The Learning Brain

positivelypersistentteach:

catalyst2011:

The clothing above is a current biology, nanotechnology and design collaboration by Suzanne Lee and Dr David Hepworth. This new movement in clothing has been dubbed BioCouture. Why? Because the clothes themselves are spun from bacteria.

“To a sugary green tea solution we add a mixed culture of bacterial cellulose, yeasts and other microorganisms to produce a flexible cellulose mat. The bacteria feed on the sugar and spin fine threads of cellulose. As these start to stick together they form a skin on the liquids surface. After two to three weeks, when it is approximately 1.5cm thick, we remove the cellulose skin from the growth bath. We can then either use it wet to mold onto a 3D form, like a dress shape, or dry it flat and then cut and sew it into a garment.” Suzanne Lee

For the Press Release: http://www.biocouture.co.uk/newimages/Biocouture_press.pdf

Things that weird me out.