Scientists have developed a living building material designed for construction on Mars, combining inert sand with a gelatin-based hydrogel and engineered yeast cells. According to the research published in Chem Circularity titled ‘Engineered living building material for low-energy construction on Mars’, the material can be processed and printed under simulated Martian conditions while requiring far…

In 1985, electrical engineer Bill Freeman imagined a zipper that could do more than join two pieces of material. His three-sided design used a slider to bring three strips together, potentially changing the shape and stiffness of objects. The idea was rejected by an innovation fund, but Freeman patented the mechanism and kept his prototype…