The wild ride of a digital artefact: A contextual essay

I’ve said it before in both my pitch and beta videos, and I’ll say it again: the concept of a digital artefact was completely foreign to me before this class, and what a learning experience it has been!

From the moment I received feedback on my pitch I mostly felt frustration. While  I received some great feedback from my classmates, I quickly figured out the original concept for my project wasn’t going to work out.  I initially planned to make three video essays but I quickly realised that technology is not exactly my strong point and it would take me far too long to create one video, let alone three. My idea then evolved into blog posts, and as a former journalism student, this was a medium that I was far more comfortable with.

Not only did the medium for my digital artefact change, so too did the content matter. I outlined my initial three videos as the future of agriculture, medicine, and technology, but throughout this process, they slightly morphed into something different. While I did end up doing a blog post for both agriculture and medicine, I changed technology to the future of waste. More specifically for all three of these blog posts, I kept a central theme of exploring each topic within the lens of insects. I spoke of focusing on this aspect of the future in my beta video, which got a lot of positive feedback from classmates, friends, and family, so I knew that I was onto something that people might be interested in.

While I do think that the target audience for my digital artefact is likely to be someone that has a previously established interest in insects, I also think that it would appeal to anyone that is interested in alternative solutions to the problems of today and the future.

My outlook on my project really started to change after completing my first blog post. As I mentioned earlier it was while researching and writing this post that I began to feel more confident in the work that I was producing and I found out that I have a genuine interest in insects.

As far as the approach for my D.A. goes, I used a more research-based, factual method. Instead of imaging a far-out fictional future in which we HAVE to rely on insects I chose to explore why they are a very viable option for future cultures to use.

The first of my blog post was about how insects may be the future of the agricultural industry. It was after writing this blog post that I discovered that there was a whole future out there that might need to rely on insects in just about every industry.

My second blog post explores how insects could help us to reduce our waste both organic and plastic.

And my third and final blog post looks at the relationship between insects and medicine, and how the use of them may lead to some incredible medical breakthroughs.

While it was certainly trying to do so much research on each topic, I overall really enjoyed this experience and I am extremely proud of my digital artefact. And as another positive take away I am seriously considering going back to uni to study entomology if things with my current degree don’t work out!

 

 

Bee-cause that pesky insect might just save your life one day. D.A. Part 3

Besides being annoyed with, or eating them perhaps our longest and most important relationship with insects has been with their use in medicine. Ancient cultures from all over the world have used insects for numerous medical reasons.

Here in Australia Aboriginals used Green Tree Ants as a remedy for headaches and colds by crushing them up and making a tea-like beverage. Across South America and Africa, indigenous tribes used Army Ants as a way to stitch up wounds by allowing the ants to bite on the open wound, pinching it together, the body was then ripped off leaving the head and pinchers in the skin (Survival Goods, 2019). In ancient Asian cultures, Blister beetles were used as an early treatment for erectile dysfunction, but in more recent times their fluids have been diluted to be used as relief from burning sensations caused by insect bites, first and second-degree burns and even urinary tract infections (Turk, 2012).

As time has progressed the use of insects for medicinal purposes has only increased in effectiveness for a multitude of illnesses and injuries. Bees, for example, have been proven to be extremely useful. Right from their honey – which can be used in chapsticks and lotions and when consumed locally, it can be used to help with allergies – to their venom which can be used as an anti-inflammatory and as pain relief.

Even the peskiest of pests have incredible abilities in the medical world. That’s right, I’m talking about flies and mosquitos. Blowflies, in particular, their lifecycle, are used by forensic scientists to accurately tell how a body has been decomposing which gives them the time of death. Furthermore, common housefly larvae extracts can be used in antibiotics for the treatment of fungus infections. Mosquitos, although notoriously known for spreading diseases have been deemed useful in some situations. Although it’s not the most common, or effective way to treat syphilis, malaria-infected mosquitos are used to infect patients with malaria which in turn eats away at the syphilis infection, of course, the patient will then have to be treated for malaria once they have been cured of their STI.

 

 

The list for past and present uses for hundreds of different species of insects goes on and on, but how might insects be of further use to doctors and researchers in the future?

Let’s go back to bees and their relatives the wasp. Bee and wasp venom is already being studied for it’s potential as a cure for cancer. In fact, wasp venom has been successfully used to eradicate certain cancer cells while leaving healthy ones alone. “The cancer-targeting toxin in the wasp is called MP1 (Polybia-MP1) and until now, how it selectively eliminates cancer cells was unknown. According to new research, it exploits the atypical arrangement of fats, or lipids, in cancer cell membranes” (IFLScience, n.d.). While it has been successful, there is much more research that must be conducted before it is a viable option for people. Bee venom has been named as a potential cure for HIV as it attacks the unhealthy cells in the same way that wasp venom does to cancer (Nordqvist, 2013). 

