mining for nutrition – soil gut

relationship between soil and the human gut?

how can and exploration of the human gut and its entanglement with soil help foster better a deeper understanding of topsoil ecosystems and ecological health? planitary soil.

I am looking at the human body as an interface to better relate to our degraded soil health. There is no global treaty of soil health yet declining nutrients are causing global health deficiencies. Soil are the foundation to nutrient cycles that sustain us all yet our relationship to it is detached and un-related and un-entangled.

The human gut and the ecosystem of the soil are comparable.

nutrients in soil is dramatically declining with conventional agriculture. soil health is an intangible concept, very far away from those of us eating and wearing the fruits of its labour. in Britain, an orange has 9 times less vitamins compared to one grown in the 1950’s. in the bread basket countries of the global south, nutrient deficiency have already impacted millions of women and girls and its predicted to only get worse.

alchemy was a pseudo scientific practice of transmutation, changing states of matter. in a global food system and climatic circumstances that will make 3% of the planet uninhabitable by 2100, where will we have to get nutrients from?

42% of UK residents struggle with IBS and gut related problems and this is often down to diet and the lack of nutrients the food we grow.

  • metaphysics – the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, identity, time, and space.
  • speculative realist

TO DO

  • see if/get Regenesis out of the library – I want to go back over certain sections
  • book grow lab
    • vitamin powder
    • polarising glasses
  • ask henry if I can extract the e-waste that he volunteered
    • find tip/recycling unit to go get more e-waste – look up how to mine e-waste? youtube.
    • I should check msg with Huda and go to the tip near kings cross?
  • get some wool fibres and a woollen jumper
  • speak to grow lab about visualising the level of the vitamin and mineral molecules?
  • speak to a nutritionist….

TO RESEARCH

  • use speculative realist perspectives on hyperobjects (timothy mortom) and the real object of top soil (graham harmen)… rulling abstractions…
  • explore soil mythologies
  • soil maps of uk
  • explore specific minerals eg nitrates and phosphates
  • which same 4 bacteria dominate soil and gut?
  • Magic foods! Magic fruits! Good supplements from the future! The variety of fibre and veg we need. Cooking is chemistry, bio science 
  • Could I develop the tools to quantify nutrients in things?
  • Material characterisation (explore this skill and define the skill set and apply to this project) 
  • Nutrient characterisation? Would this use light or colour? How to build up a spectrum of characters
  • Chat to alex about soil 
  • Chat to Irene microbiome (final proj)
  • READ Polarized Light Microscopy: Revealing Hidden Structures
  • modern systems of fortifying foods
    • how could I go about extracting them from wool/soil/metals
    • IBS and gut related problems and this is often down to diet and the lack of nutrients the food we grow
  • what are the 20 sense
  • where is the data in this project?
  • is it possible to absorb nutrients through out textiles
  • Jane Scot wool 
  • Wool as substrate – living paint!?
  • explore words – as this always inspires me
  • fractal scaling? how can this be producing using runway etc? could make annimations from the vit visualisations if they work
  • need to find two locations to get soil from to compare vitamins? mind soil map?

NEW BOOKS

  • Dr. Lynn Margulis in her 1991 book Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation
  • Aurora – kin stanley robinson

Wendell Berry describes in his essay ‘The Pleasures of Eating’ “the industrial eater is, in fact, one who does not know that eating is an agricultural act, who no longer knows or imagines the connections between eating and the land.” ‘of cultural amnesia’

rhizosphere as gut

rhizosphere is like an external gut. in both case bacteria/microbes break down organic matter into simpler compounds that the plant or person can absorb. there are 1000 fila (major groups of bacteria) the same 4 dominate the rhizosphere and the guts of mammals. are these the most ‘cooperative’ types of bacteria? human infant immune systems are less active then that of adults, enabling a wide range of bacteria to establish in our guts, similarly young plants release fewer defensive compounds into the soil than older ones, allowing a broad verity of microbes to colonise their rhizosphere. human breast milk contains sugars called …. which are compounds that babies can’t actually digest but they are specifically to feed a specific group of bacteria that need to be developed that help to calibrate the immunes system. young plants release sucrose into the soil to feed their new microbiomes. just as the bacteria in our gut out compete and attach invading pathogens, the microbes in the rhizosphere create a defensive ring out the root – plants feed certain bacteria so they can crowd out certain pathogenic microbes and fungi, they deploy chemical warfare, releasing poisons that suppress harmful microbes and encourage helpful ones.because plants immune system co-evolved with the rhizosphere, it can’t work any other way than long back and forth communication such as releasing hormones into the soil when it is being attacked above ground sound that certain bacteria can respond by releasing their own hormone which in turn then allows the plant to release defensive chemicals in its leaves and to shut stomatta pores so fungi can’t invade

