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Introduction
Introduction
Oil spills, plastic trash, and other industrial contamination places an untold burden on the world's fragile ecosystems. We can work to reduce further pollution and spills, but how do we remove what's already there? Scientist are harnessing nature to help clean up our mess using a method called bioremediation. The process uses living organisms (often microbes, fungi, plants, or some aquatic species) to digest the harmful pollutants into harmless products. Many of the organisms, termed bioremediators, already exist in nature.
Engineered microbes could be designed, using some of the genes found in naturally occurring organisms, to quickly and efficiently remove pollutants from a site. However, there are risks to releasing a man-made organism into the wild to divide uncontrollably. To keep their creations in check, scientist have designed "kill switch" DNA for their genetically engineering organisms to keep them from growing wild. Because of these "kill switches," bacteria that escape outside of their containment area or laboratory will die.
Programming Challenge:
Programming Challenge:
In this challenge, the robot is a model for an engineered bioremediator. Red and green bottle caps (when connected) form a harmful chemical, but on their own they are harmless. Program the robot to find the red/green "chemical" and separate it into harmless single bottle caps using an "enzyme" (the robot arm or mechanism you design to separate the bottle caps).
Requirements:
Requirements:
You must also include a "kill switch" in your program. Yellow dots, scattered on the mat, model a synthetic compound not found in nature. Your robot must use the presence of these yellow dots to "survive". When these yellow dots are removed, your robot must "die" (end program, leave the mat, etc.).
Bonus challenge:
Bonus challenge:
To keep the "chemical" from reforming, remove one color bottle cap (either red or green) from the mat after the "chemical bond" is broken.
Questions to guide your reading:
Questions to guide your reading:
What is bioremediation and how is it used?
What pollutants can be removed from the environment using in situ bioremediation?
How are scientist engineering organisms for bioremediation?
Why are scientists adding "kill switches" to the DNA of genetically modified organisms?
Reading material
Reading material
Treehugger: Bioremediation - Using Living Organisms to Clean the Environment
Scientific American: Slick Solution - How Microbes Will Clean Up the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Asian Scientist Magazine: A Kill Switch For Genetically Modified Algae
Scientific American: How Microbes Helped Clean BP's Oil Spill
Google Sites
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