Skip to main content
  1. 2024 | Winter Demo Day/

The Collective Metabolism of Extremophiles

The 21st Century Art & Science Lab

“Collective Metabolism of Extremophiles” speculates on an imaginary, yet not unbelievable, landscape of boiling seas. Three extremophiles - the pompeii worm, tardigrade, and pyrolobus fumaris - populate a hot and humid simulation. Highly nutritious live spirulina bacteria, a close cousin to the blue-green algae blooming in overheated seas across the world, circulate through the extremophiles, forming a collective metabolism where humans are merely spectators.