Lab-grown wood could be future of furniture

[Still Waters]

American scientists are working on a plan to "grow" wood in a laboratory without sunlight or soil.

Ashley Beckwith, lead author of the study, said her hope is that lab-grown wood could one day supplement traditional forestry methods.

Her team is growing the wood by using a 3D-printed gel to mould plant cells into the desired shape.

The technology could be used to create wooden parts or planks, which could then be used in a piece of furniture.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56270691

[Still Waters]

Toward customizable timber, grown in a lab

Each year, the world loses about 10 million hectares of forest—an area about the size of Iceland—because of deforestation. At that rate, some scientists predict the world's forests could disappear in 100 to 200 years.

In an effort to provide an environmentally friendly and low-waste alternative, researchers at MIT have pioneered a tunable technique to generate wood-like plant material in a lab, which could enable someone to "grow" a wooden product like a table without needing to cut down trees, process lumber, etc.

These researchers have now demonstrated that, by adjusting certain chemicals used during the growth process, they can precisely control the physical and mechanical properties of the resulting plant material, such as its stiffness and density.

They also show that, using 3D bioprinting techniques, they can grow plant material in shapes, sizes, and forms that are not found in nature and that can't be easily produced using traditional agricultural methods.

https://phys.org/news/2022-05-customizable-timber-grown-lab.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369702122000451?