#biomaterials

Pure mycelium shoe debuts in Milan with a load-bearing fungal sole

A prototype shoe made entirely from pure mycelium, the root-like network of fungi, will debut at Milan Design Week. The project is a collaboration between researcher and designer Lars Dittrich of Vrije Universiteit Brussel and head shoemaker Marie De Ryck at La Monnaie/De Munt. It reframes how living materials enter application, moving beyond substitution toward a model in which design mediates between advanced biomaterials research and the demands of traditional craft. The innovation moves beyond mycelium as a surface material or leather substitute toward its use as a structural component. The pure mycelium sole achieves load-bearing capacity without reinforcement by bonding mycelium sheets into a single, dense construction. The project builds on fungal materials research by the Microbiology Research Group, led by Prof. Eveline Peeters and Prof. Elise Vanden Elsacker. It forms part of the MycoMatters program, which develops pure mycelium materials with the performance and scalability required for real-world applications.

"At the University of Maine, one of the world’s largest 3D printers is using sawdust from the state’s lumber industry to 3D print cozy wooden cabins.

It’s part of a move towards making 3D printing faster and more sustainable in a state where the housing shortage that has metastasized in most states around the country is dire.

It’s thought that 80,000 new homes will be needed over the next 5 years to keep pace with demand, and though it takes years for building codes to be changed, the technicians at the Advanced Structures & Composites Center (ASCC) at the Univ. of Maine hope their new toy can help address this need.

Guinness World Records certified the machine at ASCC as the world’s largest prototype polymer 3D printer, capable of creating a 600 square foot house 96 feet in length, 36 feet in width, and 18 feet tall entirely out of bio-based material at a rate of 500 pounds per hour.

In 2022, it could print the walls, floors, and roof of the house in just 96 hours, but the ACSS has been refining the design with the hope of doubling the printing speed and getting it down to a 48-hour timeline.

“When they’re doing concrete, they’re only printing the walls,” Habib Dagher, the executive director of ACSS told CNN. “The approach we’ve taken is quite different from what you’ve seen, and you’ve been reading about for years.”

Indeed, GNN has reported on a fair number of 3D printing projects, but most if not all involve printing only the walls. One fantastical exception is an Italian firm that is 3D-printing domed, beehive-like, modular concept homes inspired by the Great Enclosure in Zimbabwe.

STAND-OUT 3D-PRINTING PROJECTS: 

First 2-Story Home to be 3D Printed in the U.S. Reaches for the Sky in Texas 

The World’s Largest 3D Printed Building is a Horse Barn That Can Endure Florida Hurricanes

This 23-Year-Old Founder is 3D Printing Schools in Madagascar Aiming to be a ‘Stepping Stone’ for the Community

A Startup Is Using Recycled Plastic to 3D Print Tiny $25,000 Prefabricated Homes in LA

The ASCC is calling the house design the BioHome3D, and says it’s rare people who tour the concept version don’t ask when they “can have one up?”

The interior gives the feel of a modern Scandinavian wooden cabin, making it fit well with the Maine aesthetic. The ASCC is now doing work on how to incorporate conduits for wiring and plumbing “exactly where an architect would want them,” says Dagher.

WATCH a time-lapse video of the printer doing the job…

A chrysalis needs to be perfect when a caterpillar or silkworm prepares to transform from pupae to winged adults. Since the insect can’t emerge until it has completely matured, any overlooked structural flaws or weaknesses may prove fatal for them. But just as important is a chrysalis’ ability to remain anchored in place—and according to a new study, when it comes to metamorphosis, a butterfly’s delicate silk threads are some of its strongest and most reliable tools. Researchers at China’s Southwestern University recently studied the life cycles of two butterfly species—Danaus chrysippus (plain tiger) and Papilio polytes (common Mormon)— and two silkworm species. When it came time for the butterfly and silkworm caterpillars to build their respective chrysalises and cocoons, the team watched as the insects each spun silk into net-like pads. Using an arm-like appendage called a cremaster, they then attached their chrysalis or cocoon to a branch.

A pair of biotechnologists at Newcastle University, working with a colleague from Northumbria University, all in the U.K., have developed a way to use mycelium to create a self-healing wearable material. In their paper published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, Elise Elsacker, Martyn Dade-Robertson and Meng Zhang, describe their process and how well it worked when tested. Mycelium is…