Blog

Artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo has created a DNA vending machine that dispenses human genetic material to highlight privacy issues emerging as biotechnology makes it easier and cheaper to access information locked in our DNA.

In a dystopian future where we all have samples of our friends’ DNA, we will be able to do things like genetic engineering in the same way as we do 3D printing.

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo

The New York artist created the DNA Vending Machine with the hope of challenging people to ask more questions about privacy and who owns the material that makes us unique.

“There are a whole range of court cases that say our DNA can be used against us for anything,” explained the artist, who is also a lecturer at New York University specialising in interactive telecommunications. “We have huge pharmaceutical companies making loads of money out of DNA from people who haven’t necessarily given them permission to use it.”

Presented in a recent TED Talk, the DNA Vending Machine replaces snacks and drinks with samples of people’s genetic code. These samples can then be bought.

“I began collecting the DNA of my friends at my house during Friday night gatherings, and then furthered my collection through several scheduled open houses where anyone could come to my studio and sign up to submit an open-source sample of their own DNA,” the artist explained.

Participants in the project spat into a vial containing solution that breaks down the cells found in the saliva, releasing the DNA. Alcohol was then added, causing the strands of genetic code to clump together and making them visible to the human eye. The vials were then sealed inside identical white containers and placed inside a standard vending machine.

“Each sample comes packaged with a collectable portrait of the human specimen as well as a unique link to a custom DNA extraction video,” said Barcia-Colombo. The machine was installed in an art gallery in New York, and the artist recalls some of the reactions to the art piece. “They’re disgusted that this is using human genetic material, and they often are scared by it because the samples can be bought and used to plant evidence on a crime scene.”

Barcia-Colombo sees comparisons between DNA ownership and concerns over the collecting and harvesting of our own digital data.

Our phones are harvesting our data and then being sold is a very similar idea to companies harvesting our DNA and selling it to pharmaceutical companies without us knowing.

The DNA Vending Machine was designed to start a conversation that the artist feels is long overdue.

One of the most high-profile cases surrounding the legality and ethics of DNA ownership was the example of Henrietta Lacks. While receiving treatment for cancer of the cervix in 1951, she had a healthy part of the tissue removed without permission.

The cells were later grown in vitro and have since been used by pharmaceutical companies to develop polio vaccines and in the research of AIDS, cancer and radiation poisoning. The material is still used today and is referred to as “Hela Cells” in reference to the first two letters of her first and last name.

More recently, a court case in 1990 between John Moore, a US citizen undergoing treatment for hairy cell leukaemia and the UCLA Medical Center brought the issue back into the headlines. “The supreme court decision in the case ruled that a person’s discarded tissue and cells are not their property and can be commercialised,” said Barcia-Colombo. “It’s ridiculous. When it becomes easy to reproduce these things, it brings up a lot of personal questions about rights and you as a personal franchise.”

Other Vending Machine Applications

This is a clever idea to help to promote your toothpaste in this Toothpaste promotion vending machine!

Toothpaste vending machines represent a practical solution for providing essential oral care products on the go. Although not as common as other types of vending machines, toothpaste vending machines can be found in select locations such as hotels, airports, public restrooms, and shopping malls, catering to travelers or individuals who might need these products unexpectedly.

Key features and benefits

1. Convenience: These machines offer a quick and easy way to purchase oral hygiene products like toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss, and mouthwash. This is particularly useful for travelers who may have forgotten their personal care items or for those in need of an urgent replacement.
2. Variety of Products: Toothpaste vending machines often stock a range of brands and product types to cater to different preferences and needs. This includes various flavors of toothpaste, travel-sized options, and even eco-friendly or specialty dental products.
3. Hygiene Focus: Given the emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene, especially in public spaces, these machines provide a sanitary option for acquiring necessary oral care items without needing to visit a store.
4. Innovative Technology: Some advanced toothpaste vending machines incorporate smart technology that allows for contactless payment methods, including mobile payments or credit cards, enhancing user convenience and safety.
5. Sustainability Options: With increasing awareness about environmental issues, some toothpaste vending machines also offer eco-friendly products, such as biodegradable toothbrushes or refillable containers, promoting sustainable consumer practices.
6. Customization: Certain vending solutions allow users to customize their purchases, such as selecting specific quantities or types of products they need, making it easier for consumers to get exactly what they require.

