βoihisʂa-ata

A Bacterial Home

βoihisʂa-ata is a textile that is a microbial fuel cell. When βoihisʂa-ata is buried in the ground, bacteria grow on its surface. Certain bacteria, called electrogenic bacteria, donate their electrons to nearby metals when they break down organic compounds for energy. When they grow on βoihisʂa-ata, they donate their electrons to the metal mesh of the textile, which creates an electrical current and generates an electrical power. A modified voltmeter on βoihisʂa-ata translates the electrical power generated to an estimate of the bacterial population necessary to produce this amount of electrical power.

Bacteria as Bio-Sensors

This bacterial population is incredibly sensitive to its environmental conditions, responding to different soil substrates, moisture levels, pH, temperature, and nutrition in its growth and electrical energy production. The discovery that these bacteria can be used as biosensors is recent and the scientific benchmarks for the different energy profiles which correspond to different compounds in the soil are still being researched. However, with βoihisʂa-ata ordinary citizens can take an active part in trying to read the soil by charting the growth of the bacteria over time and comparing it to their interpretation of what is happening around them.

Bacterial Human Collaboration

This is a radical vision which encourages innovation for a technology that is typically only investigated in scientific laboratories as an energy source, but whose potential goes far beyond that when seen as a biosensor which is robust, universal, and accessible. And placed in the hands of citizens through technological democratization, this biosensor proposes social innovation through the empowerment of individuals to better understand the soil’s health.