Essi Johanna Glomb and Rasa Weber of the Berlin-based Blond & Bieber studio are storytellers. At first glance, this might not be as apparent as other titles they embody--designers, scientists, futurists. They latched onto the aesthetic and functional potential of microalgae to create Algaemy, an analogue textile printer which produces its own pigment. Their Algaemy printer grows various species of microalgae, each a different shade of blue, green, brown, and red, forming a br

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have created a new material that changes color based on the amount of pressure or force applied. In the new material, thousands of microscopic ridges are etched onto a single thin silicon wafer. These ridges reflect a very specific wavelength of light. This is in contrast to colors we typically see reflected from everyday objects and in nature. In those objects, the unique chemical composition of the object (think chemi