Hi guys.
So, first of all, this will be my very first post, so bare with me. I’ve never written anything remotely resembling a blog post, so i am quite new to this, meaning that reading the following could either be the digital equivalent of walking through a sewer, or the digital equivalent of tearing off that protective cover off of your new phone screen (or whatever you as a reader hate/ love). ‘
In any case, i hope that i can add something to this seemingly wonderful site.
Who am i??
First of all, a small introduction. My name is Emil, and in my daily life i am a student at the IT university of copenhagen. Though i am finishing my 5th semester, i am still not quite sure about how to correctly describe exactly what i am studying, so i won’t try.
I will however note that it gives me the oppurtunity to mess with a lot of cool technologies, ranging from 3d printing, laser cutting, CNC’ing, moulding, robotics, and so on. This is my area of interest, and i’ll likely talk about stuff like this in the future.
Some weird alien booger
Most importantly, i have chosen to allocate a large portion of the focus for this blog, towards my upcoming Bachelor's project (is it called that in english? is it called a Bachelors thesis?). Here, i will be working on a way of growing a substitute for fake leather from bacterial cellulose. Though this has been done before, it is still very strange to most people. The way of creating this leather like substitute is through the use of a chinese tea called “Kombucha”. This has been the choice of LA hipsters over the last years, though it has now become somewhat more mainstream. I do recommend it though, the taste is funky, yet likable, and it is supposed to have quite a few health benefits.
Anyway, i won’t advertise for any soft drinks, that market has enough capital to do that themselves.
Without going into too much detail, the tea is fermented by a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria. This is my setup at home.
The bacteria produces a layer of cellulose on the top of the tea, in order to create a closed environment for the colony to thrive in. You can see this below
This layer grows thicker with time, and can at any given time be harvested for whichever purpose. I’ve attached too pictures where you can see it up close and personal.
It is weird, slimy and slippery, and can be quite off putting for most. I imagine that if i ever meet and alien, this would be dripping out of its nose, if space colds do exist.
In any case, this is what i will be experimenting with in my bachelor’s project. Below you can see a picture of the Scoby before and after it is dried.
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Note that i messed up by drying it out on an MDF board, which completely fused with the scoby as it dried. Therefore, when trying to take off the dried scoby, it ripped into the MDF, which resulted in a broken Scoby. It isn’t a total failure however, as i learned to never do that again.
The project is still only the embryonic stage, but i will keep updating my blog as i learn more. It is really weird, and pretty fun. It is actually my very first day on Steemit, but i saw the site as the oppurtunity to write down my thoughts, and maybe even spread some ideas.
I plan on finding a way to optimise the harvesting process of the Scoby, and will be experimenting with different uses for it. I want to see if i can use it as a canvas for art, for making clothes, bags, fake leather and much more. If nothing else, it should weird you out to read a long, which i would consider somewhat of an achievement.
I will probably also add some blogs about whatever i choose to 3d print, laser cut, and whatever i find interesting in my daily life. Since it’s december, i’ll likely make some christmas ornaments in not too long. I must say, i am really positively surprised by this site, it seems to contain a lot of lovely people.
Have a great evening folks, and a lovely christmas, and happy holidays!
Emil
Hey, welcome! Since you're into the cool frontier of tech, feel free to write about it and include the 'steemstem' tag. If it's good, well referenced and so forth, it could very much work in your favour.
MORE importantly, join us on steemit.chat in the 'steemSTEM' chat room!
This is awesome, this is just the type of thing i am looking for. The more sciency stuff the better.
I will check the chat room out shortly, i didn't even realize that steemit.chat existed :)
I just made my first post with the steemstem tag :) I will use it better in the future though, as i get more into the project, with more research
Hello, Emil, and welcome to Steemit.
Your bachelor's project sounds very unique, weird and interesting. Good luck with it. (By the way, "thesis" is typically used for master's degree or doctorate, not with bachelor's.)
Your post is a good template for further posts. Each post should be informative and interesting, with a decent balance between text and images. Furthermore, you should learn how to use the "EDITOR" function, as that will help to format your posts and make them look even more attractive.
Anyway, best of luck on Steemit, and Full Steem Ahead.
I will definetely look into the editor function, i am still learning, but i am confident that i can bump my content to a much higher quality.
I believe you're right, thesis is reserved for master's, just really wasn't sure of the English translation.
And yeah, it surely is weird. But it gathers a lot of interest from the different professors and such, and the ideas are constantly flowing in, which is truly wonderfull :)
Thank you for your time, and your advice, it is very much apprechiated
My pleasure. I look for quality posts and do my best to support them.
Here are a few basic points of advice re posting on Steemit.
Hope this helps too. Cheers.
Do you buy chance know any good resources on formatting blogs on steemit? I still have a ton to learn :)
First of all, after you click "POST," you will see a "Title" box and a large box which says "Write your story ..."
At the TOP-RIGHT of that large typing box, you will see either "Editor" or "Markdown."
If you want to edit or format your text, click on “Editor,” and the Editorial icons will appear. (If you want to use those editorial functions, you must click on "Editor" before you type any of your text. Because as soon as you insert even one letter, the "Editor" option disappears.)
