Glossary

This is a working list of terms that often come up in the fields of biodesign and DIY materials. Definitions pulled from other sources have been credited in the footnote.

Agar

(often called agar agar)

Agar is a gelatinous substance made of polysaccharides extracted from the cell walls of red algae (Phylum Rhodophyta). It is often used in laboratory settings as a culture media (commonly called an agar plate) and in cooking settings as a gelling / stabilizing agent.

Algae

Algae are a diverse group of aquatic organisms. They can exist as single microscopic cells (microalgae), they can be macroscopic or multicellular; live in colonies; or have a plant like structure, as is with giant kelp. All grow through ability to conduct photosynthesis whereby sunlight, CO2 and a few nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorous are converted into a material known as biomass.

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Alginate

(often called alginic acid)

Alginate is a polysaccharide obtained from the cell walls of brown algae (Phaeophyceae). When hydrated, it forms a viscous gum. While many recipes will just list ‘alginate' as an ingredient, the characteristics of the gel will vary widely based on the species of algae from which it was extracted. Not only that but there are various ‘salts' of alginate that have different properties:

Sodium alginate is the sodium salt of alginic acid.
Calcium alginate is created when sodium alginate has the sodium ion removed and replaced with calcium. Calcium alginate can be produced when a sodium alginate solution is combined with a calcium salt.
Potassium alginate is the potassium salt of alginic acid.

Anthropocene

The Anthropocene is an unofficial but widely recognized period of geological time marking the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems. Most notable of these are the effects of anthropogenic climate change, including rising atmospheric greenhouse gas levels, global warming, and other phenomena associated with global climate change.

Bacteria

Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms. They are found almost everywhere on Earth and are vital to the planet's ecosystems. Some bacteria cause diseases, these are called pathogenic, but there's also good bacteria. In the gut of our digestive system we have bacteria that are necessary to help our bodies function in a normal way. We have 10 times more bacterial cells than we have human cells. The biotechnology industry uses bacterial cells for the production of biological substances that are useful to human existence, including fuels, foods, medicines, hormones, enzymes, proteins and more.

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Bacterial Cellulose

(also called Microbial Cellulose; associated with SCOBY or the Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast)

Bacterial cellulose is a form of cellulose produced by bacteria, principally acetobacter, sarcina ventriculi, and agrobacterium. While bacterial cellulose has the same formula as plant cellulose (C₆H₁₀O₅)_nit has different mechanical properties. It is characterized by high purity, strength, malleability, and increased water retention.

The most common household way of obtaining bacterial cellulose is through the production of kombucha. While the kombucha is fermenting, the bacteria in the SCOBY form a pellicle of bacterial cellulose on the surface. This can be harvested and used as a source of bacterial cellulose.

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Bio

In English the word 'bio' is connected with life and living things. 'Bio' is often used as an abbreviation for the noun 'biology' or the adjective 'biological'. 'Bio' is problematic in French, for example, as the word means 'organic' which is not necessarily the same thing.

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Bioart

A subset of the art world where artists work with biology, live tissues, bacteria, living organisms, and ecological processes.

Biobased

The term biobased product refers to products wholly or partly derived from biomass, such as plants, trees or animals (the biomass can have undergone physical, chemical or biological treatment).The product can be an intermediate, material, semifinished or final product. NB: bio-based does not equal biodegradable. The property of biodegradation does not depend on the resource basis of a material but is rather linked to its chemical structure. In other words, 100% bio-based plastics may be non-biodegradable, and 100% fossil-based plastics can biodegrade.

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Biodegradable

Biodegradation is the degradation of the materials into environmentally acceptable products such as water, carbon dioxide, and biomass by the action of naturally available microorganisms under normal environmental conditions.

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Bioderived

Derived from biological sources.

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Biodesign

While there is not yet an official dictionary definition of biodesign, it commonly refers to the incorporation of living organisms as essential components in the design process. It differs from biology-inspired approaches such as biomimicry or biophilia in that it actually incorporates living organisms or their by-products within the design process.

Bioeconomy

The biological sciences are adding value to a host of products and services, producing what some have labelled the “bioeconomy”. From a broad economic perspective, the bioeconomy refers to the set of economic activities relating to the invention, development, production and use of biological products and processes.

