Homework

Weekly homework submissions:

• Week 1 HW: Principles and Practices

  (SlimeMould_teaser.jpg) Question 1: I propose to develop a Living Urban Decision Interface (LUDI): a biohybrid computational device using slime moulds as a spatial decision-making substrate for ecological design. The organism’s network-forming behaviour and electrical oscillations will be interfaced with environmental and human inputs (light, nutrients, moisture proxies) to compute spatial layouts for green corridors, gardens and urban green infrastructure. Unlike simulation models, this system allows a living organism to actively participate in planning decisions, translating ecological processes into design recommendations. Because the slime mould’s network optimisation behaviour arises from identifiable molecular signalling and transport pathways that have already been experimentally used in laboratory studies, this project also establishes a future synthetic-biology direction in which genetically tuned physiological responses could allow the organism to compute specific environmental variables (e.g., pollutants, soil conditions, or water stress). The project aims to prototype a biological planning instrument that mediates between community intention and environmental constraints, opening a new form of participatory urban design in which living systems become co-designers of cities.

• Week 2 HW: DNA, Read, and Write

  Part 1 Part 3 3.1. My chosen protein: Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) I chose Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) originally discovered in the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. I chose this protein because: It is one of the most important tools in modern biotechnology. It glows bright green under blue/UV light. Scientists use it as a reporter protein to see when genes are turned on inside living cells. It lets researchers literally watch biology happen. I retrieved the sequence using UniProt (a protein database).