luminous symbiotic bacteria – civil war battle Shiloh Tennessee 1862, angles glow. insect eating nemetodes invaded the wounds and regurgitated bacteria and the antibiotics would have killed the other pathogens. genome mining helps to discover new antibiotics in the bacteria that live with plants

  • we need healthy and diverse soil to find antibiotics

less diverse diets with less fibre + over use of antibiotic + excessive hygiene = damages out gut biomes, reducing the number of species they contain which harms our dietry health and immunes sytems

plants seem to be less capable of fighting of pahtogens when they grow in damaged soils with a low diversity of microbes. where soil has been harmed by too much fertiliser, pesticides or fungicides, eccessive ploughing or crushing by heavy machinery, their crys for help are more likely to be exploited by parasites and pests

  • disposes = medical term for the collapse of our gut community…. this word could be applied to the unravelling of any ecosystem? (says George M)

soils with rich and well balanced microbiome suppress pathogenic bacteria that cause disease in people, making the transmission of human diseases through food less likely

  • researchers are experimenting with the agricultural equivalent of faecal implants but with soil, just as doctors take stool samples from healthy people and implant them into the guts of unhealthy patients, implanting suppressive soil into unhealthy conducive ground could suppress pathogenic bacteria and fungi
  • drilosphere = earth worm zone.
  • Nitrates and phosphates – illuminates how our invisible systems work and flow

REFLECTIONS:

I want to find aesthetic ways to visualise the unseen nutrients and microbiome of soil… to do this I need to find two locations as my comparison points? maybe in Somerset?

Why make chemical crystal images? – maybe as a comparison tool? visual aid – but also to bring imagery to the nutrients we are and are not getting from food? how this is facilitated by microbiome!

still need to work out how a comparison of gut microbiomes and soil microbiomes can be used and designed for…

maybe the outcome is a film……. at this point the imagery is more important than directly comparing two sites… which means I should get images of the vits and mins we are difficent in… and also explore the 4 bacteria that are common in both soil and gut!

Four types of bacteria commonly found in both mammals and soil include:

  1. Bacillus subtilis: Bacillus subtilis is a common soil bacterium known for its ability to form endospores, which are resistant to harsh environmental conditions. It is also found in the gastrointestinal tract of mammals, including humans, where it can play a role in gut health.
  2. Escherichia coli (E. coli): While some strains of E. coli can be harmful and cause illness, others are a normal part of the gut microbiota in mammals, including humans. E. coli is also found in soil, where it can serve various ecological roles.
  3. Mycobacterium spp.: Mycobacteria are a group of bacteria that include species such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae, which can cause diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy, respectively. However, many other species of mycobacteria are commonly found in soil and are also present in the microbiota of mammals.
  4. Pseudomonas spp.: Pseudomonas bacteria are widespread in soil and are known for their metabolic versatility and ability to degrade a wide range of organic compounds. Some species of Pseudomonas are also found as part of the normal microbiota in mammals, including humans.

soil and gut mythologies

The etymology of the word soil roots us back to Latin: “solium” which literally translates as ‘seat, chair or throne’.

AUTOCHTHONOUS
The Soil’s Offspring

Demeter, in Greek religion, daughter of the deities Cronus and Rhea, sister and consort of Zeus (the king of the gods), and goddess of agriculture. Her name indicates that she is a mother.

https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/presse/informationen/fup/2021/fup_21_008-boden-naturschutzstrategie/index.html

  • good website about soil understandings

Does Soil Contribute to the Human Gut Microbiome?