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Biofabrication

Biofabrication is the production of complex biologic products from raw materials such as living cells, matrices, biomaterials, and molecules. A common example of biofabrication is the production of bacterial cellulose by acetobacter.

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Biogenic

Produced in natural processes by living organisms but not fossilized or derived from fossil resources.

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Biogenic Carbon

Biogenic carbon is the emissions related to the natural carbon cycle, as well as those resulting from the combustion, harvest, digestion, fermentation, decomposition or processing of biologically based materials.

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Bioinspired

The development of novel materials, devices, and structures inspired by solutions found in biological systems and biological evolution and refinement which has occurred over millions of years.

Bioinspired materials are synthetic materials whose structure, properties or function mimic those of natural materials or living matter. Examples of bioinspired materials are light-harvesting photonic materials that mimic photosynthesis, structural composites that imitate the structure of nacre, and metal actuators inspired by the movements of jellyfish.

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Biomanufacture

The process of using living systems, particularly microorganisms and cell cultures, to produce biological molecules and materials on a commercial scale.

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Biomass

Raw material of biological origin excluding material embedded in geological formations or transformed to fossilized material.

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Biomaterial

A material with non-specific biological origins or associations. This definition is intentionally vague as it serves as the umbrella under which many subsets of biologically-related materials can be grouped.

(refer to the chart on the Classroom page for more details)

Biomimicry

Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges. Famous examples of applied biomimicry in design and engineering are the Japanese Bullet train (modeled on a kingfisher bird) or Speedo swimsuits (modeled on sharkskin). The application of biomimetic principles does not imply a material or process is of biological origin.

The term Biomimicry was popularized by Janine Benyus who defines it as ‘innovation inspired by nature’.

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Biophilia

Biophilia is defined as a hypothetical human tendency to interact with, or be closely associated with, other forms of life in nature. If you want to follow in the steps of the transcendentalists, you might call it the desire to “commune” with nature.

While this sounds like a theory based on “soft” feelings, there are also a host of peer-reviewed scientific studies to determine if there is “hard” evidence to support this idea.

Multiple studies have reported health benefits from contact with nature. There are psychological benefits such as a reduction in stress, improved attention and focus, and physical benefits such as lower risk of heart disease. Scientists have also discovered that patients in hospital recover notably quicker when exposed to nature and biophilic considerations have become common in architecture.

Bioplastic

Bioplastics are not just one single substance, they comprise of a whole family of materials with differing properties and applications. According to European Bioplastics, a plastic material is defined as a bioplastic if it is either bio-based, biodegradable, or features both properties. The term “bioplastics” is actually used for two separate things: biobased plastics (plastics made at least partly from biological matter) and biodegradable plastics (plastics that can be completely broken down by microbes in a reasonable timeframe, given specific conditions). Not all biobased plastics are biodegradable, and not all biodegradable plastics are biobased. And even biodegradable plastics might not biodegrade in every environment.

(more about this distinction on the Classroom page)

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Bioreactor

An apparatus for growing microorganisms such as yeast, bacteria, or animal cells under controlled conditions. Bioreactors are used industrially to manufacture many products including enzymes, food additives, chemicals, and other products. Bioreactor and fermentor are two words for basically the same thing. Scientists who cultivate bacteria, yeast, or fungi often use the term fermentor. The term bioreactor often relates to the cultivation of mammalian cells but is also generically used. Broadly speaking, bioreactors and fermentors are culture systems to produce cells or organisms.

(see also Fermentation)

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Bioregion

A bioregion is a territory of land and water whose limits are defined by geographical features and ecological systems rather than political boundaries imposed on the landscape.

To qualify as a bioregion an area must be large enough to be self-reliant and sustain its biological communities, habitats, and ecosystems.

When considering what materials are available to you “locally,” it might be worth thinking of your bioregion rather than your state limits.

Biosynthesis

The production of a complex chemical compound from simpler molecules in a living organism. There are multiple types of biosynthesis - one example is photosynthesis - where sunlight, CO2 and water are converted into food for a plant to grow. Biosynthesis occurs throughout the natural world, in plants, in microorganisms, in animals.

