            The Library
          

Every issue, in one place.

Search for a material, a molecule, or a phrase you half-remember. Or use the tags.

Members Only The in-depth Readings, shelved by material. Enter the Reading Room

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every free issue

Molecular

The protein that makes its own colour

GFP glows green without a dye. Three letters of its own chain become the colour, and one change turns it blue.

Molecular

What “silent” DNA changes reveal about biodesign

When AI changes the DNA but keeps the protein, what exactly has stayed the same?

Characterisation

Slime mould memory: what salt reveals about exposure legacy

Why a living material's history belongs in its specification.

Molecular

What HEPES reveals about cultivating with light

When the chemical used to control an experiment becomes part of the experiment.

Bacteria

What citric acid reveals about bacterial cellulose

Role overshadowing: when the job we assign an ingredient is correct, and its correctness is what stops us looking any further.

Molecular

Mycelium, from the molecule up

One property of one matter, walked all the way down, from the thing you can hold to the molecule doing the work.

Molecular

What gypsum reveals about mycelium research

Why inherited explanations become more consequential when living materials meet machines, automation and AI.

Foundational

The Biodesign Academy library membership is open

A new weekly Reading, private podcast, growing archive, practical tools and a members-only community channel for designing and teaching with living materials.

Mycelium

Printability is not neutral

Five fabrication decisions that shape the conditions inside a living material.

Foundational

A first look inside the Biodesign Academy Library

A place to read one living matter at a time, all the way down to what carries the property, with every source open for you to check. It opens in a week, and I'd rather show you now than wait. The first Reading is yours today.

Molecular

Locating the carrier: what a living material asks of you

A framework for designing with living and biological materials. Name the property you care about, find what actually carries it, and you'll know what the material asks of you: to keep it, preserve it, or tend it.

Molecular

Brightest Colour in Nature Has No Pigment

The marble berry is the most intensely coloured living thing we know of, and there is no blue pigment anywhere in it. And that changes how you would design with it.

Background

Reading a bio-matter through a molecular lens.

Most issues here follow one material down to the actor doing the work. If that way of reading is new to you, the introduction sets out what the Library covers, what stays open, and the desk tools you can use yourself.

About the Library