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UK Designer Grows Clothes From Bacteria
An anonymous reader writes "Experimental UK designer Suzanne Lee 'grows' clothes from bacteria. She has developed a method for growing clothing from yeast, a pinch of bacteria, and several cups of sweetened green tea. From this microbial soup, fibers begin to sprout and propagate, eventually resulting in thin, wet sheets of bacterial cellulose that can be molded to a dress form. As the sheets dry out, overlapping edges 'felt' together to become fused seams. When all moisture has evaporated, the fibers develop a tight-knit, papyrus-like surface."
It looks like something from Warhammer 40K, or a Hannibal Lector movie.
Aside from the novelty, this is basically just paper clothing. And paper doesn't look nearly as nasty of this stuff does. It's an interesting proof of concept, but doesn't strike me as particularly useful. Like hemp clothing, it will probably appeal to some hippie types who will like to be able to say that their clothes are made from green tea. But beyond that, not particularly useful for anything else.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
If the material is hydrated again, will it become a wet sheet again? That would make for some interesting wet T-Shirt contests....
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Obviously, fungi-bacteria cellulose clothes is an acquired taste. It grows on you.
-- Home is where you eat your heart out.
Revenge at last.... Bacteria have been living in us for millions of years.
If we get to the point where we don't even have paper, I'd say clothing will be the least of our problems.
Personally, all I'll need in the apocalypse are shoulderpads, a mohawk, and a dune-buggy. Shirt and pants are purely optional.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Except that it's not paper, which is usually made from ground-up trees. You guys should think further than clothing. There has been a lot of talk and hype about using bacteria to synthesize useful materials. More than anything else, this little stunt demonstrates that it's slowly getting feasible.
The material in question might find some more useful application than clothing. If not, some other "biotech" material eventually will.
Burning hot seat combined with no pants sounds like a BAD plan. (Unless you are in that sort of thing)
What would be interesting is if the bacteria can become dormant instead of dying. Then if you get a rip or tear on the clothes you apply some nutrients to the rip and in 24 hours it regrows and fixes itself. Though i'm thinking that's quite a ways away, it would be really neat instead of throwing away clothes like we do now. That or clothes that can grow/shrink with you, or clothes that shed like skin always new.
I'm just amazed that it has a pocket!
Erm... that's an orifice...do not put your hand in... oh, it seems to like it. Never mind!