Bor*d’s “How To Stencil Cells”

1: Find a scanning electron microscope. Any of your local university should have one in the basement or you can even find a used one on ebay.

2: Hack it into a printer for printing microscopic pictures…

3: Draw your elaborate stencil – here you see a rectangle as an example.

4: Translate the picture into a language of the microscope - electrical potential. Each pixel has two coordinates…

5: The other supplies can be also easily found: silicon wafers, a dropper, tweezers, etc. Prepare a solution of plastic.

6: Using the dropper, place one drop onto rotating wafer – this makes super thin plastic film.

7: Using the set of positions from (4) use the electron beam in the microscope as a very precise x-cto knife.

8: And here we go - the microscopic rectangular stencil.

9: So the stencil is cut, now let’s get the paint - skin cells, bacteria… whatever you have on hand. This is a cell on a flat surface after it gets deposited from the liquid.

10: After a while the cell starts growing and spreading over an unrestricted surface.

11: Now place the micro-stencil into a liquid with the living cells. The cell grows only in the micro-stencil, shaping into the rectangle.

12: Two cells filling up the micro-stencil. For more info visit www.ilovebored.com.