MIT Assistant Professor Ariel Furst Stars in Chemistry Shorts Documentary
Lessons in Microbes, Redox Reactions, and Careers in Science
Images provided by Alex Dainis
Images provided by Alex Dainis
Images provided by Alex Dainis
Images provided by Alex Dainis
Professor Ariel Furst Stars in Chemistry Shorts Documentary
The work of Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Ariel Furst was highlighted in “Mighty Microbes,” the most recent episode of the short film series Chemistry Shorts.
The Furst Lab focuses on utilizing microbes, also called microorganisms, such as bacteria and algae, to improve human and environmental health equity. “I say this every time I talk to people, but I think microbes are so cool,” Furst shared. “A lot of our sustainability issues can be solved just by using what has already evolved naturally. I tell my grad students, if you use microbes in your research, you have a 4 billion year head start.”
Chemistry Shorts is a video series available on YouTube. It is organized by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and filmed by Day’s Edge Productions, hoping to spread a love of chemistry. “We want people to realize that chemistry is a positive force in their daily lives, from the food that they're eating to the clothing that they're wearing,” Dr. Alex Dainis told The Tech. Dainis is a professional science communicator and coordinator for the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. “Showcasing who these people are and just their pure, genuine excitement for science” is an important part of the series, Dainis added, and “one of the things that I personally love about my job.”
Dr. Furst is just one scientist featured in Chemistry Shorts, along with researchers from other universities such as Stanford, California Institute of Technology, and University of Texas Austin. For her, the coolest part about science is lab research: she fell in love with science in high school after doing a research project on bio batteries and is still in touch with her mentor to this day. Now that she has her own lab, Furst works to share her passion by exposing students to research earlier on, so that “hopefully people who might not like the class aspect of [chemistry] will realize that there's more to science than just that.”
Communicating Cutting-Edge Research to an Introductory Audience
Not only do the videos need to teach new chemistry concepts, but they also need to explain cutting-edge scientific research at an introductory level.
“In the production process, [we] have a number of calls with the scientists, both to help figure out the exact explanations of their science, but also to figure out one specific story that we want to tell,” Dainis explained. “All of these scientists are working on so many incredible projects, but we only have about 10 minutes to tell a story.”
For Furst, choosing which project to focus on was extremely difficult. “We care a lot about microbes that do all sorts of things. We think about microbes that are good for your gut, and good for the soil, and good for the environment by doing CO2 capture.”
Ultimately, the team decided to focus on using microbes to create cheaper and more efficient nitrogen fertilizer for agriculture. Nitrogen is a key component of proteins and is essential for plant growth and often comes in the form of ammonia in fertilizer. Currently, the primary method for manufacturing ammonia is called the Haber-Bosch process, which is responsible for about 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the resulting ammonia often needs to be shipped overseas to get to the farming location. “The way we've done agriculture has allowed us to grow enough food to feed the planet,” Furst discussed, “but it hasn't done that in a sustainable way. And the people who are most negatively impacted by food shortages, by climate change, by all of these things that are caused by our industrialization of agriculture, are already disadvantaged groups.”
For Furst, the solutions to this energy, environment, and health equity problem are microbes, which can be dried and shipped without refrigeration. The Furst lab is working to develop treatments and protective coatings for the microbes in order to both enhance nitrogen production and improve efficiency. “They would allow people to have less manual labor involved in agriculture, while also making your soil healthier for the long term,” Furst said. “That’s our goal.”
Conceptualizing Chemistry Through Storytelling (and Twinkies)
Chemistry Shorts is geared towards late high school and early college audiences. The video curricula and handouts meet Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which influence the science instruction received by up to 70% of American students from kindergarten through high school. For “Mighty Microbes,” the lesson material covers redox reactions, such as the reaction to synthesize ammonia out of nitrogen and hydrogen gas. The short film relied on the use of metaphors, including Twinkies with googly eyes to represent microbes and superhero animations to represent protective coatings on the microbes.
The idea for using Twinkies came from people in Day’s Edge Productions, the filmmakers behind Chemistry Shorts, who were hoping to use “a baked good that we can make look like a microbe” to illustrate how microbes could die in poor conditions. The production company initially planned to animate the microbe destruction, but then Furst’s students proposed a better idea. “One of my students suggested sticking the Twinkie microbe in liquid nitrogen, and then smashing it with a hammer. And then somebody else was like, ‘Let's put it on the lyophilizer,’ which is this machine that basically freeze-dries things. And then somebody else took one of our bioreactors and was like, ‘Let's just throw a microbe in some water and stir it up,’” Furst described. “It was just really fun to see how creative the students were about thinking about how to effectively show different types of damage.”
But Furst’s favorite memory from the filming process comes later in the short film, where Furst’s students sat around a table eating the Twinkie microbes. “I felt so bad for the students, because they were just so disgustingly sweet, but it was funny and a bonding moment. That's what everyone is laughing about in that scene, just having to eat Twinkies covered in frosting.”
Post Production: Looking Forward
“Mighty Microbes” was released on October 10th on YouTube. “It’s been really cool to see our work translated, and to see the impact of people actually using the tech,” Furst said.
Meanwhile, research continues at the Furst lab, whose startup, Seia Bio, has been commercializing microbe protection processes for companies. Furst said they are working “independently to help farmers develop optimal mixtures of native microbes for their land.” For the last six months, some microbes have been undergoing “growth trials going in South America to see if [they] can make a difference.”
The future of engineering microbes feels bright for the Furst lab. “I think as people get more comfortable with engineered microbes, they'll be able to do a lot,” Furst stated. “I think that's one of the areas that MIT has been pretty active in, engineering microbes, especially for agriculture. So that's where I see it going.”