Materials

Pioneering synthetic biologist Pamela Silver drops some wisdom.

Within 10 years, archival data may be routinely stored in base pairs rather than bytes.

Featuring cactus shoes, custom probiotics, never-ending glow sticks, and more.

The race is on to bioengineer carbon-neutral, recyclable, biodegradable, and affordable materials.

An artist imagines life forms that will arise from the convergence of technology and biology.

Nature breaks everything down—eventually. It’s time to accelerate the process.

Student competitors turn jellyfish, microorganisms, and even hair cells into useful things.

An engineer lights up tiny tumors that doctors can’t see.

Forget what you may have heard about neural networks in software. This startup is making a computer with living neurons.

Hipster tea sludge is being transformed into a wonder material.

A wonder material goes to work inside the body.

Teleported molecules, custom genomes, and other innovations that will deliver on the technology’s biggest promises.

Eventually, no one will die while waiting for a transplant. But that day is further off than you might think.