hmmm… doesn’t seem to trivial to DIY that synthesis of those carbon nanotube “springs”.
Hey, wow had a look at your site, thats so cool!
Hey @Marc Dusseiller and @weiweiwei I will be able to come to Geneva!
Did your PE eating Waxworms already produce silk? is the pe completely dissolved or is the silk different? Howcoolwouldthatbe! A polyesther eating worm producing silk!
Did you try to feed them Polyesther as well?
QUestions over Questions…
Looking very much forwards to joining you in Geneva!
My thought when I was browsing the theme was: Could these bacteria or enzymes found in the intestines of the worm be implemented into a whale or maybe into crill, to make those anymals filter the oceans?
I am less of scientist but more concerned to textile-art, fashion and sustainability and raising awareness. For fashion Revolution Switzerland I am the person to develop campaigns and I am also into creating spatial installations.
Further more to approach the theme I was thinking about creating a giant textile “wormster” as a future scenario of a mutating worm growing massive, mirroring the fears of the crowd and acting as a “bag” to sack in all the fears of a incontrollable bacteria and insect take-over.
I am thinking about this installation a bit more…
Looking forwards to meeting everybody!
See you soon!
Corinna
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Yes, they produced silk, and what happened there was nearly incredible. I can’t give away any details yet, but I can tell you one thing already: it is completely different 
I would be happy to tell you more about it in person!
I like your thought about the whales, but the thing is that we don’t know yet what happens inside the worm. It could be a bacteria or an enzyme…but hopefully we will find out. There’s also a theory that says that the worm doesn’t degrade it completely, but chew it but into tiny pieces…We are currently doing some tests to find out more…
ahoj dear friends,
unfortunately i will not be able to participate in geneva… 
the project sounds really interesting and i would be happy to contribute another time, maybe we could organize a meeting in munich?!? its also possible to have a session on wormolution as part of the HUMUS sapiens retreat (25.-27.10) if someone is interested.
greetings to everyone!!
hi eleonore I am looking forwards to finding out more! (you propably know all the articles anyway…) this is what I found…
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30231-2
I found another article about sea worms that chew up styrofoam, but they only seem to produce Microplastics…
If the silk is different they might be splitting it up
Very interesting!
See you soon!
Corinna
Hi Corinna,
This article is the reason why I started the project about one year ago 
If you want to learn more about it, I can provide you all papers I have found about the topic.
About the silk thing: It is definitely a good sign, and this is our main focus right now. The results of the first tests are very promising…I will tell you more when we meet
Eleonore
is anyone interested in searching for wild worms (nematodes) that eat bacteria?
I could make some ‘attractive plates’ to put soil samples on and see what is lured there… Also for the search of microplastics, we have some nile red etc from Sachiko’s old space at Hackuarium. I hope to come on the 12th at least (maybe 14th/15th too, if I can get out of something…)
Hello everyone, 3 days before going to Zurich! Another idea (much more practical than the DSSC ideas) is to create giant laser dyed cyanotype canvas as in the pics I posted above, can be up to 2.5 to 2.5 meters. I can design some simple algorithms for real-time laser dye printing, data visualization, sound-graphic pattern conversion… Maybe that can work with @corinna.mattner’s giant installation? I am happy if anyone wanna share some datas from your experiments to apply to this data visualization installation.
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Dear Wei, Dear all
as all that is happening is going to be so thrilling I am considering to limit the “giant installation” of the Whaleworm to a research & Test version, as I fear that it will take all weekend to create it… I would be missing all the discourse of the others, and also its likely that the Whaleworm would need a longer discourse and developement phase. (I remember the Klöntal where I was spending all weekend diving into plantprinting, missing most of the others cool stuff)
So @Wei weiweiwear It would be great to have this huge Cyanotype Canvas. And I am really interested in this! I actually wanted to do some test since two years, but I never started it, so I would love to join you on this.
Do you need white cloth? I propably have some… I also bought lots of silk lately, in case we need.
Another friend of us is using sound to direct the lazers and I am sometimes joining sewing sound performances with some friends. So I had the thought if these sound patterns, that the lazers draw could be fixed on e cyanotype textile.
(we didnt have strong lazers to try)
So what I will do is:
bring polyester-blouses to start sewing and the waxworms could nibble on
prepare something to record and collect fears (does anyone have an old type writer?)
