living on us, and the volatile (read: “smelly”) compounds that they produce aren’t that far off, chemically speaking, from what we normally find in cheese. I mean, some cheese smells like feet because feet smell like feet bacteria, know what I mean? It challenges our perception of what is “gross” and what is “good”. Check out Christina’s site to read more about this cheesy project, and follow her Scientific American blog, Oscillator. Want more cool/gross synthetic biology projects? Check out E. chromi, a project to use colored poo to diagnose medical conditions.
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Armpit Cheese?

Every time I am reminded of Christina Agapakis’ unique twist on synthetic biology research, I smile. It’s such a wonderful blend of design, art and pure cool. I had the pleasure of helping her with one of her “body bacteria” projects at this year’s SXSW conference.

To put it bluntly, the cheeses you are looking at were cultured using bacteria swabbed from the armpits (and elsewhere) of human bodies. The species of bacteria living on us, and the volatile (read: “smelly”) compounds that they produce aren’t that far off, chemically speaking, from what we normally find in cheese. I mean, some cheese smells like feet because feet smell like feet bacteria, know what I mean?

It challenges our perception of what is “gross” and what is “good”. Check out Christina’s site to read more about this cheesy project, and follow her Scientific American blog, Oscillator.

Want more cool/gross synthetic biology projects? Check out E. chromi, a project to use colored poo to diagnose medical conditions.

Source: agapakis.com

411 Notes/ Hide

  1. footlouse reblogged this from scinerds
  2. anth0ny-stark reblogged this from laurentreks
  3. laurentreks reblogged this from scinerds
  4. escalator-wit reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  5. rcginger reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  6. sagittariusthoughts reblogged this from gloriagotrocks and added:
    I don’t like cheese so now I am going to vomit
  7. gloriagotrocks reblogged this from microculture
  8. dianhala reblogged this from microculture and added:
    haha, this is horrible but interesting idea to doing research project
  9. rosiek2005 reblogged this from microculture
  10. khirnari reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  11. gennasside reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  12. aspoonfulofinsanity reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    This is funny, awesome, and nasty all at once
  13. heshur6 reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  14. schnurrmen reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  15. madhatterlupin reblogged this from catbountry
  16. mirenheart reblogged this from catbountry
  17. synthykperc reblogged this from catbountry
  18. kistahp reblogged this from machongpatatas
  19. jaded-sylph reblogged this from queen-of-france
  20. wishroom2150 reblogged this from catbountry and added:
    I had a nightmare about people making cheese from human bacteria before and now it’s real…
  21. machongpatatas reblogged this from deerbling
  22. deerbling reblogged this from queen-of-france and added:
    well i’m glad i already ate today
  23. the-notorious-t-o-n-y reblogged this from catbountry
  24. wintercoffin reblogged this from catbountry and added:
    but is it vegan?
  25. gammamumu reblogged this from queen-of-france
  26. marquis-decarabia reblogged this from catbountry
  27. queen-of-france reblogged this from catbountry and added:
    casually shoves her food away
  28. clatko reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  29. professorbeast reblogged this from scinerds
  30. ridicklious reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    This is so gross. Mwahahahaha
  31. frenzieddooker reblogged this from jtotheizzoe

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