Teresa van Dongen's Mud Well light uses microorganisms to create electricity
Bacteria from a boggy World War Two bomb crater generate kaleidoscopic light forms inside this telescope-like tube by Dutch designer Teresa van Dongen.
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Rosie Broadhead weaves bacteria into clothing fibres to create a second skin
Central Saint Martins graduate Rosie Broadhead has integrated live bacteria into the fibres of clothing that reduces body odour, encourages cell renewal and improves the immune system, when activated by sweat. More
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Teresa van Dongen's Electric Life installation uses living bacteria to generate electricity
Dutch designer Teresa van Dongen has developed a sustainable light source from living organisms that require regular nourishment in return for electricity. More
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Jan Klingler's Bacteria lamps are "modern fossils" as well as lights
Bacteria cultures grown on resin plates decorated these LED lamps by designer Jan Klingler, on show as part of the Young Swedish Design exhibition at ArkDes in Stockholm. More
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Architect proposes Mars Utopia towers to terraform red planet into breathable environment
Spanish architect Alberto Villanueva's Mars Utopia concept would see the planet transformed into an inhabitable environment using towers formed by bacteria (+ slideshow). More
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MIT Media Lab's BioLogic material opens and closes in response to humidity
Teams from MIT Media Lab and the Royal College of Art have used bacteria to design a "bio-skin" fabric that peels back in reaction to sweat and humidity (+ slideshow). More
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Today we like: design using bacteria
Designer Ori Elisar has developed a bacterial ink and grown typographical symbols in a petri dish. Here are more stories featuring microbes, including a lamp powered by glowing octopus bacteria (pictured), clothes grown from single-cell organisms and cheese made from the sweat and tears of celebrities.
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Ori Elisar grows typography in a lab using bacteria-filled petri dishes
Jerusalem designer Ori Elisar has used a bacteria-based ink to grow a Hebrew alphabet in the lab for his Living Language type experiment. More
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Nanocellulose Fibreboard is an all-natural replacement for MDF and moulded plastic
Graduate shows 2015: Royal College of Art graduate YunTing Lin has created a new material from plant fibres and naturally fermented cellulose, and used it to form a storage system and speakers (+ slideshow). More
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Neri Oxman 3D prints "photosynthetic wearable" to host living organisms
Designer and researcher Neri Oxman has successfully 3D-printed one of her "wearable skins" and filled its hollow tubes with a bacterial luminescent liquid to represent how it could host photosynthetic organisms (+ slideshow). More
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Growduce "micro-factory" concept would allow users to grow their own products
A biologist and a designer are developing a bacteria and yeast "micro-factory" that could one day enable consumers to grow their own products at home (+ slideshow). More
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Rotten food becomes palatable in human-hyena synthetic biology scenario
Royal College of Art student Paul Gong has imagined how synthetic biology could be used to modify the human body so it can consume and digest rotten food. More
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Teresa van Dongen's bioluminescent lamp is "a new way to create light"
Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: Dutch designer Teresa van Dongen explains how she created a lamp powered by bioluminescent bacteria usually found on octopuses, in this movie filmed in Eindhoven. More
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Bioluminescent lamp by Teresa van Dongen glows blue with octopus bacteria
Dutch designer Teresa van Dongen has filled a glass tube with octopus bacteria to create a zero-electricity lamp that glows blue when disturbed (+ movie). More
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Bacteria produces textiles for Skin body adornments by Sammy Jobbins Wells
Designer Sammy Jobbins Wells has stretched material made by bacteria over structural frames to create a set of wearable objects (+ slideshow). More
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Glowing trees could be used "instead of street lighting" says Daan Roosegaarde
Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde is exploring ways of using bio-luminescent bacteria found in jellyfish and mushrooms to create glow-in-the-dark trees that could replace street lights. More
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Microbes are "the factories of the future"
Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: Suzanne Lee of BioCouture explains how she makes clothes that are "grown using bacteria" in this movie filmed at the Wearable Futures conference in London in December. More
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Stools made of sand and urine by Peter Trimble
Edinburgh College of Art student Peter Trimble has built a portable machine for manufacturing furniture from sand, urine and bacteria (+ slideshow). More
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World's first glow-in-the-dark plant genetically engineered
News: American biotechnology company Bioglow has applied synthetic biology processes to create plants that glow, which its founder claims are "truly the first of their kind." More
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Olafur Eliasson's tears used to make human cheese
Bacteria from personalities including artist Olafur Eliasson, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and chef Michael Pollan have been used to make human cheese as part of an exhibition about synthetic biology in Dublin. More
