Lab-grown wood could be future of furniture

[Judi Lynn]

By Kate Berry
BBC Radio 5 Live

Published4 days ago

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.

Speaking on BBC 5 Live's Naga Munchetty Programme, Ms Beckwith said the world was facing an "ever increasing demand for plant-based products, whether that be food, materials for infrastructure, consumer goods and even crops needed for bio-energy fuels, and we're working with a finite area of farmable land".

She added: "We dedicate a lot of resources to growing whole plants, when all we use really is a very small portion of the plant… so somehow we needed to figure out a more strategic way to reproduce materials that isn't so reliant on the land."

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56270691

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. A revolutionary concept.

"3D-printed gel to mould plant cells into the desired shape" why print it? That's great for a single plank of would, but not nearly practical in real life. It they can utilize the gel to get processed via an extrusion process....then we have a real life game changer.

[mountain grammy]

2. This is fine.. save as many trees as possible

or the next thing will be lab grown food, and I mean all of it.