  • Human Microbiome Project in 2007, aiming at sequencing all microbes (eukaryotes, archaea, bacteria, viruses) inhabiting human body sites, the Human Microbiome Project has developed into a major field of biomedical research focussing mainly on the intestinal microbial community that plays a major role in human health and diseases [3,10].
  • The intestinal microbial community represents an ecosystem of a trillion microbial cells with an aggregate 9.9 million microbial genes across the fecal microbiome [11]. The greatest number of cells within the human gut is found in the colon which supports a diverse and dense population of microbes, dominated by anaerobes that utilize carbohydrates [12]. By comparison, the lowest number of cells found in the small intestine (Table 1) is due to properties that limit bacterial reproduction such as high levels of acids and antimicrobials [12]. 
  •  The colonization of the human gut starts at birth, with the rapid expansion of microbial diversity, influenced by endogenous and exogenous factors [3], such as human genetic variation as well as diet, infections, xenobiotics, and exposure to environmental microbial agents including the large plant and soil microbiome [3]. With respect to the numerous and diverse functions of the intestinal microbiome in human health, it is evident that it is also involved in numerous gastrointestinal (GI) and non-gastrointestinal diseases, such as obesity/metabolic syndrome, atherosclerosis/cardiovascular diseases, neurologic/psychiatric diseases and others [3]. It is therefore one of the most dynamic topics in biomedical research [3].
  • Soils existed globally a long time before mammals and hominids came into existence and are by far the most extensive natural microbial gene reservoir on earth

The nutritional values of some popular vegetables, from asparagus to spinach, have dropped significantly since 1950. A 2004 US study found important nutrients in some garden crops are up to 38% lower than there were at the middle of the 20th Century. On average, across the 43 vegetables analysed, calcium content declined 16%, iron by 15% and phosphorus by 9%. The vitamins riboflavin and ascorbic acid both dropped significantly, while there were slight declines in protein levels. Similar decreases have been observed in the nutrients present in wheat. What’s happening?

polarized microscopy

  1. Set Up the Microscope: Ensure that the polarizers, analyzer, and retardation plates are properly installed in the microscope. Adjust the alignment of the polarizers to achieve crossed polarization.
  2. Choose a Polarized Light Source: Select an appropriate polarized light source, such as a polarized filter or a specialized lamp. This will provide the necessary polarized light for sample illumination.
  3. Prepare the Sample: Prepare your sample by mounting it on a glass slide or other suitable substrate. Thin sections or transparent samples are ideal for polarized light microscopy.
  4. Adjust the Analyzer: Adjust the analyzer to control the intensity of the polarized light passing through the sample. By rotating the analyzer, you can enhance or diminish the contrast in the observed image.
  5. Analyze the Sample: Observe the sample under the polarized light microscope and analyze its optical properties. Look for birefringence, which manifests as color variations or patterns, indicating differences in refractive indices within the sample.
  6. Quantify the Retardation: If necessary, measure the retardation of the sample using specialized techniques such as conoscopic interference or compensators. This can provide quantitative information about the sample’s optical properties.

Polarized light microscopy offers a versatile and non-destructive method for studying a wide range of samples. Whether you are examining geological specimens, analyzing biological structures, or investigating the optical properties of materials, this technique provides valuable insights into the behavior of polarized light and its interaction with various substances.

Polarized light microscopy is a powerful technique used in various fields such as mineralogy, materials science, and biological sample analysis. It involves the use of polarized light to study the optical properties of samples, particularly their birefringence and anisotropy. Training and education in polarized light microscopy are essential for researchers and professionals who work with these techniques.

great description of positionally

https://syntropicmaterials.eumo.it – SYNTROPIC MATERIALS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I am an Italian designer, educated in hegemonic European schools of Art and Design. That being said, I am sensitive to the responsibilities and forms of power tied to my positionality as a White European designer with significant institutional support. The ideas herein are polyphonic, reflecting the sustained reading and conversations I have had with post-colonial and indigenous scholars, activists, thinkers and writers. They are not the exclusive preserve of my own authoritative voice but the outcome of heterogeneous influences.

In privileging indigenous knowledge, I situate indigeneity not as radical alterity but as a form of world building at odds with our contemporary extractivist moment, in which ecological crisis can only be confronted through pluralistic, open and dynamic traditions.

This openness and the presumed parity between different ontological and epistemological systems is what allows me to experiment with the promises (and failures) of Western science and indigenous relationships to land and environment. This is part of an effort to think ourselves out of the quagmire that environmental crisis portends.

