After the first two weeks of class, I was asking, “What did I get myself into?” In the same period, three of our original fifteen students had dropped the class, at least one of whom could not believe how hard it was.
Yet, despite the initially surprisingly large workload, I stayed. I was intrigued. “Harnessing Life’s Molecular Machines: From AIDS tests to Hydrogen Cars” simply had me hooked. Yet even with this interesting, and complicated, title, I never expected the learning and experience opportunities that were presented by this class.
The class had a wide variety of components that were all crucial to the learning process. From field trips to guest speakers, from in-class discussions to blogs, this seminar was a class such as I have never taken at
From the first day, with our class-wide viewing of professor Macosko’s favorite animated film (so far) by XVIVO, I knew that the class would be hard, complicated, interesting, and fun. It seemed as if it was tailored to my exact specifications. Molecular machines were a field of biology that I had little experience with, and entrepreneurship was a field I had no experience with. Yet now, I feel adept with both.
To an outsider coming into the class, it might seem as if we were involved in a high level biophysics course. We even had an upper class textbook as a PDF file on our laptops. Yet here we were, a group of fourteen freshmen and one sophomore, embarking on a journey of epically miniscule proportions.
Our various discussions kept the class engaged and interesting. Our first discussion was concerned with answering the question “Are humans just machines?” I adamantly argued that they were, playing the devil’s advocate. This later earned my group the affectionate name of “The Machines.” I am still not sure if anyone knows that I think there are more components to humanity that just the sum of our parts, but I did not have an adequate explanation as to why at the time, and it appeared as if no one else did either.
Our next discussion questioned the implications of Grey and Green Goo. The general idea involved a concept invented by a certain Eric Drexler, author of 1986 book Engines of Creation. Grey goo is a term describing an apocalyptic scenario in which the nanotechnology we, as future scientists, have the potential to create takes over the world. The concept of green goo extends this idea to bionanotechnology, which my have equally scary implactions. Perhaps we will invent, discover, and create to the point where we can no longer control our own technology, and it will destroy us in the end. So warns Eric Drexler.
After this, we had a long break filled with hard work, guest speakers and field trips until our next discussion on philosophical and technological biases in science. We pointed out how technical biases remain due to financial issues, while philosophical biases are deeply set in the beliefs of the people, and are therefore at least equally difficult to dislodge. We went on to discuss how these biases affect thoughts on global warming, and extended these ideas to the field of scientific research as a whole. Essentially, we said that it is financially easier to sit back and do nothing about global warming in the short run, and that people are so comfortable in their lives of luxuries, that they do not even recognize them as luxurious anymore, and therefore are unwilling to sacrifice for the not-so-distant future. Personally, I found this discussion the most important of all, since it has potential to have serious effects on our generation, and we will be the first who will have to take action against global warming.
Throughout the semester, we had several guest speakers. The first, Dr. Ray Kuhn, came and discussed his venture with a diagnostic test for bacteria on catfish. Because the fishery industry in the southeast is a multi-million dollar market, Dr. Kuhn’s test can save these fisheries a lot of money, while making him and his students a lot of money. His idea depends on maintaining the secrecy of how his test works, and he can do this with patents and copyrights. His company is likely to gross millions in profits within the next five years. Intriguingly, it started the same way our “BioBotz Inc.” company is starting, with a faculty advisor and a group of devoted young students.
The next speaker, Walter Bradley, explained how he could use the coconut market in developing countries to jumpstart the economies of failing communities. He explained how far-reaching coconut growth could be, and what the market could extend to. He took a philosophy reminiscent of a Native American, in which he used every single part of the coconut to create goods. He used the pulp for food and to create coconut butter, the milk as a drink and a fuel, the husk as a material to press into particle board, and the shell as a material to be used similar to plastics or ceramics. He planned to teach communities how to create all these things, and then give them the means to self sustain their villages.
