MYXOGLOW - Biodesign Challenge 2021 - University of Buenos Aires Finalist
Featured on the 2021 Biodesign Challenge, Myxoglow is a groundbreaking biodesign project aimed at investigating actually econfriendly alternatives to glitter based on myxomycetes structural colour. Created by Aldana Benitez Jurena, Paula Bianchi, Daniela Garabito & Carolina Vera Wilcke
FULL 5MIN PRESENTATION BELLOW
Did you know that most of the so-called "biodegradable" commercial glitter isn't that biodegradable? What if we told you that it also involves the mining of a mineral that's closely related to human rights violations? What if we could find a way to make actually ecofriendly glitter that doesn't endanger others, through inspiration in nature? Ultimately, what if glitter wasn't litter? That was the motivation that started it all. Myxoglow came to be as a collaboration for the 2021 Biodesign Challenge between Aldana Benítez Jurena, Paula Bianchi, Daniela Garabito and Carolina Vera Wilcke where we represented Argentina in front of an international jury of biodesign experts.
Scrolling through twitter a few months months before, we came upon an image of a wonder of nature: the protist group known as Myxomycetes. This protist has a characteristic hollographic appereance that resembles that of commercial glitter, but of course, being a living organism, doesn't need any plastic nor mica to look like that. And just like that, we began an investigation on structural colour: natural nanostructures that interfere with light creating beautiful visual effects.
Myxoglow was dedicated to study the different types of structural colours in nature, in particular that of myxomycetes, to formulate a glitter made of biodegradable materials that imitated their nanostructure thus creating a real ecofriendly glitter instead of greenwashed regular glitter.
Scrolling through twitter a few months months before, we came upon an image of a wonder of nature: the protist group known as Myxomycetes. This protist has a characteristic hollographic appereance that resembles that of commercial glitter, but of course, being a living organism, doesn't need any plastic nor mica to look like that. And just like that, we began an investigation on structural colour: natural nanostructures that interfere with light creating beautiful visual effects.
Myxoglow was dedicated to study the different types of structural colours in nature, in particular that of myxomycetes, to formulate a glitter made of biodegradable materials that imitated their nanostructure thus creating a real ecofriendly glitter instead of greenwashed regular glitter.
