eyeball tech

I've read about microchips made to fit inside contact lenses has been worked on before, but at the time I thought it would mainly be used to make the glass part of Google Glass invisible, and render most stereotypical science fiction videos about augmented vision a reality. 

Apparently now Google has taken over its development under the guise of using it to monitor blood sugar levels in tears. Aside from the sinking feeling in my stomach about the social consequences of this, I find it pretty interesting that something like glucose levels can even be measured in your tears. There is a weird tension between taking something as emotional as your tears and using them for medical data collection. 

This article says glucose can be measured in saliva too, albeit not if you don't have the technology to hand. 

cheers to tears

Chemicals in tears

In a research conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, emotional tears from women have been found to reduce sexual arousal in men. Also, emotional tears are made up of a different chemical component than those evoked by eye irritants and can relay chemical messages to others.[13] The change in sex drive could be attributed to a drop in testosterone provoked by the tear chemicals, reducing aggression. In the animal world, it has been found that some blind mole rats rub tears all over their bodies as a strategy to keep aggressive mole rats away.[14]

Tear composition varies from tear types. Mainly, tears are composed of water, salts, antibodies and lysozymes (antibacterial enzymes). According to a discovery by Dr. William H. Frey II, a bio-chemist from St.Paul Ramsey medical center in Minnesota, the composition of tears caused by emotion differs from that of tears as a reaction to irritations, such as onion fumes, dust or allergy. Emotional tears are composed of more protein-based hormones, such as prolactin, andrenocorticotropic, and leucine enkephalin (a natural pain killer), which is suggested to be the mechanism behind the experience of crying from emotion making an individual feel better.[citation needed]

[from Wikipedia]

This article presents a rather interesting debate on the social and biological significance of tears, why humans are the only ones to cry emotionally and why we seem to feel better after crying with a friend. There is ample speculation in the science/ethnography field about tears being evolutionarily developed as biological signals for appeasement, weakness or attachment to an aggressor or dominant figure, which could be represented by the handicap of having our vision blurred. The author eventually contends however that the chemical makeup of our emotional tears have less to do with how they make us feel, than the social contexts and rituals in which we do our crying. He interestingly suggests that sometimes the surprise presence of tears could in fact trick us into feeling sad, merely because we are so culturally trained to make that connection. We've all witnessed the contagion of tears, where one hiccupy sob can set off an entire group of wails.

A psychological test suggested that tears clear up social ambiguity: when subjects were asked to rate the sadness/emotional state of the people in a range of photographs, in which some were crying and others had had their tears digitally removed. The photographs where the tears had been removed were not only rated as less sad, but were even confused for other emotions completely. 

This book also discusses the importance of companionship when crying; surprisingly, students in relationships were actually shown to cry more than single students, and people who admit to feeling lonely actually cry less than those who don't. The suggestion is that there's something about the feeling of attachment that comes socially that triggers the desire or acceptable context in which to cry, fostering an emotional bond and vulnerability. 

Perhaps this is the idea behind Japan's Crying Clubs where participants can meet up to watch sad movies and have a good sob. It's interesting for a country where public displays of emotion are rather taboo, but it's been successful enough to catch on in London in the form of a strange new clubbing experience. 

s'all in the saliva

The study of saliva is proving to be a rather interesting area for health, DNA testing and gene therapy. Personal genomics services like 23andMe use the cheek cells found in saliva to decode your DNA, but the saliva itself contains hundreds of proteins that keep the microbes that maintain your oral health alive. Apparently healthy saliva not only protects your teeth and tongue, but heals wounds faster and can even neutralise viruses like HIV. Dry mouth can actually have disastrous effects on aspects of daily life that most of us take completely for granted:

"... her mouth ended up so dry it wouldn't yield spit even when doctors tried milking her glands with a suction cup stuck inside her cheek. Unless she sipped water every few minutes, her mouth gummed up, her throat got scratchy, she croaked, and then she choked. Life's most humdrum events became tinged with new drama. She learned to favor slimy pastas and soups after a series of spectacular restaurant choking incidents--and a time, on a lunch date, when a wad of bread wedged fast under her lip, bulging it out like a chipmunk's cheek. "

Aside from DNA however, the chemical makeup of your saliva is apparently incredibly unique to each person, with no real geographical correlation, or even anything to do with age, gender or environment. Looks like it comes a lot more down to diet and hygiene, and also what types of medication you've been taking:

Differences in the bacterial composition among individuals from a particular place tended to be on par with the differences in the bacteria present between individuals from different places, indicating--to the team's surprise--that there were no geographical patterns. The researchers also did not find any correlation between the bacteria present and age, gender, or environmental factors, such as rainfall.