While toothpaste vending machines are still somewhat niche, they highlight the potential for vending technology to meet everyday needs in a direct and accessible manner. As more businesses and public spaces look for ways to enhance visitor satisfaction and convenience, we could see an increase in the presence and sophistication of these machines.

Other Vending Machine Applications

From sun cream to freshly cut grass. Scented Air Vending machine brings the smell of summer to busy train station.

It is a vending machine stocked with bottles of summer scented air at Slough train station to help evoke holiday memories among commuters and offer the perfect pick-me-up for those who are feeling down.

A hundred bottles were filled with distinctive holiday fragrances, including freshly cut grass, BBQ, sun cream and sea air, which were all the nation’s favourites.

Situated in the station’s ticket office, the novelty vending machine invited commuters to enjoy a free bottle on their way to work.

We want to inject fun, freedom and frivolity into holidays by giving people back that holiday feeling and something to smile about

Michael Callaghan (Holiday Autos)

Fun facts about scents

• Humans have the ability to detect up to 1 trillion distinct scents.
• Women are known to have a better sense of smell as compared to men. 
• It is a known fact that dogs have a better sense of smell as compared to humans. Dogs have almost 50 times more scent cells as compared to humans!
• Smell is one sense that has a strong link with memory. It has been established that people can remember memories linked with smells even after one year with an accuracy of 65%. Whereas, those memories linked with sight are remembered with only 50% of accuracy.
• We can smell even before you are born! It has been established that the sense of smell is one of the first sense to develop. The sense plays a major role in development and establishing memories from a very early age.
• Our taste buds rely strongly on our sense of smell. Did you know that our sense of smells accounts for almost 95% of the flavor? Without a sense of smell, we would fail to differentiate in between an onion and a potato!

Source

• Airporcar.pk

Other Vending Machine Applications

Brands think consumers are fascinated with vending machines.

This weird vending machine was placed in Grand Central Terminal, NYC from February 12th to the 14th. A so-called Nature Exchange Vending Machine will return unusual gifts if you offer different items from nature, such as snake skin. If you only get a seven-leaf clover, don’t dream big yet because this vending machine gets better if you get a hold of weirder stuff.

Fun facts about Gift Exchange

1. The average shopper buys presents for about eight different recipients.
2. Women give gifts to far more recipients.
3. People are a bit more likely to buy presents for their pets than their friends.
4. Baby boomers had an average of 7.57 gift recipients, which is the lowest of all the adult generations. The most generous generation was the Silent Generation, which includes those born between 1928 and 1945. They averaged 8.73 recipients. Generation X was right behind them with 8.65 recipients, followed by millennials with 8.31.
5. If you’ve heard the stereotype about Midwesterners in US being known for their friendliness, we’ve got one piece of information to support that. People in the Midwest plan on buying gifts for an average of 9.04 recipients, which is by far the most of any region.
6. 80% of consumers wrap presents themselves — but only 69% think they’re good at it.

Other observations on Gift Exchange

• Thoughtful gifts don’t necessarily lead to greater appreciation.
• People are more appreciative when they receive a gift they have explicitly requested.
• Spending more money on a gift doesn’t necessarily translate into greater appreciation.
• Around 50% Recipients don’t like the Gift been received by them.
• Men typically have liking for useful gifts than romantic or captivating ones.
• Red is the favourite gift wrapping colour.
• There are many songs dedicated to gifting.

Source

• One Extraordinary Marriage
• Giftalove.com

Other Vending Machine Applications

Algramo places their Staple Food vending machine in poorer neighborhoods, those most frequently affected by the economic trend of “small format punishment.”

This is what happens when a neighborhood can’t afford a larger supermarket that receives discounted prices because of its size and market importance. The smaller bodegas and mom-and-pop groceries that do business in those neighborhoods carry goods at up to 40 percent higher prices than wealthier areas.

The first 20 machines were shipped to deliver staple foods like rice, lentils, beans and chickpeas at prices substantially below those charged by stores that require staffing, advertising and other overhead.

The food is dispensed according to the weight needed, so a family can purchase exact amount of food they need or can afford.

To reduce waste, each machine will dispense a container the first time a new customer uses it. Afterwards, the customers are encouraged to bring their containers back for refills.

