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Reading Room  /  algae & cyanobacteria

Growing molecular reads

Other, the uncommon and the in-between.

Matters that do not sit neatly in one family yet, read the same way as everything else on the shelf..

MATTER

07/07

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Running the read on a material with no shelf

Name the property your practice cares about, find the actor behind it, ask whether a substance, a structure or a living process carries it, then put it through the death test. The method does not need the material to be familiar.

Foundational · Molecular · Framework

Primer

11 min read

READ THE PRIMER
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The rest of the shelf


02

Biohybrids, where the living part is a component

Something alive sits inside something built. Which half carries the property, and which half you are actually maintaining.

MOLECULAR · framework

Date TBC, 2026

Reading · 13 min

Read
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03

A purified protein, out of any organism

Take the actor out and the organism stops being part of the product. That buys you a supply chain, and it ends a relationship, which is worth naming before you do it.

MOLECULAR · ethics

Date TBC, 2026

Reading · 15 min

Read
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04

Cell-free systems, the machinery without the cell

The reaction runs and nothing is alive, so the death test has nothing to kill. The edge case that shows you where the framework stops.

MOLECULAR · AI

Date TBC, 2026

Reading · 14 min

Read
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What HEPES reveals about cultivating with light

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

Sep 5, 2026

•

4 min read

AI

What gypsum reveals about mycelium research

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

Aug 11, 2026

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5 min read

AI


Molecules Covered

Named on each Reading. This one has no single molecule of its own.

Glossary

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Read next

Mycelium

The threads and the wall that hold it together, and why it is deactivated to become a product. Back to the first, and round again.. Meet the next on its own terms.

ALL SEVEN MATTERS
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