Another possible use for insects that scientists have identified is the ‘use of bugs to cure superbugs’. You might be familiar with the fact that our bodies build up a resistance to antibiotics thus causing the strain to mutate in a way that makes our current antibiotics useless. The term “peak pharma” gets passed around in the medical community eluding the notion that a whole bunch of curable diseases and illnesses are about to get a whole new lease on life, and we might not be ready. An example of a super strain that is already starting to mutate and become harder to treat is gonorrhea, but even ailments like depression and cancers will get a new lease of life. But according to Ross Piper, an entomologist, and researcher at the University of Leeds, there is a huge amount of untapped potential in insects just waiting to be discovered to cure these diseases and illnesses (Farah, 2018).

Both in short and long-term time periods, the use of insects in medicine will continue to be an extremely challenging but rewarding process. Goals in both time frames will rely heavily on research and funding. Entomologists, doctors, scientists, and researchers will have a big job ahead of them in refining the uses for insects that have previously been identified as viable, and in identifying new insects that can be used. Another goal for the industry is to be able to take the DNA sequence in certain insects that are working and then replicating it synthetically in a lab to be used in mass quantities.

So the next time you see a creepy crawly in your house or have an annoying fly buzzing around your ear try to remember that they might just be the very thing to save your life!

References:

Survival-goods.com. (2019). 15 Insects You Can Use To Cure Wounds And Diseases. [online] Available at: https://www.survival-goods.com/15-Insects-You-Can-Use-To-Cure-Wounds-And-Diseases-s/500.htm 

Turk, A. (2012). 10 Surprising Uses of Insects in Medicine. [online] Nursing School Rankings. Available at: http://www.nursing-school-rankings.com/10-surprising-uses-of-insects-in-medicine/ 

Lupo, L. (2019). Using Insects as Medical Cures – Past and Present. [online] The Spruce. Available at: https://www.thespruce.com/medical-insects-that-heal-2656717 

IFLScience. (n.d.). Brazilian Wasp Venom Kills Cancer Cells, But Not Healthy Cells. [online] Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/brazilian-wasp-venom-kills-cancer-cells-not-healthy-cells/ 

Nordqvist, C. (2013). Bee Venom Destroys HIV And Spares Surrounding Cells. Medical News Today. [online] Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/257437.php 

Farah, T. (2018). Drugs from Bugs: Bioprospecting Insects to Fight Superbugs. Discover Magazine: Science for the curious. [online] Available at: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2018/04/13/drugs-insects-antibiotics-superbugs/#.XPo2AdMzbOQ 

Ratcliffe, N., Azambuja, P. and Mello, C. (2014). Recent Advances in Developing Insect Natural Products as Potential Modern Day Medicines. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, [online] 2014, pp.1-21. Available at: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/904958/.

These little guys might eat their way to a better future in waste management. D.A. Part 2

The world has a waste problem. This isn’t new and it’s not surprising, but what may be surprising is that even ancient civilisations seemed to have an issue with waste management.

In as early as 6,500 BC archeologists have found that a Native American tribe that lived in the area of what is now known as Colorado, produced an average of 2.4 kilos of trash a day. Around 500 BC Athens Greece became home to the first organized city dump in western civilisation, making it a rule that garbage had to be disposed of no closer than 1.6 kilometers from the city limits. Fast forward to 1899-1901 and local authorities around the world begin to consider trash as one of the biggest problems facing communities. It was around this time that people began to feed garbage to pigs as a means of disposal, a practice known as “piggeries”.  (Barbalace, 2003).

But even though the first civilisations had trash issues, the Industrial Revolution really kicked off our bad trash habits and shaped the way we see waste now. It was during this time that items like flour, that people previously had to buy in bulk, became available for purchase in smaller sizes and single-use items became increasingly popular (Mitchell, 2017).  Waste has and will continue, to be one of the greatest issues facing our planet globally. Around the world, we dump a total of 2.16 billion tons of waste every year, and 99% of the stuff we buy gets thrown out within 6 months of buying it (The World Counts, n.d.). This number is only set to increase as our population rises. Without drastic change, the World Bank has estimated that by 2050 there will be a 70% increase in the trash we produce, and in effect, globally we will produce 3.10 billion tons of waste annually (World Bank 2019).