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Carbon

Carbon is a widely distributed element that forms organic compounds in combination with hydrogen, oxygen, etc. These carbon-based molecules are the basic building blocks of humans, animals, plants, trees and soils. Some greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and methane, also consist of carbon-based molecules, as do fossil fuels, which are largely made up of hydrocarbons (molecules consisting of hydrogen and carbon).

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Carrageenan

(sometimes spelled carrageenins)

Carrageenans are a family of polysaccharides extracted from red seaweeds. They are commonly used in the food industry for their gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties.

There are three main commercial varieties of carrageenan, which differ in their degree of sulfation (addition of a sulfur trioxide group):

Kappa-carrageenan has one sulfate group per disaccharide. It forms strong, rigid gels in the presence of potassium ions and reacts with dairy proteins.
Iota-carrageenan has two sulfate groups per disaccharide. It forms soft gels in the presence of calcium ions.
Lambda-carrageenan has three sulfate groups per disaccharide. It does not gel and is often used to thicken dairy products.

Most material recipes will use either kappa or iota carrageenan (since lambda doesn't gel).

Casein

Casein is a family of phosphoproteins commonly found in mammalian milk, usually obtained from cow's milk.

There are two main ways to obtain casein:

“acid” casein: casein precipitated from milk by heating it with an acid or by the action of lactic acid in souring the milk. This type is often used in making paints and adhesives.
“rennet” casein: casein produced when milk is curdled by rennet. This type is the chief constituent of cheese and is used in making plastics.

Caseins obtained by the acidification of the milk are insoluble at neutral pH. In order to make them available as an ingredient, it is necessary to conduct a chemical “neutralization” with a base.

Depending on the base used, different types of caseinates with slightly different properties are obtained:

Sodium Caseinate
Calcium Caseinate
Potassium Caseinate

The most common form of these is sodium caseinate and most bioplastics are made using either sodium caseinate or calcium caseinate. Sodium caseinate also tends to form more flexible biofilms than casein caseinate.

Chitosan

(often mistakenly called chitin)

While chitosan and chitin are commonly mistaken for one another, they are notably different.

Chitin is an abundant natural polysaccharide commonly found in crustacean shells, insect exoskeletons, and fungi. It is the second most abundant biological macromolecule following cellulose.

Chitosan is a common sub-product of chitin, obtained by its partial deacetylation (removal of an acetyl group). If chitin reaches 50% deacetylation, it becomes soluble in acidic solutions and is called chitosan.

Most material recipes call for the use of chitosan since that is the chemically available variation of chitin.

Circular

A circular system is a closed-loop system that aims to look beyond the current take-make-waste extractive industrial model.

It’s three main goals are:

1. Design out waste and pollution
2. Keep products and materials in use
3. Regenerate natural systems

The aim is to create a closed material loop via reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling. Designing products and services for circularity requires end-of-life consideration from the very beginning.

Colloid

A mixture in which one substance of insoluble and microscopically dispersed particles is suspended throughout another substance.

For example, milk is a colloid of water with fat and protein globules dispersed throughout. While these globules do not settle out of the mixture with time, they can also be removed without breaking any chemical bonds.

Composite

A composite is a solid material composed of two or more substances which have different physical characteristics but which retain their identity within the whole.

example: fiberglass is a composite of plastic and glass fiber

Compostable

Sometimes mistakenly used interchangeably with biodegradable, compostable materials can be decomposed in an accelerated form of biodegradation under specific conditions that will provide nutrients back to the earth. Items can be at-home compostable (tossed in your home compost) or industrially / commercially compostable (which requires a very high level of heat, not to mention the infrastructure). Home compostable materials and products are really the goal for circular design.

Compostable - Home

Materials suited to be composted in home compost heats (not disposed of in the natural environment) at ambient temperature, rather than high temperature. There are no current international standards but two national standards - French standard NFT 51-800 Australian standard AS 5810 by which home compostability can be assessed.