Maybe it might be worth playing a few rounds of Saliva of Fittest with myself, only using saliva samples taken at different types of day or after different meals. It could be interesting to see just how much the chemicals in my spit change and how it effects their digestive ability.

Scientists are also looking to saliva for as a new way to indicate the presence of certain diseases, making testing a whole lot easier than extracting blood. Saliva-testing would mean samples could be extracted again and again, introducing an accessibility for medicine that appears great on the surface, but I can't help but feel might have alternate consequences. In the context of biocommerce, eager medical scientists are sure to have dollar signs in their eyes at the potential ease with which they might be able to retain cellular disease information. 

Here's what Wikipedia had on the subject:

Lubricant

Saliva coats the oral mucosa, mechanically protecting it from trauma during eating, swallowing and speaking. In persons with little saliva (xerostomia), soreness of the mouth is very common, and the food (especially dry food) sticks to the inside of the mouth.

Digestion

The digestive functions of saliva include moistening food and helping to create a food bolus. This lubricative function of saliva allows the food bolus to be passed easily from the mouth into the esophagus. Saliva contains the enzyme amylase, also called ptyalin, which is capable of breaking down starch into simpler sugars that can be later absorbed or further broken down in the small intestine. Salivary glands also secrete salivary lipase (a more potent form of lipase) to begin fat digestion. Salivary lipase plays a large role in fat digestion in newborn infants as their pancreatic lipase still needs some time to develop.[5]

Antimicrobial function

Saliva has both a mechanical cleansing action and a specific (immunoglobulins, e.g. IgA) and non-specific immunologic action (e.g.lysozyme, lactoferrin and myeloperoxidase). These factors control the micro-organisms that survive in the mouth. It also has a protective function, helping to prevent dental plaque build-up on the teeth and washing away adhered food particles. Saliva is also key in preventing ascending infections of the salivary glands (e.g. parotitis).

Ion reservoir/Buffer function

Saliva is supersaturated with various ions. Certain salivary proteins prevents precipitation, which would form salts. These ions act as a buffer, keeping the acidity of the mouth within a certain range, typically ph 6.2 - 7.4. This prevents minerals in the dental hard tissues from dissolving.

Hormonal function

Saliva secretes hormone gustin, which is thought to play a role in the development of taste buds[6]

Role in taste

Saliva is very important in the sense of taste. It is the liquid medium in which chemicals are carried to taste receptor cells (mostly associated with lingual papillae). Persons with little saliva often complain of dysgeusia (i.e. disordered taste, e.g. reduced ability to taste, or having a bad, metallic taste at all times).

Wound licking

A common belief is that saliva contained in the mouth has natural disinfectants, which leads people to believe it is beneficial to "lick their wounds". Researchers at the University of Florida at Gainesville have discovered a protein called nerve growth factor (NGF) in the saliva of mice. Wounds doused with NGF healed twice as fast as untreated and unlicked wounds; therefore, saliva can help to heal wound in some species. NGF has not been found in human saliva; however, researchers find human saliva contains such antibacterial agents as secretory IgA, lactoferrin, lysozyme and peroxidase.[7] It has not been shown that human licking of wounds disinfects them, but licking is likely to help clean the wound by removing larger contaminants such as dirt and may help to directly remove infective bodies by brushing them away. Therefore, licking would be a way of wiping off pathogens, useful if clean water is not available to the animal or person.

The mouth of animals is the habitat of many bacteria, some pathogenic. Some diseases, such as herpes, can be transmitted through the mouth. Animal and human bites are routinely treated with systemic antibiotics because of the risk of septicemia.

And finally, an interesting tidbit – Swiftlets, a type of bird, apparently construct their nests entirely from saliva, which becomes petrified when exposed to air (and also happens to be an incredibly expensive delicacy in China). This is indeed the perfect embodiment of the materiality of the body... I wonder if human saliva could be manipulated in a similar way?

strange inventions

Nothing like an in-flight magazine to surprise you with weird and wonderful stories from around the world. Here a couple fave snaps from KLM's coverage of the Dutch Design Awards:

bacterial alchemy

The Great Work of the Metal Lover is a two part project by Adam W. Brown in which a bacteria is forced to convert soluble gold chloride into usable 24k gold within an engineered atmosphere contained in a bioreactor. The gold is then printed into images, with the bacteria depositing gold in selected areas using a scanning technique with the help of biofilms. 