So what can be done about this trash epidemic? On a large scale, companies need to be held accountable for the products they produce, the method in which those products were made, and in what resources were used and how they were collected. On a smaller scale, we as consumers can make better choices about which companies to support and which products to buy. We can also make sure that we try to purchase as little single-use plastic as possible, recycle correctly, and we can put our organic matter to good use by composting them.

There is also another possible solution to some of our current trash woes, and it has the power to rid the world of waste one tiny mouthful at a time. I’m talking about insects.

Insects are a brilliant way to help us reduce our organic matter. Here in Australia companies like Goterra, are already implementing the use of insects for waste management.  In 2018 they planned to use their larvae, which comes from the black soldier fly, to process around 200 tons of waste. They then put the processed waste to further use by turning it into feed for livestock, or by using it as a soil conditioner (Claughton and Bryant, 2018). 

While farms like these may help to solve the organic waste problem there is still the issue of items that can’t be broken down as easily like plastic.

In the last 5 or so years, scientists have found two different types of larvae that can break down plastics. A team of researchers at the University of Stanford, California were able to successfully raise the larvae of the darkling beetle off a strict diet of styrofoam due to a particular type of bacteria they have in their gut.  The research found that the mealworms showed no sign of ill health and were even as healthy as the control group, which ate only bran products, although they will continue to monitor the future generations of the beetle to make sure there are no side effects down the road, scientists are excited about the results and what this could mean for the future of plastics (Coldewey, 2015).

Likewise, a research team at the University of Cantabria, Spain found that waxworms, the larvae of the Greater Wax Moth also known as the Honey Moth, have a similar gut bacteria that allows them to break down polyethylene- the carbon atoms that are found in many plastic products like plastic bags (Arnold 2017).

The discovery of these gut bacterias is certainly an amazing breakthrough, but larvae breakdown the plastic materials at a very slow rate. For the darkling beetle larvae, each worm can eat only a few dozen milligrams per day. The waxworm is even less efficient as it takes 100 worms to breakdown just 92 milligrams of a plastic bag overnight, meaning it would take them around a month to eat one normal sized plastic bag.

Some of the short term goals for companies like Goterra that use insects to breakdown organic waste are in getting more funding, as well as working with lawmakers to make it easier to import insects. The short term goals for insects that can digest plastics are more research and funding to explore what other types of insects may be able to break down the materials, as well as other possible types of plastics that can be broken down.

Longer term goals for each perspective industry are a little more difficult.  Perhaps companies that use insects for organic waste might look at implementing containers that can be used at every home, or at least available in every town or city. For scientists and researchers, they may look at trying to reproduce the insects natural gut bacteria and apply it at a large scale level to breakdown plastics quicker, and in much larger quantities.

Whether you’re an insect lover or a keen environmentalist, the idea of using insects for the future of waste management is fascinating. Only time will tell if insects will be as effective as other options, but there are a lot of benefits to them, they’re a pretty durable species, they reproduce and mature relatively quickly, and they don’t need very much space to thrive!

 

References:

Kenneth Barbalace. The History of Waste. EnvironmentalChemistry.com. Aug. 2003.
https://EnvironmentalChemistry.com/yogi/environmental/wastehistory.html

World Bank. (2019). Solid Waste Management. [online] Available at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/brief/solid-waste-management 

The World Counts. (n.d.). Tons of waste dumped – globally, this year. [online] Available at: https://www.theworldcounts.com/counters/shocking_environmental_facts_and_statistics/world_waste_facts 

Mitchell, N. (2017). A Brief History of Trash, Or Why We Might be Living in the Golden Age of Garbage. [online] Apartment Therapy. Available at: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/a-brief-history-of-garbage-232332 

Goterra. (2019). Waste management — Goterra. [online] Available at: https://www.goterra.com.au/waste-management

Claughton, D. and Bryant, S. (2018). Could insects munch their way through the world’s waste? Could insects. ABC. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-05-10/insects-could-solve-the-worlds-waste-problems/9714190

Coldewey, D. (2015). INNOVATION Styrofoam-Eating Mealworms Could Happily Dispose of Plastic Waste. NBC News. [online] Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/styrofoam-eating-mealworms-could-happily-dispose-plastic-waste-n435901

Jordan, R. (2015). September 29, 2015 Plastic-eating worms may offer solution to mounting waste, Stanford researchers discover. Stanford News Service. [online] Available at: https://news.stanford.edu/pr/2015/pr-worms-digest-plastics-092915.html 

Arnold, C. (2017). This Bug Can Eat Plastic. But Can It Clean Up Our Mess?. National Geographic. [online] Available at: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/wax-worms-eat-plastic-polyethylene-trash-pollution-cleanup/