The final guest speaker, Graham Johnson, was a medical animator that showed us how he animated and illustrated molecular machines for biology and medical texts. His background in science and talent for art allow him to occupy a very small niche, and his art was accurate and astonishing. It was intriguing that such advanced animation could be used to so accurately portray molecular machines.
Field trips made up a substantial portion of the course as well. The first, our trip to the
Our second field trip, this one to Professor Macosko’s laboratory, illumined the actual lab technology required to research molecular machines, and exactly how difficult it is. We heard about how cloning of bacteria simplifies the creation of proteins immensely, and how beads and fluorescence can track the progress of motor proteins.
Our third field trip went downtown to hear Peter Perret discuss auditory learning in children. He professed that a correlation between music and learning existed and showed convincing numbers supporting this idea from research conducted in
I had a much more personal and individual field trip to Out of Our Minds Studios, an animation company that had an impressive number of awards on the mantle upon entering their office in downtown
Another major component of the class was student presentations. Each student was required to present on three different molecular machines throughout the semester. I began with a presentation on myosin and its interaction with acting. Myosin is a molecular walker that drives muscle contraction and tows organelles inside the cell. My next presentation was on an enzyme called glucose oxidase, used in almost all diabetes glucose meters. My final presentation concerned the business plan my group mates and I wrote in order to receive a grant from the Center for Entrepreneurship. We explained our general thought processes and methods, and later found out that our grant proposal received almost the full amount of the $1000 goal.
Despite all these intriguing and fun aspects of the course, by far the most interesting has been the development of BioBotz Inc. BioBotz Inc. is a budding corporation thought up by Professor Macosko, and left to my partners and I to get on its feet. Beginning with applying for a $1000 grant for initial development, the company hopes to use larger grants and investors to create a children’s book, television cartoon, and video game based on the inner workings of the cell and, more importantly, a molecular machine called kinesin. Kinesin is a tiny machine that tows bodies that are many times its size from place to place throughout the cell. Our long term goals are to get a larger television studio to take over development of the show, and then to market our television show, video game, storybooks, and associated products such as action figures and stuffed toys. We want to combine entertainment with education in order to allow the country’s future scientists to explore the interior of the cell in a fun, interactive way.
The creation of this company has been my personal project, far beyond the capacities of the class. Originally, it began with Professor Macosko, my two group partners, and I creating the grant proposal. Now, we have two artists, eight freshmen from the class, a children’s book researcher from the art department, Professor Macosko, and Professor Varner from the entrepreneurship department, involved. Its development has resulted in the foundation of an entrepreneurship class devoted entirely to continuing to develop the company that almost all the freshmen involved are taking this fall. The company is already beginning to grow. With our initial grant, we can begin development of our children’s book and storyboard over the summer, and hopefully we can use market research at schools to validate our idea and convince large grant holders to give us more money. I hope that as we develop, we can teach, entertain, and make money, all at the same time.
It appears as if no one else has come up with an idea that takes the story inside the cell. We hope that our originality and appeal to education will make our product unique and reputable. We also hope that it is entertaining enough to become main stream, in order to make some money. I think that we looked at these molecular machines at the perfect time. Everything in the world, in technology, has entered a trend of smaller. There is now an iPod that is smaller than one square inch, and is clipped to whatever clothes the consumer is wearing. Hopefully, people will retain interest in a world growing ever-smaller.
Overall, I have never been involved with such a class. Through discussion, presentation, argumentation, research, writing, traveling, and proposing, I have learned more about entrepreneurship and molecular machines and their applications than I could have in any other setting. It is no wonder that the class won the Entrepreneurship Award for Course Development. Taking an innovative route, using unconventional methods, yet including the necessary parts of a first year seminar, this class deserved the award more than any other. I pity the few that dropped the class, I am proud to have taken it, and cannot wait to apply what I have learned to the development of BioBotz with my classmates. I look forward to continuing its development and, hopefully, making the big bucks.
