Chris Forman is a physicist with a PhD in protein engineering, conducting research at Northwestern University into the organization of soft matter using experimental, theoretical, and computational approaches.
Claire Asher is a biologist with a PhD in evolution and genetics, specializing in the behavior of ants. A widely published science writer, she has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Bloomsbury Theatre and appeared on BBC 4 and BBC Radio 4.
About Brave Green World : How Science Can Save Our Planet
How we can harness cutting-edge biology and manufacturing to fight waste and pollution — a propulsive science narrative full of solutions found in nature, smart materials, and additive manufacturing including 3D printing.
In Nature, there is little chemical waste; nearly every atom is a resource to be utilized by organisms, ensuring that all the available matter remains in a perpetual cycle. By contrast, human systems of energy production and manufacturing are linear; the end product is waste.
In Brave Green World, Chris Forman and Claire Asher show what our linear systems can learn from the efficient circularity of ecosystems. They offer an unblinkered yet realistic and positive vision of a future in which we can combine biology and manufacturing to solve our central problems of waste and pollution.
Forman and Asher, both scientists and accomplished science communicators, explain how 3D printing and additive manufacturing processes, combined with synthetic biology technologies, could give companies complete control over their entire manufacturing chain—including the waste. They describe AI as the magic ingredient that can create advanced automated systems that generate the molecular, nanoscale, and macroscale tools designers need to fabricate a circular economy, and they argue that emerging new forms of computation in smart materials could be the backbone of our future infrastructure. Forman and Asher boldly address the large-scale issues of climate change, describing how the fusion of cutting-edge manufacturing and biology can offer solutions to Earth’s existential crisis. Woven throughout the book is a provocative case study: how to grow an all-natural smart phone.
An engaging, accessible, vividly illustrated book featuring 100 full-color images, Brave Green World features simple, memorable graphics that explain these problem-solving ideas and how to manufacture them.