Baum & Leahy

The Sound of Microbes

Humans have long had a love-hate relationship with microbes – fighting the ones that cause disease, while nurturing the ones that make our food taste delicious. But recent research suggests that the picture isn’t so black and white – the mixtures of microbes living on and in us are vital to our wellbeing in complex and surprising ways. In this podcast your host Louise Whiteley takes you to visit holistic health coach Adina Beer, chef David Zilber, philosopher Joana Formosinho, scientist Mani Arumugam and artist duo Baum & Leahy, asking them: how we can listen to what microbes have to tell us about our health and food systems, about cultivating care across species and societies? The podcast series is produced for Medical Museion, supported by a Velux Foundation Core Group award for ”Microbes on the Mind” and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) at the University of Copenhagen. Produced by Marie Chimwemwe Degnbol and Cecilie Glerup Music by Andreas Markus Appearing in the podcast: Louise Whiteley, Adina Bier, David Zilber, Joana Formosinho, Mani Amurugam, Rose Leahy and Amanda Baum. Correction: In the podcast, François-Joseph Lapointe, Rose Leahy and Amanda Baum are mentioned with mistakes in their names; we apologize deeply.

Sensing Holobiont: Flavourful Rituals for Metabolic Companions (2023)

  • Holobiont = A holobiont is a collection of closely associated species that have complex interactions, such as a plant species and the members of its microbiome.[2][9] Each species present in a holobiont is a biont, and the genomes of all bionts taken together are the hologenome, or the “comprehensive gene system” of the holobiont.[10] A holobiont typically includes a eukaryote host and all of the symbiotic viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc. that live on or inside it.[9]

Welcome hungry holobionts, assemblages of microbial and human cells. Micro and macro oddkin: Odd in size, kin in cometabolism. Let your billion mouths body absorb this world of symbiotic becomings, taste its potential and digest it into new and tender recipes for reciprocity.

Combining novel gastronomy, interactive installation and microbiome research, Sensing Holobiont explores the vital connections among species, bodies, food and the environment. Taking cues from the growing movement in the sciences to recast multicellular organisms as ‘holobionts’ the work asks: How might a multisensorial ceremony help us to recognise and realise our holobiont selves? And how might this realisation change our relationship to our bodies, to eating, and to planetary health?

Watch video teaser

A holobiont is an ecological unit consisting of a ‘host organism’ – animal, plant or fungi – and the associated microbes, viruses and smaller holobionts living in and on it. While implications of the ecological, evolutionary and daily dynamics of holobionts are being increasingly studied, Sensing Holobiont invites us into a shared exploration of the flavourful complexities of being multispecies consortia.

Sensing Holobiont is a work by artist duo Baum & Leahy in collaboration with culinary researchers Kim Wejendorp & Dr Joshua Evans. PhD fellow Joana Formosinho and Professor Rob Dunn contributed conceptual and scientific input, following from their collaboration with Baum & Leahy on Cometabolise: A Holobiont Dinner in 2021. Associate professor and curator Louise Whiteley facilitated both projects under Microbes on the Mind at Medical Museion, and contributed to conceptual development. Project coordinators: Cecilie Glerup and Simone Cecilie Pedersen, Co-creating assistant: Ella Yolande, Creative Producer: Anna Firbank, Soundscape: room 1: Ella Yolande, main room: Sofie Birch. Biomaterials: Natural Material Studio. Custom glass bowls: Adam Aaronson.

project about new material value…

One proposed solution when facing social-economic problems is to make existing technologies and systems adaptable by introducing biological principles. From self-replicating products to complete infrastructures, organic mass will become an integral component in upcoming decades.

Following this thought of a biological driven industry, the standard of our current economic value exchange system will shift from gold to phosphate.

As one of the key elements in biological life, phosphate is required in a wide range of different aspects, such as the construction of DNA and RNA molecules and the activation of the cell’s energy cycle. Once everything will be organic, the depletion of this vital resource will accelerate and in this process become a currency for economic transactions.

Centred around new achievements in synthetic biology the goal of this project is to create and communicate a scenario of an economy that is based on phosphate.

