Synthetic clothing dyes are an environmental hazard. They’re often derived from fossil fuels, require vast quantities of water, and use toxic heavy metals to fix colours - which leach into the environment, harming plants and contaminating drinking water. But what if biodegradable dyes could be produced in an environmentally friendly way, using special bacteria that secrete pigments as they grow? That’s the technology behind Faber Futures’ dyes, which use microbes to produce dyes from navy blue t

At the frontier of biotech innovation, synthetic biology promises revolutionary advancements in agriculture, health and medicine, energy, and more. The ability to better understand and encode life’s building blocks, has the potential to improve the environment, raise life expectancy, and advance the human condition. This emerging field, however, does raise significant ethical, economic, and security concerns, including human enhancement, DNA patenting, and international competition. To harness t