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Compostable - Industrial

In this process, the material is composted to forum at higher temperatures (50-60oC) in large scale specialized facilities, under controlled conditions57. To be called this it must meet a standard such as EN 13432, EN 14995, ASTM D6400 or ASTM D6868. In addition to breaking down and biodegrading under these conditions, it must also pass additional ecotoxicity tests to show that is does not break down into or release harmful chemicals.

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Cradle to Cradle

(similar in motive and method to circular design)

Cradle-to-cradle design is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that attempts to model human industry and manufacturing on nature's processes, where materials are viewed as nutrients that can circle safely within nutrient flows.

Culture

The cultivation of bacteria, tissue cells, etc. in a growth medium containing nutrients.

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DIY Material

A DIY material is any material created through individual or collective processes of research and development. The origins of DIY materials are often waste streams within the creator's community and the techniques of production are often invented or repurposed by the creator.

The original definition and description of DIY materials was developed by the Materials Experience Lab.

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_{Credit: Laura Clèrries, Valentina Rognoli, Seetal Solanki, Pere Llorach. MATERIAL DESIGNERS: BOOSTING TALENT TOWARDS CIRCULAR ECONOMIES, 2021, p. 69.}

Degradable

Degradable simply means an item is able to be broken down into smaller parts. It doesn't necessary mean biodegradable — objects can also be photodegradable, or broken down by sunlight. For instance, microplastics are simply degraded pieces of larger plastics.

Downstream Processing (DSP)

Downstream processing (DSP) describes the series of operations required to take biological materials such as cells, tissue culture fluid, or plant tissues, and derive from them a pure and homogeneous protein product.

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Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an independently verified and registered document that communicates transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products. As a voluntary declaration of the life-cycle environmental impact, having an EPD for a product does not imply that the declared product is environmentally superior to alternatives.

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Feedstock

carbon source for an organism, used in industrial biotechnology.

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Fermentation

The chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically involving effervescence and the giving off of heat.

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Gelatin

Gelatin is a blend of peptides and proteins that comes from the partial hydrolysis of collagen. This collagen is sourced from the skin, bones, and connective tissue of animals – often cattle, chicken, pigs, and fish. For that reason, most gelatin-based bioplastics are notably non-vegan.

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

This is a plant, animal, microorganism or other organism whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering technology. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.

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Glycerol

(often used interchangeably with glycerin)

Glycerol is a simple polyol (organic compound containing multiple hydroxyl groups) compound. It is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is sweet-tasting and non-toxic. It can be obtained from both plant and animal sources and is often sourced from soybeans, palm, and animal-derived tallow.

While they are often used interchangeably, glycerol and glycerin are technically different:

Glycerol refers to the pure substance found directly in the triglycerides of fats and oils. It is a trihydroxy sugar alcohol.

Glycerin refers to the byproduct of producing fatty acid, fatty ester, or soap (from oils or fats) and is a trihydroxy sugar alcohol.

Essentially, the difference between glycerol and glycerin is that glycerol is a pure form and glycerin contains at least 95% glycerol. While the chemical formula is the same, they are not technically interchangeable when purity is required.

Hydrogel

A hydrogel is a material composed of a hydrophobic polymer and at least 10% by weight or volume interstitial fluid, mainly consisting of water. The crosslinking bonds which form the polymer can either be covalent bonds, denoting chemical hydrogels, or non-covalent bonds, denoting physical hydrogels.

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Hyphae

A strand of the threadlike mycelial tissue of fungi.

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Industrial Ecology (IE)

A field of study focused on the stages of the production processes of goods and services from a point of view of nature, trying to mimic a natural system by conserving and reusing resources.

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Lab-Grown

The term ‘lab-grown’ has been widely used in the media to describe everything from meat to diamonds. It is often a stand-in term to indicate technologies that are new to certain sectors, for example the use of biotechnology to grow materials for fashion. While early-stage research and development takes place in labs, it is not an accurate term since scaled production, be it food or fashion, is not manufactured in a laboratory. Validated technologies are subsequently transferred to industrial facilities for pilot and then commercial production. Therefore ‘lab-grown’ is not a term used by most innovators themselves.

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

(often called Lifecycle Analysis)

A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is the detailed study of changes to a product, process, or activity throughout its existence. It often involves an accounting of the inputs and outputs to the system, including the flows of energy, water, materials, and pollution.

