Article on Melanin Research:
MIT’s radical plan to make buildings out of melanin
Melanin is the universal pigment that colors our skin and hair, peacock feathers, and butterfly wings. But for Neri Oxman, the head of MIT’s Mediated Matter research group, melanin isn’t just “the color of life,” as she puts it. It’s the foundation of our future–and our future habitats.
Her lab’s latest project is called Totems: a series of 3D-printed sculptures filled with intricate liquid channels of melanin, in pigments ranging from subtle yellows to rich browns. Like all of Oxman’s work, which often plays with biology as a medium of construction, the pieces manage to look enchantingly organic–somehow capturing the natural beauty of our skin and eyes without resembling a mutant creature grown in a lab.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90330635/mits-radical-plan-to-make-buildings-out-of-melanin