After clicking on "Editor," input all your text and format it to your satisfaction. (There is a "preview" screen below the typing box.)
If you want to insert images or links. ... After you have inserted and formatted all your text, then go to the "Raw HTML" at the TOP-RIGHT of the large typing box (where it had previously said "Editor" or "Markdown"). Click on "Raw HTML, and then you can insert all the images (by copy and paste, or drag and drop) and any links.
Also, here are a few links that might help for certain tasks.
https://steemit.com/steemit-help/@krnel/how-to-align-images-in-steemit-posts-left-right-and-center
http://markdownpad.com/
https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/#intro
Hope this helps you get started. I'm very tech-phobic, but I learned the above over my first month or so. I'm still learning too.
Cheers
Steem didn't tell me that i had recieved a reply, but i really wanted to thank you! I only saw it just now, so i have already published my new blog. I've written about more about the Scoby. It still isn't perfectly stylized, but this will definitely help in the future :)
welcome @emilclaudel. Cheers! Please follow me. Upvoted!
Welcome!
Thanks ^^ All the welcomes are very heartwarming
Hey @emilclaudell,
Quite an interesting post and it seems to be doing well. I like it ...
Anyways, welcome to Steemit. Steemit has lot’s of potential. As a newby you must have some questions. I know I did. I created a few articles as I went through my learning curve. For a fast start you can check them out at:
Hope this helps. This is it from me for now.
As a fellow Steemian
Thanks for being here.
You're awesome and I look forward to seeing your content …
Awesome, thanks a ton! Nice seeing you here :) I'll check it out!
Welcome Emil. A lovely project you've got there. Am glad you are here on steemit. Hope you have a lovely time here on steemit. I upvoted you,its small, but just a sign of my good will.
Am on a contest now and I really need your vote. All you need do is click this link https://steemit.com/contest/@jaynie/the-never-would-i-ever-challenge-3-sports
And then upvote my comment @stellastella in the comment section.
That will help me win the sports contest. Thanks a lot for your anticipated help. You can join the contest also if you desire. Thanks alot for your help
Oh waow - interesting. I first looked through the pictures before I read the text, and I was like, "oh right, a post about kombucha...oh hold on, what they hell is he doing with that kombucha!?" lol. Look forward to seeign your final conclusions and products! Welcome btw! I'm Kate
Thanks a ton :) It is indeed very weird. I have a very weird, and very cool supervisor for my project, so i'm really excited. I will be doing a ton on experiments with different recipes, and later i'll be looking into how to automate the growth process. If anyone is interested, i might also make a more general introduction to kombucha, with a recipe, and maybe a small video. But that should be simple, and only if people are interested :)
Right now, i am 3D printing some steem coins, which i'll be making a post about later. Who wouldn't wanna print their own money, right? ;)
Ha ha, yeah, except I'm not sure you can spend your printed steem in the local grocer store, or even on Steemit! He he he. Nice to see a student enthused for their project, best of luck!
Thank you so much :) I am indeed very excited :)
Emil,
Welcome to the community, I wish you well with your studies and the Scoby project. Mistakes happen, learning from them is definitely progress.
Here on Steemit a lot of people come with high expectations, and leave after a short while because they just weren't being rewarded for their posts with upvotes and earnings. My advice is this; find a few areas of interest you have and engage with people on their posts, read, comment and ask them questions. On posts that you believe are good, give them an upvote. Make yourself visible on here, don't sit back writing , posting and waiting for people to come find you. This place is like a two way street, traffic goes in both directions.
If you get involved you will do fine and be rewarded over time with new friendships, votes and earnings. It will not be easy, but seldom does anything worth having comes easy, it will require effort on your part to succeed.
If I can be of any assistance to you just come look me up. I will check back on you in the near future and see how you are doing.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
That is awesome of you, thank you so much! It's very kind. I'm not really sure what to expect from steemit, i just find that it is a really interesting website, that i hope will succeed in the future: just being along for the ride is enough for me. Have a great day!
As an artist and fellow curious person, I am very interested in what you are doing with the scobi! I just joined here too, three days ago and I am reading through a whole bunch of "Introducyourself" posts and I don't know if I will ever sleep again. :) Maybe if you need someone to test out some art ideas with the alien booger in the future some day I would try it out :)
That would be awesome! The more help, and the more people participating in the discussion, the better! I just re did the first batch of kombucha. It's standing in a lab at uni, and i think... something... happened to it. It looked somewhat dead at least. So i just added a new Scoby, and is now crossing my fingers :)
Made a blogpost about the death of the booger :'( Let's hope for the best :)
Uh-oh! I will go read!
Welcome to SteemIt.
Very interesting project for your Bachelor's thesis. Is the cellulose strong enough to actually be used for those uses you mentioned? I would have never thought it was actually that strong to be used for a bag or some other such thing.
Well that is what i want to find out :) and if it isn't i'll try to find a way as to how to make it strong enough. Maybe by using multiple layers for example. I probably wouldn't be carrying any tools in it, but let's wait and see, i'm yet to truly start experimenting.