An LCA traces the “life” of an object from the initial state as raw materials, through various state changes during processing, to the end of life at disposal. The environmental impacts are recorded and analyzed to create an impact analysis and allow for informed decisions surrounding production.

Newer forms of Life Cycle Analysis will also account for labor practices and the social and sociological impacts to give a holistic Social Life Cycle Analysis (S-LCA).

Lifecycle

A series of stages that characterise the course of existence of a material product, individual or culture. When thinking about the lifecycle of a material we can witness its progression from raw state to product and back again if it has the ability to biodegrade, be recycled or repurposed.

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_{Credit: Laura Clèrries, Valentina Rognoli, Seetal Solanki, Pere Llorach. MATERIAL DESIGNERS: BOOSTING TALENT TOWARDS CIRCULAR ECONOMIES, 2021, p. 69.}

Marine Degradable

Currently certified by TUV Austria to the ASTM D7081 (but technically withdrawn – there is a newer ASTM D669158 standard) standard – the material must degrade by 90% within 6 months. The lack of consistent standards to assess marine degradability is still an issue, especially since marine degradability is still a developing category – the trade-offs and benefits are not widely understood at present.

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Material Design

(not to be confused with the Material Design pioneered by Google)

Material Design is the design, redesign, reform, reuse, or redefinition of materials. It can encompass the creation of an entirely new material, or the repurposing of a material for new or innovative needs. Often material designers will work with a waste stream of an industrial process to convert it into a useful material product.

More than just the association with material science, the new generation of material designers place emphasis on the role materials play in social, economical, political, and environmental spheres.

Material Ecology

Material Ecology is a term coined by Neri Oxman that aims to establish a deeper, more scientific and precise relationship between the design object and an environment. It takes the known field of ecology and applies it to the material world to break down materials to their basic elements. It consists of the study and design of products and processes integrating environmentally aware computationalform-generation and digital fabrication.

Material Flows

Material flows are essentially the life cycle of materials from “cradle” (extraction) to “grave” (end-of-life). They trace the life of materials including the various state changes during processing into finished objects. Material flows are a subset of a larger Life Cycle Assessment.

Material Narratives

The stories emergent from the cultural, ecological and technological system of relations surrounding the material, its making, and the purpose it now holds.

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Material-Driven Design (MDD)

Material Driven Design (MDD) methodology facilitates designing products/concepts for material experiences. The process starts with a material (or a material proposal), and ends with a product or concept. It suggests four main action steps presented in a sequential manner as:

(1) Understanding The Material: Technical and Experiential Characterization

(2) Creating Materials Experience Vision

(3) Manifesting Materials Experience Patterns

(4) Designing Material/Product Concepts

This method is unique in that it doesn't start with a design brief in the traditional sense, but rather a material starting point around which constraints must be drawn. The method emphasizes the designer's journey from tangible material to abstract ideation and then back again to a final product. Material Driven-Design is often used to create meaningful circular products from industrial waste streams.

Microorganism

A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism, which may be single-celled or multicellular. The microbes most commonly associated with the production of materials for consumer textiles include yeast, bacteria, fungi and algae.

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Monomaterial

A monomaterial is a product which is only composed of a single type of material. While this sounds obvious, it can be surprisingly rare to find in modern manufactured objects.

Monomaterials are ideally suited for recycling since there is no separation or disassembly required. For example, since milk cartons are made from paperboard coated with a plastic film, they are not a monomaterial. Since paper and plastic are usually recycled separately, this makes milk cartons difficult to recycle.

Monomer

A monomer is a molecule that can react with other monomer molecules to form a larger chain or three-dimensional network called a polymer. A monomer is essentially the building block of longer polymer molecules.

Mycelium

The vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments (hyphae). The non-fruiting part, or root system of a mushroom.

In nature, this part is often submerged in soil but in biofabrication it is often cultured within a specific mold or laboratory medium.

Natural

A definition of natural is 'existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by humankind.' In the fashion and textile world, 'natural' fibers, fabrics and dyes generally are understood to be obtained directly from an animal or plant. Examples would be, respectively, wool, leather, and fur, cotton, hemp, indigo and saffron.

