Living Electronics And Household Items Grown from Bacteria - This is real genius

Loads of us grow our own fruit and vegetables. Well some of us might. I tried once and managed to kill my tomatoes. Anyway, vegetables we've been doing for thousands of years. But how about growing household items? A team from MIT have developed a way of growing living, bacteria based materials into intricate designs which are stronger than steel. The materials are called biofilms are were developed by a team headed by synthetic biologist Timothy Lu. The bacteria are programmed to assemble themselves into intricate patterns, even leaving the possibility for biological circuitry, wiring and other technology to be added, so that they can then be controlled by the cells around them - switch functionality and conductivity is a pretty common feature of many cell types. In fact, the team have already created materials with biological electrical switches and metal wires, or which grow quantum dots, tiny light emitting crystals. The materials are still in their early stages but the process is obviously sound, it's the same technology that makes our own cells form into... Us. And we're more complicated than any electronics. The potential is almost limitless. Artificial, failsafe replacement organs could be grown in-situ, inside us. smart materials could link with the wearer. We could grow almost anything, from the tiniest robots and circuits to vast megastructures. It's all very exciting. I'd probably kill it though, just like those tomatoes.