There will definetely be an update on it here, possibly with videos on Dtube (At least i've hear that that is the stuff for steem, right?).
Yeah, pretty sure you can upload vids to Dtube with the same account, but never done it.
I'll look further into it once the exams are over :) Thank you
Welcome to Steemit @emilclaudell. I'm going to try on that Kombucha.
Your bachelor thesis is unique, I have never heard of anything like this before.
You are more than welcome, just ask if you need any help, or a recipe, i'd be glad to help :)
And yeah, it is pretty unique, which is exactly why i chose it. Too much of my student life have consisted of regurgitating old knowledge. It has often been hard to do a study that hadn't been done many times before, so this is refreshing.
Welcome to Steemit Emil!
Thank you a ton :)
Welcome to steemit emil! I hope you enjoy your time here :) once you build a community of people to follow and followers as well, you'll see you can have good friendship. I also do kombucha :) yum yum yuuum!
Nice to see that i am not the only one :D The only negative about Kombucha has been the exploding bottles, which has happened too many times by now xD
have a great day man
Kombucha is a very nutrient drink :) I started drinking it this year and shortly after decided to brew my own. Haha yeah, luckily for me I haven't got any exploding kombucha. You too have a great day
You are very lucky indeed! I just made a new post about the scoby project. Unfortunately it died, so i am trying to revive it. If you have made it before, you might have a few tips?
If I've grown my own scoby or dried it up?
If you have made kombucha before :) I think someone might be plotting against mine, maybe it's been poisoned ;)
Hahaha, you just have to be sure you have all tools clean, I haven't sanitized mine so far but you could do it if you find you still have issues. I've made a post about kombucha a while ago if you want to see how I do it
Strange project - So the artificial leather is made out of the glibbery mass? :D Btw, resteemed this with @welcoming! Maybe you want to add a picture of yourself as well? I think many people love to see the faces behind the users :)
That's a good point, i'm pretty shy, but i'll do that soon :)
And yeah, it's made from the glibbery mass. Since it is pure cellulose, it's quite good for the environment. The only thing going into it is tea and sugar, so compared to for example chrome tanned leather, or fake leather which is normally an oil/ plastic product, this is very clean.
If you treat it with something like linseed oil, and beeswax, it should become quite durable as well.
I also see a ton of uses where there is a need for biodegradable materials. Maybe you could make shopping bags out of this, which you could simply throw at the street, where it will break down (if the material is untreated).
But it's stuff like this i'll experiment with in the near future, and write about here. Right now i have some exams to get through though :)
Thank you so much for the resteem, it means a ton! And especially the feedback is rewarding to recieve
Welcome welcome welcome! This was super super interesting! Thanks for sharing, I can't wait to see what happens once you come out of the embryonic stage.
You and me both! Thank you for the read, it means a ton :)
Hi Emil! Welcome to Steem! We're glad to have you here!
I am a Steem curator and have started a new series "The Daily 5" where I pick five new Steemians to share with my followers that they should know about. I have selected you as one of my five for today. Your post has been featured in my post you can find here: The Daily 5.
Unlike some of the bots and follow 4 follow spammers you will find in the Introduction tag, my work is 100% human and without any required response from you. While I invite you to come check out the post and interact in the comments, nothing further is required but that you enjoy your time here on Steem!
Have a great day! Looking forward to seeing more of you on the platform!!
That really do mean a lot. Validation is always appreciated, especially this early in the process. I will check your post out, hopefully i'll find someone to follow :)
Have a great evening, and a wonderful december
Very interesting article. I've tried making my own Kombucha and, must admit that I found the scoby to be a bit off-putting. So off-putting that I threw the whole thing away and vowed to just purchase my Kombucha at the market. I find your project/thesis to be very cool and wish you great success! Welcome to Steemit!
Nooo don't give up :) It's super fun, and WAY cheaper than buying it in stores. It costs like a few cents to make it yourself, compared to 4 usd a bottle or something like that. Beware of exploding bottles though, those things are nasty, i've had it happen multiple times before.
But it sure is weird looking, i agree with you there!
Maybe I'll give it another try. I'll let you know how it goes. :)
Awesome, looking forward to hearing back from you :)
Welcome onboard, Emil. That's an interesting project you are working on. Keep sharing your thoughts and your ideas/works. Have fun doing it. Cheers!
Thank you, i definitely will :) I love sharing ideas and thoughts, it's very rewarding
You are welcome and it is indeed rewarding especially in Steemit. :)
Hello back atcha
Well hi there :) Hope you're having a nice day
Welcome to Steemit! Look forward to your contributions. Good on you!
Thank you :) I really look forward to being part of it
welcome to steemit
follow and upvote @yundriana please
Hello Emil, welcome to Steemit :D I like weird people like you.
Hehe, thank you ^^ Being weird is important to me
Congratulations @emilclaudell!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:
Thank you so much, that's awesome :)
Cool project! Good luck!
I worked with CNC machines for a few summers while I was studying at uni. Love me some of those five-axis machines!
That really is the dream! Would love to make some aluminum molds for injection molding :) Could make my very own line of toys ^^
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