Tools like Project Cyborg make possible a deeper exploration of biomimicry through the precise manipulation of matter. David Benjamin and his Columbia Living Architecture Lab explore ways to integrate biology into architecture. Their recent work investigates bacterial manufacturing--the genetic modification of bacteria to create durable materials. Envisioning a future where bacterial colonies are designed to print novel materials at scale, they see buildings wrapped in seamless, responsive, bio-electronic envelopes.

From molecular printing to volume manufacturing, roboticist Enrico Dini has fabricated a 3-D printer large enough to print houses from sand. He’s now teamed up with the European Space Agency to investigate deploying his D-Shape printer to the moon in hopes of churning lunar soil into a habitable base. Though realization of this effort remains distant, it’s notable to show how the thinking--and money--is moving to scale 3-D printing well beyond the desktop.

"Bacterial manufacturing" = Nanotechnology ?

Yeah, but ....

But?

Bionanotechnology?

Which eventually some kid will call "bananatechnology".

I don't know what bananatechnology is but I like the name!

If bacteria can be programmed can viruses be programmed too?

New negative strands may:

i. be used as templates for the synthesis of more full length plus strands

ii. be used as templates for the synthesis of more mRNAs

iii. be packaged into virions

I thought I'd start with RNA viruses because they can mutate.  I understood nothing.  Perhaps you will have better luck.

http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/mhunt/rna-ho.htm

Viruses that can mutate might be a bad idea to program -- seems easy for them to get out of control.

I look forward to the day that a fully autonomous 3D printer can bio-print-weave me a house, like some sort of spider.

If houses are easily printed, are they easily disposable, too?

"I look forward to the day that a fully autonomous 3D printer can bio-print-weave me a house, like some sort of spider" was my favorite sentence of the day yesterday.  Today it is "It was like a psychotic animal, a leviathan attempting to eat its own entrails" (about the rapids of Crystal River, by Kevin Fedarko in Outside Magazine, from his new book, The Emerald Mile, "an incredible story of the fastest, wildest trip ever attempted through the Grand Canyon.")  And it's only 8:01 a.m.!

We need more days like that.