  • an economy based on phosphate….
  • what if it was an economy based on nutrients…

rulling abstractions

I have been reading about ‘ruling abstractions’

of ‘nature’, climate, food systems

nutrients within foods is predicted to continue to drop, not only because of conventional agriculture but also because of rising CO2 in the atmosphere

  • Minerals like iron sink calcium and magnesium and proteins and Vietminh b and diminishing in soil exposed to increasing amounts of co2 because plants grow faster in these conditions and have less time to absorb nutrients 
  • – George Monboit in Regensis

without these nutrients, humans can become highly deficient, especially girls, women and pregnancy.

where else will we have to get nutrient from? woollen garments? e-waste? how can we re-extract these vital elements from waste products ?

what is the relationship between between ‘detoxifying’ myths and fads and supplements and pseudo medical concepts to counter toxins entering our body VS the real health deficiencies from conventional farming and soil degradation and climate change

  • Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, “there are two types of detox: one is respectable and the other isn’t.” The respectable one, he says, is the medical treatment of people with life-threatening drug addictions. “The other is the word being hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment that allegedly detoxifies your body of toxins you’re supposed to have accumulated.”

Modern alchemy ?

  •  The word is a European one, derived from Arabic, but the origin of the root word, chem, is uncertain. Words similar to it have been found in most ancient languages, with different meanings, but conceivably somehow related to alchemy. In fact, the Greeks, Chinese, and Indians usually referred to what Westerners call alchemy as “The Art,” or by terms denoting change or transmutation.
  • metallurgy, art and science of extracting metals from their ores and modifying the metals for use. Metallurgy customarily refers to commercial as opposed to laboratory methods. It also concerns the chemical, physical, and atomic properties and structures of metals and the principles whereby metals are combined to form alloys.
  • History of metallurgy
  • The present-day use of metals is the culmination of a long path of development extending over approximately 6,500 years. It is generally agreed that the first known metals were gold, silver, and copper, which occurred in the native or metallic state, of which the earliest were in all probability nuggets of gold found in the sands and gravels of riverbeds. Such native metals became known and were appreciated for their ornamental and utilitarian values during the latter part of the Stone Age.

i would like to find a solid mythological starting point

  • “Transmutation” is the key word characterizing alchemy, and it may be understood in several ways: in the changes that are called chemical, in physiological changes such as passing from sickness to health, in a hoped-for transformation from old age to youth, or even in passing from an earthly to a supernatural existence. Alchemical changes seem always to have been positive, never involving degradation except as an intermediate stage in a process having a “happy ending.” Alchemy aimed at the great human “goods”: wealth, longevity, and immortality.
  • Alchemy was not original in seeking these goals, for it had been preceded by religion, medicine, and metallurgy. The first chemists were metallurgists, who were perhaps the most successful practitioners of the arts in antiquity. Their theories seem to have come not from science but from folklore and religion. The miner and metallurgist, like the agriculturalist, in this view, accelerate the normal maturation of the fruits of the earth, in a magico-religious relationship with nature. In primitive societies the metallurgist is often a member of an occult religious society

transmutation –

the action of changing or the state of being changed into another form.”the transmutation of the political economy of the post-war years was complete”

  • PHYSICSthe changing of one element into another by radioactivedecay, nuclear bombardment, or similar processes.
  • HISTORICAL•BIOLOGYthe conversion or transformation of one species into another.

about nature

Look towards Heavens, an immersive installation conceived for planetary-style projection methods and inspired by Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘To the Planetarium’. Within it, Benjamin mournfully comments that the development of astronomical technology has brought about the death of the cosmic experience of the ancients: the more we see, the less we sense; the more we know, the less we conceive.

TECHNOLOGICAL ACCIDENTS, ACCIDENTAL TECHNOLOGIES Joke Brouwer & Sjoerd van Tuinen

Like Nature, Technology is one of our most dangerous words. It’s a metaphysic, a narrative prime mover endowed with supernatural powers.

Such words are never innocent. They are never just words. They are guiding threads for the rulers. For the rest of us, they’re everyday folk concepts. These concepts shape what we see and what we don’t see, what we prioritize, and what we ignore.1 Importantly, they not merely describe the world; they license and guide modern ways of organizing power and re/production. They have real force in the world, because of what they mystify, and because of what they enable. Such ideas present themselves as innocent. They are anything but.

These ideas are ruling abstractions.2 They are ideological constructs that have made the modern world, a kind of software for the “hard” mechanisms of ex-ploitation and extirpation.

