Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Marimo machines: Oscillators, biosensors and actuators

Phillips, Neil; Draper, Thomas C.; Mayne, Richard; Adamatzky, Andrew

Marimo machines: Oscillators, biosensors and actuators Thumbnail


Authors

Profile Image

Dr Neil Phillips Neil.Phillips@uwe.ac.uk
Research Fellow in Fungal Analog Electronics

Dr Thomas Draper Tom.Draper@uwe.ac.uk
Research Fellow Biosensing/ Healthcare Technology

Richard Mayne Richard.Mayne@uwe.ac.uk
Lecturer in Maths Supporting Science



Abstract

Background
The green algae balls (Aegagropila linnaei), known as Marimo, are large spherical colonies of live photosynthetic filaments, formed by rolling water currents in freshwater lakes. Photosynthesis therein produces gas bubbles that can attach to the Marimo, consequently changing its buoyancy. This property allows them to float in the presence of light and sink in its absence.

Results
We demonstrate that this ability can be harnessed to make actuators, biosensors and bioprocessors (oscillator, logic gates). Factors affecting Marimo movement have been studied to enable the design, construction and testing of working prototypes.

Conclusions
A novel actuator design is reported, incorporating an enhanced bubble retention system and the design and optimisation of a bio-oscillator is demonstrated. A range of logic gates (or, and, nor, nand, xor) implementable with Marimo have been proposed.

Citation

Phillips, N., Draper, T. C., Mayne, R., & Adamatzky, A. (2019). Marimo machines: Oscillators, biosensors and actuators. Journal of Biological Engineering, 13(1), Article 72. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13036-019-0200-5

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 8, 2019
Online Publication Date Sep 3, 2019
Publication Date Sep 3, 2019
Deposit Date Sep 26, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Biological Engineering
Electronic ISSN 1754-1611
Publisher BioMed Central
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 13
Issue 1
Article Number 72
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s13036-019-0200-5
Keywords Environmental Engineering; Cell Biology; Molecular Biology; Biomedical Engineering
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/3238138
Publisher URL https://rdcu.be/bQf5s
Additional Information Note of Correction: Reference 20 should read "Phillips NW. WO Patent. 2005. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1479329" in the final text.

Files

Marimo Machines - Oscillators Biosensors And Actuators (4.9 Mb)
PDF

Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.


13036 2019 200 MOESM1 ESM (1.8 Mb)
PDF

Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.


13036 2019 200 MOESM2 ESM (13.4 Mb)
Video

Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.


13036 2019 200 MOESM3 ESM (12.6 Mb)
Video

Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.


13036 2019 200 MOESM4 ESM (12.9 Mb)
Video

Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.


13036 2019 200 MOESM5 ESM (12 Kb)
Spreadsheet

Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.







You might also like



Downloadable Citations