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Organic (chemical compound)

Any of a large class of chemical compounds in which one or more atoms of carbon are covalently linked to atoms of other elements, most commonly hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen. The few carbon-containing compounds not classified as organic include carbides, carbonates, and cyanides.

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Organic (farming)

Relating to, yielding, or involving the use of food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides.

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Pellicle

Technically a pellicle is a biofilm that forms at the air-water interface of a mixture, indicating that a particular culture is aerobic. On this site it almost always refers to a layer of SCOBY that forms on the surface of a kombucha culture.

Petrochemicals

Petrochemicals are chemicals derived from petroleum or natural gas.

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Polymer

A polymer is a substance consisting of very large molecules (or macromolecules) composed of smaller repeating subunits (called monomers).

Polymers can come from either fossil fuels (often called synthetic polymers) or biological sources (biopolymers).

All polymers are created via polymerization of smaller monomer molecules. As a result, polymers have large molecular mass which produces unique physical properties such as toughness, high elasticity, and a tendency to form amorphous and semi-crystalline structures rather than crystals.

Protein

Proteins are biological polymers composed of amino acids. Examples of natural protein biopolymers are silk and collagen.

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Recombinant DNA

Genetically-engineered DNA molecule formed by splicing fragments of DNA from a different source or from another part of the same source, and then introduced into the recipient (host) cell.

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Recyclable

For a substance to be recyclable, it must be capable of being made fit for use again through a particular process (either physically or chemically).

It is worth mentioning that in the United States, the classic recycling symbol listed on packaging simply means that a material is capable of being recycled. Whether it actually is depends on your location, your local recycling capabilities, and the design of the object.

Planet Money did a great series of podcasts on the recycling industry in the United States which can be found here.

Regenerative

The term “regenerative” describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials. Regenerative is often used to describe restorative methods of agriculture, as well as increasingly within the design sphere.

Regenerative Design

Process-oriented whole systems approach to design. The term "regenerative" describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials. Regenerative design uses whole systems thinking to create resilient and equitable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature.

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Renewable

Renewable simply means something (a material or resource) is capable of being replaced by natural ecological cycles or sound management practices.

Often bioplastics will state that they are sourced from “renewable resources” which generally means biomass sources such as corn starch, cellulose, etc. It should be noted that this doesn't necessarily mean that these bioplastics are biodegradable. It is also possible that they have been blended with petroleum-based plastics but still are labelled as “from renewable sources.”

Renewable Carbon

Renewable carbon entails all carbon sources that avoid or substitute the use of any additional fossil carbon from the geosphere.

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_{Credit: Biofabricate and Fashion for Good, UNDERSTANDING ‘BIO’ MATERIAL INNOVATION: a primer for the fashion industry, December 2020, p. 80.}

Speculative Design

A critical frame of design thinking which considers possible futures through a series of fictional objects and systems. This form of material interrogation is used to stimulate debate, imagination and critical thinking with publics.

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_{Credit: Laura Clèrries, Valentina Rognoli, Seetal Solanki, Pere Llorach. MATERIAL DESIGNERS: BOOSTING TALENT TOWARDS CIRCULAR ECONOMIES, 2021, p. 71.}

Starch

(also called amylum)

Starch is a complex carbohydrate consisting of glucose monomers held together by glycosidic bonds. Starch is produced by most photosynthetic plants as a form of energy storage.

Pure starch is a white, tasteless and odorless powder that is insoluble in cold water or alcohol. Globally, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets and is found in many staple foods such as wheat, potatoes, corn, rice, and cassava.

Sustainable

In terms of materials, sustainability is a method of using a resource in moderation in order to enable continual reuse and refrain from damaging surrounding ecological and social landscapes. With regards to systems, to be sustainable is a measure of whether an action or process can keep going indefinitely.

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_{Credit: Laura Clèrries, Valentina Rognoli, Seetal Solanki, Pere Llorach. MATERIAL DESIGNERS: BOOSTING TALENT TOWARDS CIRCULAR ECONOMIES, 2021, p. 71.}

Synthesis (chemical)

The construction of complex chemical compounds from simpler ones. Synthesis also enables chemists to produce compounds that do not form naturally for research purposes. In industry, synthesis is used to make products in large quantity.