As a company, Algramo aims to make a “triple impact” of positive economic, sustainable and social change. The vending machines, by providing fair pricing to the families who most need it in a format that minimizes packaging and waste, is directly in line with this corporate mission.

From their foothold in Santiago, Algramo plans to expand outward into neighboring cities and countries. They are also investigating dispensers to hold liquid ingredients like cooking oils and liquid cleaners to their customer base.

The most important staple food?

Over 50,000 plants are edible, but very few of them make any significant contribution to the human food supply. The overwhelming majority of global staple foods are grains. Corn, rice, and wheat together make up 51% of the world’s caloric intake.

• Corn – 19.5%
• Rice – 16.5%
• Wheat – 15%
• Root And Tuber Crops – 5.3%
• Others such as soybeans, sorghum, and plantains

Source

• World Atlas.com

Other Vending Machine Applications

Volkswagen and DDB Russia created a new kind of eco-currency. To make it easier for locals to recycle, they installed a Battery Recycling vending machine in different parts of Russia that only accepts batteries as payment.

“Think Blue” program embodies Volkswagen’s commitment to create a whole new standard of technologically progressive and environmentally friendly products to shape a more sustainable future. The aim was to encourage consumers to recycle their old batteries and VW made it easier to do so with incentives offered as well.

Battery recycling is a problem in Russia, where over 15 million batteries and accumulators are thrown away every year in big cities like Moscow. One battery can pollute more than 20 square meters of the ground and many young people aren’t concerned about the problem, so Volkswagen and DDB Russia tried to motivate them.

The Vending Machine was installed in popular locations around Moscow. Two batteries would get them an anti-stress ball, four batteries would buy them a bottle of water, and six batteries could purchase an eco t-shirt.

One single machine collected over 8,000 batteries during the first month of installation. In comparison, a regular collection point in Russia usually gathers less than a thousand a month. The Think Machine successfully encouraged more people to recycle their batteries and gave them a little something in return.

Fun facts on Battery:

• The first battery was created by Alessandro Volta in 1798.
• Unlike milk, the expiration date on a box of batteries doesn’t mean they need to be tossed. The batteries may start losing some efficiency by the time an expiration date arrives, but it still has a lot of life.
• The word “battery” was used by Ben Franklin to describe multiple Leyden jars, which were considered power sources during his time. He pulled the word from the military term “battery”, which defined a group of weapons working together.

Source:

• Fenix

Other Vending Machine Applications

I love this idea — a random book vending machine that dispenses books for $2. Hey, I like to read outside of my comfort zone every once in a while.

Now we can explore the mysteries of trashy romance novels and self-help books that would normally have to dig all the way to the bottom of the bargain bin for.

Fun facts about Books

1. The most expensive book ever purchased was sold for $30.8 million. It was Codex Leicester by Leonardo Da Vinci, and it was purchased by Bill Gates.
2. Alice in Wonderland is based on a real 10-year-old girl. Her name was Alice Liddell, and her family was close friends with author Lewis Carroll. While on a boating trip, she asked him to tell her a story — and that’s how Alice was born.

30 All-Time100 Novels “Time Magazine”

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) by C.S. Lewis
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• Watchmen by Alan Moore
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) by Chinua Achebe
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1) by Toni Morrison
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• Possession by A.S. Byatt
• The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe #1) by Raymond Chandler
• A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
• I, Claudius (Claudius, #1) by Robert Graves
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Other Vending Machine Applications

Why you need a Bike Repair Vending Machine? It’s happened to every biker. A flat tire in an inconvenient place on your commute, and the nearest bike shop is a long walk away. Most casual bikers don’t carry extra tubes or tools with them, and so any repair work on the road can mean an end to a bike ride, and potentially leaving your bike locked up somewhere slowly rusting as you forget about it in your frustration.

The Fixtation is really just a Bike Repair vending machine, but with bike parts instead of snacks (though there are some snacks in case you’re getting hungry on your ride!)

What makes it most convenient is the bike mount and tools—attached with aircraft cables to prevent theft – alongside the vending machine. You can replace that flat or adjust your brakes yourself without dealing with the characters who usually are employed at bike shops. Of course, you may not know how to replace a popped tube yourself; now is certainly the time to learn, so you can take full advantage of the Fixtation when it moves into your city.

Other Vending Machine Applications