INSPIRED ORIGINSDunaliella Salina is the microscopic algae that turns a salt lake into a vivid pink paradise. This algae is also the reason flamingos are pink. Discovered by the French biologist Michel Felix Dunal in 1838, these tiny creatures asexually reproduce in vast numbers to create stunning vistas. Relatively unique is their resistance to high temperatures and salt. Their utilisation in the development of biotechnologies has been vital. But in terms of designing a tee, they are fascinating, bizarre and inspiring creatures. But their home is the true inspiration for this tee, specifically the enchanting salt lake known as Salin De Giraud.Biotechnology as it turns out is really important, the idea being we could use sustainable biological resources instead of fossil fuel derivatives. In 2013, the European Commission supported the development of 4 micro-algal biorefinery projects to assess the potential for innovative approaches within medicine. What this means is we're closer to curing some pretty horrendous stuff like, heart, skin, and retina destroying diseases. All within a facility dubbed “The D-Factory”.Furthermore, a biotechnology that has incredible potential is biofuel. Right now biofuels kind of suck, although a lot of people would argue that, the reason is palm oil. The key component to biofuels is sugar, the most efficient way to produce sugar is through palm oil, despite all its drawbacks (most popularly destroying biodiversity) it’s the right crop for the job, currently. It is estimated that half the palm oil produced is used in biofuels, bit shit isn’t it. So algae, we can use algae to produce sugar, that wouldn’t sort out all our problems but its a huge step in the right direction. Another little snippet of groundbreaking awesomeness is the gang down at oxford university creating renewable plane fuel that could revolutionise the aviation industry. They take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, combine it with hydrogen and another compound mate of some cheap elements, and boom, aviation fuel. Making it an alternative to your standard jet fuel. This new fuel would be considered environmentally acceptable, not perfect by any means, but the more time we spend trying to “be better”, will hopefully breed that mentality into everything we do as humans. Dunaliella salina - what is it? (click-me ya nerd)The D Factory - boring but in-depth report (maybe click-me)Palm oil and why it’s bad - short article explains it basically (click-me for sure)New aviation fuel - cool read (click-me if you want a weird conversation starter)