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_{Credit: Biofabricate and Fashion for Good, UNDERSTANDING ‘BIO’ MATERIAL INNOVATION: a primer for the fashion industry, December 2020, p. 80.}

Synthetic

Pertaining to compounds formed through a chemical process by human agency, as opposed to those of natural origin.

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_{Credit: Biofabricate and Fashion for Good, UNDERSTANDING ‘BIO’ MATERIAL INNOVATION: a primer for the fashion industry, December 2020, p. 80.}

Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology or ‘synbio’ is an emerging field of research that combines elements of biology, engineering, genetics, chemistry, and computer science. It joins the knowledge and techniques of biology with the practical principles and techniques of engineering. Researchers and companies around the world are using synbio to solve problems in medicine, manufacturing and agriculture. Synthetic biology aims to design and engineer biologically based parts, novel devices and systems as well as redesigning existing, natural biological systems. In synthetic biology, scientists typically stitch together long stretches of DNA and insert them into an organism’s genome. These synthesized pieces of DNA could be genes that are found in other organisms or they could be entirely novel.

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_{Credit: Biofabricate and Fashion for Good, UNDERSTANDING ‘BIO’ MATERIAL INNOVATION: a primer for the fashion industry, December 2020, p. 80.}

Systems Thinking

A holistic approach to analysis of systems that understands emergent behavior from component interactions. This analysis views everything as intimately interconnected and considers how systems work over time, the interrelation of the parts which make up the overall system, the processes that connect these constituent parts and the larger systems that they make up.

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_{Credit: Laura Clèrries, Valentina Rognoli, Seetal Solanki, Pere Llorach. MATERIAL DESIGNERS: BOOSTING TALENT TOWARDS CIRCULAR ECONOMIES, 2021, p. 71.}

Thermoplastic

Polymers that do not form permanent cross-links when curing or cooling. These can be remolded under the right conditions but have lower stress tolerance than thermosets.

In the diagram below you can see the monomer strands loosely held together like strands of spaghetti through “weak” intermolecular forces. These forces weaken when heated until they break, allowing thermoplastics to return to a viscous liquid state for reshaping. The intermolecular forces reform upon cooling.

Thermoset

Polymers that form permanent cross-links during the curing process. These have higher stress tolerance than thermoplastics and are immune to re-melting under elevated temperatures.

In the diagram below you can see the monomer strands that have a few permanent cross-linked nodes. Unlike thermoplastics which are held together through “weak” intermolecular forces, thermosets are held together through cross-linking (links which may be “strong” covalent or ionic bonds).

Virgin Material

A virgin material is one that is in its raw state before any modification or processing. It is matter that is being used as a material for the first time.

For some context, recycled plastics often need a certain amount of virgin material to be mixed in to increase material strength and ensure high quality results.

Waste

Waste is often defined as something that is produced in excess of what is required. This include offcuts from the production of fabrics and textiles, pollution and effluent from manufacturing processes, and post-consumer trash that is sent to landfill.

Waste is undergoing a reckoning where it is now being viewed as a problem that can be designed out. If one designs while considering the full life cycle of an object, the end-of-life phase can be designed to minimize or eliminate waste altogether.

White Biotechnology

White biotechnology is a term that is now often used to describe the implementation of biotechnology in the industrial sphere. Biocatalysts (enzymes and microorganisms) are the key tools of white biotechnology, which is considered to be one of the key technological drivers for the growing bioeconomy. Biocatalysts are already present in sectors such as the chemical and agro-food industries, and are used to manufacture products as diverse as antibiotics, paper pulp, bread or advanced polymers.

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_{Credit: Biofabricate and Fashion for Good, UNDERSTANDING ‘BIO’ MATERIAL INNOVATION: a primer for the fashion industry, December 2020, p. 80.}

Yeast

A microscopic fungus consisting of single oval cells that reproduce by budding, and are capable of converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

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_{Credit: Biofabricate and Fashion for Good, UNDERSTANDING ‘BIO’ MATERIAL INNOVATION: a primer for the fashion industry, December 2020, p. 80.}