| The current rate of non-biodegradable waste disposal is not sustainable and seriously dangerous to living conditions. The intelligent application of preventative maintenance would dramatically decrease waste disposal and is estimated to save hundreds of billions of dollars annually in the United States alone. By developing new, cheap and non-labor intensive methods for assessing material quality, the potential to reduce the environmental and fiscal costs of waste disposal is increased. This thesis work is focused on developing rapid, simple, high-resolution, cost-effective technology using bacteria to detect defects and weakness in materials. To this end, described here will be: (1) advancements in the usage of Vertical Scanning Interferometry (VSI) to measure through corrosive microbes to their corroding mineral/metal interface; (2) the capacity to use several microbes in the Shewanella genus to specifically detect microscale levels of a corrosive byproduct; (3) the development of biologically interactive tools and methods that are independently capable of measuring mechanical strain fields across a wide range in materials; (4) the bioengineering of microbial biofilms to spatially resolve strain across a surface. Hopefully, each of these burgeoning technologies will be developed and will spawn directions for future interdisciplinary research focused on using environmentally harmonious strategies to improve the overall quality of living while simultaneously decreasing environmental impact. |
