Most plastics today are made from fossil fuels, which are formed from the carbon-rich remains of prehistoric marine plants and algae that thrived on “ancient sunlight,” as McCurdy puts it. Thinking about these materials as ancient sunlight raised a question for McCurdy: What would happen if we made them out of “present-tense sunlight”?
“If our materials were the product of photosynthesis happening now, not only could we reduce our dependence on ancient carbon, we could store our current carbon in our materials,” she explains. “We have guilt about consumption. We’ve told each other that the moral thing to do is to reduce our consumption. Well, how’s that going?” Instead of the endless guilt trips, McCurdy sees a better path forward through the development of materials that are actively helping combat climate change by metabolizing atmospheric carbon, such as plant matter.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: A New Arduino MicroPython Package Manager, How-Tos and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey