Biotech and new materiality

We have been through the Age of Electricity, the Machine Age, the Space Age and the Information Age. We continue to celebrate and salivate over the digital tools and the new materials that other have developed for us, but nothing has prepared us for the fundamental changes that are emerging around us. Our age is an age of molecular manipulation, where entirely new form of life are being designed and created. Old distinction between natural and artificial are not longer certain.
Our is an age where we are able to alter the fundamental properties of matter to create an entirely new class of material and devises that are designed at the molecular, and ever subatomic level. This is where nanotechnology intersect with bioengineering, in a field known nanobiotechnology. Some materials, such us polymer scaffolds, provide a porous infrastructure for growing living tissue. Such material and devise introduce fresh possibilities for thinking about the bodily integration of architecture, and they posit exiting opportunities r thinking about architecture as a new form of life.
However, the most immediate evidence of the impact nanotechnology will have on our architecture and our cities, is furnished by the material product that are currently being developed for application.

The Technicolor Brain

The new biotechnologies are being applied in many fields of research. Researchers in Harvard are using illuminating neurons with nearly 100 different colors so as to manage map the human brain. Such a map could help scientists understand not only the early development of the human brain but also some diseases such as autism and schizophrenia.

Saving Memories

Stem-cell transplants have been used so as to improve the injured memory of mice. This can be helpful at illnesses such as Alzheimer's.

Decoding the Human Eye

Artificial retinas that approximate the normal human vision are now in research. These can later be used so as to help blind patients and eventually this kind of technology can be used to send visual information down the optic nerve. Moreover an artificial cornea could be a more effective treatment for the eye damage.

A Better Artificial Skin

Skin cells genetically engineered so as to be resistant to bacteria can not only reduce the likeliness of inflections, but also improve the survival chances among burnt victims.

Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip

European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together. The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.

First complete DNA transplant

After cloning and mutations scientists have transformed a bacteria species into another species. It was done by transplanting a complete set of DNA of a bacteria species and gives a possibility for constructing synthetic life in the coming future.


http://www.yeadon.net/yeadon/support/projects/0511/Year2050.pdf
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/6
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/35

What might these advancements be, and where will they lead us? What are the future material, techniques, and devices that will yield new forms of architecture and new urban environment?