It's a really interesting project that combines ancient and historical notions of value with modern technology and the ability to synthetically produce what was previously only mined, altering our perception of its worth and cultural relevance. From the project site:

"Gold has played a vital role throughout history, and has been recognized for its glorification of both humanity and the divine. It is treasured for its rarity, malleability and incorruptibility. It resists oxidation, corrosion and other chemical bonding processes. Like alchemy, gold is imbued with secrets of the earth, origins of life and early metabolic processes. The Great Work of the Metal Lover speaks directly to the scientific preoccupation with trying to shape and bend biology to our will within the post biological age, essentially questioning the ethical and political ramifications of attempting to perfect nature."

Apparently there are vast amounts of this untapped gold chloride dissolved in oceans and lakes, formed by these micro-organisms. I think this project has a lovely romance to it that illustrates a tension between an archaic human desire for divinity and glamour, and how these priorities vie and shift in the face of emerging technologies. 

How could these ideas be applied to the business of bodies and human tissue... if we could tailor micro-organisms that convert skin cells to gold, or something along those lines. Or what if human tissue/genetic information formed a new type of currency, stimulating an alternative economy that was biologically driven but still entrenched in the business and politics of today? I guess it comes down to Gattaca again. Human worth, genetic 'gold,' the quest for human perfection and divinity. There's something about this gold being found in our lakes and oceans, and how it all remains unused and untapped. There must be something in the chemical makeup of our bodies that could serve a similar purpose.. the hidden gold of our bodies. 

bizarre experiments

Vacationing in Tokyo has made getting on with practical work a bit of a struggle [not to mention the looming urgency of contextual report] but that’s not to say I haven’t come across some interesting bits of info that could be great inspiration. 

My haphazard stab-in-the-dark forays into the world of science seemed like the perfect occasion to buy a book I first started eyeing sometime last year: Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments. This is an amazing collection of stories about mad scientists through the ages doing mental and unspeakable things to animals, other people and themselves. Some of them are pretty hard to believe – the entire first chapter is dedicated to various attempts at reviving the dead, using a combination of artificial circulatory systems and electrical circuits. 

Dr. Demikhov’s Two-Headed Dogs were especially brutal [brace yourself for some awful images], but interesting because of their entanglements with the Cold War. Seems there was a surgery-race alongside the arms, space and whatever else races, and it confirms just how politically charged breakthrough science technology can be, especially when it comes to things that really stokes the futurist imagination. Synthetic biology will surely produce equally impressive yet farcical mutant creations that serve no real purpose other than showmanship. Definitely when it comes to genetic manipulation in humans, the implications for health care, business and even sports will all make political waves. 

There were some other stories involving the senses that were considerably less morbid. After seeing Sissel Tolaas’ smell works in person, I noticed a few connections to her ideas, particularly the thing about body odour and cheese, and how influential the power of suggestion can be [Smell Illusions]. There was another experiment that found the introduction of certain smells into environments can get you to spend more money, although the experiment wasn’t detailed enough to pinpoint exactly what smells work best. It definitely makes sense that some smells could put you at ease, and others make you stressed or disturbed, without you consciously understanding how or why. Pheromones are particularly relevant to the project I think, and apparently scientists have discovered a tiny opening in the nose that is specifically tailored to picking up the pheromones of other humans. The conclusion is that this is how women end up syncing their periods when spending extended amounts of time together. The precise extent to which pheromones actually affect humans is still inconclusive, so I wouldn’t go buying into any consumer products that claim otherwise, but it could be an interesting avenue to explore. 

bunny smash: design in cultural flux

I'm in Tokyo! Happy days. Of course I've wasted no time in heading straight to the Museum of Contemporary Art, to catch up on whatever creative wonders Tokyo always offers. In some freakish accident of perfect timing, the currently showing exhibition entitled 'Usagi Smash' or 'Bunny Smash' represented 21 different designers whose work take a alternative perspectives on design and its placement in culture and society.

I was amazed and delighted to see the E.Chromi and Growth Assembly projects of my ultimate role model Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg sitting right alongside the Life Support work of one of my course tutors Tuur Van Balen. These 3 projects have probably dealt the heaviest influence on my design thinking, so it was great to see it all up close in person. 

Another designer represented at the show was smell artist Sissel Tolaas, who I've been constantly seeing on the periphery of my research. Tolaas has been doing all kinds of things that remind me of my own experiments, including mapping out the smell-scapes of a city, and collecting the sweat of anxious men and comparing their chemical makeup and odour differences. It was all fascinating and fun to interact with, fostering this weird tension between the yuckiness of smelling an anxious stranger's body odour and the intrigue of learning about smells and pheromones. I definitely think this factor is something to remember for the presentation of my own work, balancing this yuckiness, curiosity and interactivity. 

I wish I could go into detail about all the work from the show, from the beautiful to the clever to the crazy, but I would just end up writing a catalogue of the thing. If anyone reading this happens to be in Tokyo, Bunny Smash is my current primary recommendation.