Film Made From Bacteria - 10 x Better Than Digital

captainslack said:
On second thought, better not use the bacteria film with radioactive lenses AT ALL! The film might grow to gigantic size and try to "develop" the photographer!
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Ha Ha...that made me laugh man, i've got a monitor covered in a a mouthful of coffee...doh!

Just wait until all the companies are investing in research and trying to get the competitive edge...what'll be next?

Kodak Cholera? Fuji Oyebola? Ilford Dysentry?

The mind boggles!
 
bmattock said:
I keep my eye on things. And things are happening in Bangalore these days.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
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It may be closer to home. Where I live in NYC, the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Hts. is known for its Indian businesses especially the restaurants where you can get an excellent all you can eat buffet for as little as $6.99. One of the best has been closed for the third time in a year by the Board of Health. What are they up to in the Kitchen? The people want to know.
Kurt M.
 
If this pans out and Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Ilford and others begin making film based on this new technology, the mountain of film cameras and lenses I've amassed may be worth a small fortune! Think what this could do for the used film camera values!! Holy Leicas, Batman!

Walker
 
Scarpia said:
It may be closer to home. Where I live in NYC, the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Hts. is known for its Indian businesses especially the restaurants where you can get an excellent all you can eat buffet for as little as $6.99. One of the best has been closed for the third time in a year by the Board of Health. What are they up to in the Kitchen? The people want to know.
Kurt M.
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Actually, the regular diners probably don't want to know ... ignorance is bliss!

There was a Mexican joint in Ft. Collins, Colorado that, years ago, got closed down because of, shall we say, questionable meat content. There was a flood of letters to the editor, protests to the health department, etc. Apparently the owners cleaned up their act, but the place never was the same again.

Earl
 
Trius said:
Actually, the regular diners probably don't want to know ... ignorance is bliss! There was a Mexican joint in Ft. Collins, Colorado that, years ago, got closed down because of, shall we say, questionable meat content. There was a flood of letters to the editor, protests to the health department, etc. Apparently the owners cleaned up their act, but the place never was the same again. Earl
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When I was stationed in Korea, the military urged us to NOT eat at the local establishments. The health standards and cleanliness were at best questionable. A number of the long-time GI's there assured me that some of the resturaunts served good food so I gave them a try and it was surprisingly good. I did have one rule though; I NEVER looked in the kitchen!

Walker
 
I suppose if you're shooting bacteria film you'd be better off using a "Petri" camera (har, har!). 😛

IIRC, didn't Petri once make a camera RF system called "green-o-matic"? Eeewww, that's perfect for bacteria film! The price of Petris is probably skyrocketing on evilbay....
 
This is very cool. But at the moment it is only black and white, right? That's how it sounded. I am sure there are some serious hurdles for this technology to overcome though. My question would be, how do you make it stable? Traditional film is a chemical process and quite stable when it has been processed correctly. How could you make the bacteria stable, so that they would not either turn back, or bio-degrade as it were. Also, you need to make sure that the process works equally well at all reasonable temperatures. And how do you make it durable enough to put it in a canister that you can use in any camera, and that is ok sitting on a shelf for a few months. I imagine these are very big hurdles for a biological product. Chemicals are easy -- they don't tend to change much unless they are exposed to the right conditions, bio matter is another, as it is living and requires sustenance of some sort or another...
 
Ok, we've had fun with it, but what does it really mean? There was a silver chemistry 10x advance 4 or 5 years ago - and I dont recall hearing anything since then (though it might be the current crop of 'high definition' films etc..) Will it save film? I think the convenience genie is already out of the bottle, face it - they've been throwing away their film cameras in droves since a couple years BEFORE the playing field was exactly level. I don't think 10x higher resolution is necessarily a selling point - and if it were left up to entirely new technology I think we'd see a 10x reduction in sensor size to take advantage of the DOF effects (keep in mind most people think of DOF - if they think of it at all - as a necessary limitation and really want everything in focus all the time.)

Now a 4-5 stop increase in sensitivity - that could save film, But there is no infrastructure for biological film, and I dont see Wal{-Mart,Greens},Eckerds,CVS, etc... excited about buying new film processing equipment, not when they can stick a glorified card reader and an inkjet in a kiosk.
 
Well, I think that if people are still paying for expensive glass, and also $13.00 for Kodachrome, I think this has a market.

BTW, the title: "E-coli bacteria rendered photosensitive by genetic anipulation will soon be used to make film that will be ten times more sensitive than currently available film. "

Typo? Maybe the editor had runny (or funny?) fingers.
 
The work, though, isn't intended for commercial markets.

"They aren't going to put Kodak out of business any time soon," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Drew Endy, a leading synthetic biologist.

Instead, the creation will be used as a sensor to start and stop more complex genetic engineering experiments. The idea is to create a genetically engineered cell that lays dormant until a laser is shined on it, prompting it into action.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7279844/did/10183948/

R.J.
 
ha, keep dreamin.. the sample looks like crap. How can they say it's sharper than covnetional film and digital when they present such sub-standard sample? Looks to be a clever idea for a paper and get some grants, but nothing tangible in real life.

051124_bact_image_02.jpg

http://www.livescience.com/php/mult...g+bacterial+photo.+Aaron+Chevalier+and+Nature
 
ywenz, you gotta realize this is not a product at B&H, it's a very first result from a completely new idea.
Alot depends on how much $ will be invested to do further development of it.
Don't expect it as something rolled and sold in 2006.
 
How would you process e.coli though?
there would necessarily be an investment in machines and chemicals.
Unless it is very low initial investment (I doubt)...can't see the new technology taken off.

Guess it will be another good idea flushed down the toilet!

Nick
 
I find it interesting to gauge the reactions to this. Frankly, I posted it as a funny, and many took it that way. I honestly don't think of it as a 'real' product that will come along and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the film vs digital wars. I was just posting something that I hoped many of you would find amusing - and many of you did.

But here's what I find the most amusing. Many of us attacked the idea immediately; "It won't work," we cried. "It sucks!"

Well, yes. It sucks. So did the airplane, at first. Hardly a proper plane at all, but look what it's gotten up to lately. From the Wright Brothers to a 747 in far less than 100 years. (A couple of you got that).

Film is being replaced by digital, and most of us wish that wasn't true. So here is a faint glimmer of hope - not much of one, but still a small chance. And what do we do? We tear the idea apart, that's what. Beat it to death. Oh, it's terrible. Oh, it sucks. Oh, it has no chance to survive.

Well, okay - your wish is granted. Welcome to WalMart - digital cameras are on aisle five.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
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