Do a better sketch of the WHALEWORM
Bring stuff to start sewing on a collective installation. (I will try to fix my portable sewing mashine)
Urs: The Hiseq frequencers is it the things you build from the Overhead projectors? Do the still work as Projectors? OR does anyone bring an overhead projector anyway?
Stuff I would need there:
a Ladder
an overhead projector and an old typewriter
or a beamer
some lights
@Marc
do you go by car?
What a week ahead!
Have a good trip Wei!
Looking forwards to meeting you all!
Cheers Corinna
hi @corinna.mattner,
yes we go by @paulapin24 car already tomorrow. best to call me today, so we can pack the stuff you need. i have overhead projector and beamer. Ladder we find there.
can you specify “some lights”?
m
Maybe with contact microphone attach to the fabric we can hear the nibble. (If they nibble)
And can turn the sound in to laser motions and leave the print on another cyanotype installation.
Recycled fabric sounds super.
Cyanotype can only be made in nature fibre like silk, cotton, linen.
dear all !
sorry for the delayed answer I been busy this days traveling. I really like the topics are already open and I would love to collaborate in them but I will love also to explore a bit how Spirulina and its extracted protein show good potentials of developing bio-plastics. As many of you know, I am a lover of cyanobacteria and the mobile lab on wheels in which I’m traveling is called CyanoVan because of that. As I have with me the Spirulina (Arthrospira) culture I will love to continue the activities I already start in Essen extracting the cyan pigment that is rich in polysacarids for cancer treatment and continue the idea of made plastic out of Spirulina. here some detailed paper about how to do it https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/wang_kun_201405_ms.pdf
tomorrow I will post the specific materials we need in order to know if we have them. looking fordward to meet you
best
pin
@corinna.mattner btw, for the fabric for the cyanotype, it has to be nature fibre and it’s better to be thin fabric. Can not be too thick.
The Wormolution has started!
We are on the way!
Printed posters and banners in Yogyakarta, packed the chemicals and tools in Zurich and now on the way in the CyanoVan to Geneva!
We will be landing and preparing a prototype setup of our lab today for the opening of the 1000 Ecologies festival in Le commun, so people get interested in what will follow later this week.
Last Minute Materials Preparations
We had many bilateral chats about preparing materials. Many things already with us and @gaudi will have time to pack the missing stuff from his own stock in GaudiLabs on Thursday morning.
We tried to keep track of what we have and what we need on our google docs. help us to keep it up to date!
Hi all, unfortunately I will not be able to join in Geneva 
, was looking greatly forward.
Still, hope to follow your hacking a bit from a distance, and to meet at a later time. Perhaps in Oslo, where I’ll be moving to shortly 
@dusjagr the poster design and that banner looks absolutely amazing, digging it!
@Eleonore , I have been checking the beworm website, very cool. At Amsterdam Biolabs for an event Plastics+Worms=:heart: we had a setup with mealworms (mealworm beatle larvae) that break down styrofoam, and all the time I’m wondering if your setup can be used with them as well.
At least in the Netherlands you can get meal worms at many pet stores as pet food.
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@rvdierendonck Thank you very much for your positive feedback on the website
As far as I know, mealworms work good with polyurethane and other foam materials as you say and show in the picture…My waxworms chew up these materials as well, but they die pretty soon after they ate it.
Polyethylene works better because (theoretically) they can break up the long carbon strings of polyethylene because of their natural diet, which contains beewax, a natural polymer. I’m not sure if mealworms have the same ability, what do they eat under natural conditions? Do you know what happens to the foam inside the worms?
@Eleonore The meal worms didn’t die, but we did feed them with some additional seeds as well.
Here’s two articles on meal worms breaking down Polysterene:
https://www.academia.edu/download/58082096/Yang_et_al._2015_worms_2.pdf
heihei all. wish you all so much fun in geneva.
I sent some worms to the exhibition, they are compost worms of the race Eisenia fetida.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida
I so far did not hear they eat plastic, besides veggies. You will for sure have some fun with them. here is the link to the homepage which is all about vermicompost.
https://www.wormup.ch/wormup-scale-1
the company is based in zurich and is scaling up in bigger size for creating more ecological Humus.
all best
Maya
Maya Minder
So we have arrived to Le Commun, in the Bâtiment d’art contemporain, parked the CyanoVan in the Gallery and setup our laboratory to start experimenting together.
Check our updated schedule on the wiki:
https://www.hackteria.org/wiki/Wormolution_-_Hackteria_Temporary_Autonomous_Laboratory_at_1000_Ecologies,_Geneva#Schedule