Overview
- Student designers at Northeastern University built SquidKid to house Aliivibrio fischeri, a naturally glowing marine bacterium, inside a squid-shaped device.
- Children keep the culture alive by injecting oxygen through a squeezable tentacle, feeding it the right broth, and maintaining agitation, with a visible glow when the microbes are healthy.
- The team says the culture is non-pathogenic and contained in a sealed, oxygen-permeable chamber, and reports consulting an ecotoxicologist and the university biomaker lab to establish safety protocols.
- During development, the group reported contamination challenges and says it refined methods after checks for unwanted microbes, including E. coli.
- SquidKid was presented at MoMA as a Biodesign Challenge finalist and is envisioned as a classroom pet for ages 8–11, with pilot studies planned and no commercial release announced.