Such abstractions are dangerous for two reasons. First, they appear in our imaginaries as agentless forces of history: they are brain erasers for world-his- torical memory. They seem to have “lives of their own” – which they emphatically do not.3 For over a century, these abstractions have seduced the political left no less than centrist and “eco-modernizing” techno-fixers. Technology is par- ticularly tempting; it easily becomes an “idea of mechanical progress, not merely as a necessary development but as an end in itself, almost as a kind of religion.”4

Second, the danger extends beyond false consciousness. Ruling abstractions are material forces, not just ideas but belief structures.5 They are developed, used, and periodically reinvented by the imperial bourgeoisie and their intelli- gentsias to practically reshape the world in ways favorable to the endless accu- mulation of capital. Ruling abstractions are the building blocks of hegemonic ideologies that trickle down to the folk concepts of everyday life. From the Levellers to Blockadia, radical movements have challenged these abstractions. But they must also live with the contradictions – as Orwell underlines. When Lenin moved from the furious denunciation to the critical acceptance of Tay- lorism and Fordism after 1917, he was doing what all revolutionaries must do: wrestle with the contradictions of capitalism.6 Those contradictions are far more than mechanical.7 They are ideological, social, biological, cultural … and plan- etary.

Sometimes demon, sometimes savior, the ruling abstraction Technology conjures something mystical, outside of history yet relevant to it. Its power is the alchemist’s illusion: the magical notion that machinery will produce something out of nothing. My uppercase emphasizes the double register of both Nature and Technology: as ruling abstractions, central to modern mythmaking, and as material processes of power, profit and life. Disentangling and resynthesizing the two moments – the ideological and the material – is difficult.

But these ideas are conceptual hammers of imperial rule and its false promise of Progress. As abstractions, they have material consequences. To liken the web of life to a machine, or the biosphere to a spaceship, is not merely an intellectual problem but a political and ideo- logical project.11 The responsibility of radical critique in the climate crisis is to lay bare the interpenetrating relations of class power, ideology and the forces of production in the web of life. How one thinks about Technology – and there- fore Nature – is fundamental to one’s world-historical conception of the crisis and its origins, and therefore essential to one’s political assessments, “environ- mental” and otherwise.

The dominant intellectual and ideological view fragments the world into discrete concept boxes: Nature, Society, Economy, Technology, Race, whatever. The fragmented worldview – deeply indebted to the Cartesian primacy of parts over wholes – leads to interpretations of the climate crisis through causal plu- ralism, systems theory, and generalized schemes of interactivity rather than dia- lectical interpenetration and totality. In such approaches, parts trump the whole – or the whole overwhelms the parts (two sides of the same epistemological coin). The result is an intellectual and ideological impasse that fails to do what any radical climate critique must: identify the emerging “weak links” in the chains of imperial power and class exploitation in the unfolding planetary crisis.12

Copper

why do we still mines copper?

Copper conducts electricity, bends easily, and is recyclable – which makes it a critical material for most forms of renewable energy, from wind and solar to electric vehicles. But when “clean energy” relies on the extraction of metals like copper, it can also pollute the surrounding environment.

Companies dig huge holes into the ground, going deeper than the water table. Heavy machinery kicks up dust, polluting the air. Chemicals are used to leach the mineral out of ore, and exposed water is forever contaminated. Some operations, like Freeport’s Tyrone mine, will have to pump water in perpetuity, even after there is no longer copper to be found, so that contaminated water from the mine site doesn’t flow back into the wider water table.

As demand for copper increases, local employment could grow.

  • life cycle analysis of copper in iphone… could look up youtube of extraction of copper from e-waste or something….
  • how much copper is there in an iphone, what do they do to copper to get it into the circuit board…

Copper is a tried and tested material – used since Roman times. It has excellent anti-bacterial qualities. On test, after 7 days of immersion in water, 80% of stainless steel and plastics were coated in a biofilm, while copper showed little or no biofilm. Biofilms are harbingers of E.coli 0157 and other microbiological bugs and pose a significant threat to human health. In a recent article Copper is called the Vital Element of Life – “Copper could be more important to the health of an unborn baby than folic acid, giving up smoking or abstaining from alcohol, say, scientists. Trace amounts of copper are present in all body tissues. It is needed to process oxygen, generate energy in cells, allow the nervous system to transmit signals, grow blood vessels and develop skin, tendons and hair.”