iPhones Don’t Grow On Trees… Or Do They?

We’re all familiar with the well-known phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees”. Indeed, the more facetious among us might respond that it sort of does, since the paper from which all banknotes are produced comes directly from timber mined from trees. However, surely such a snarky response holds no water when applied to iPhones… or does it?

According to Dr Chris Forman, such a feat could be entirely possible within the foreseeable future. Dr Forman, who is a nano-biophysicist working at the University of Cambridge, argues that we have often been inspired by nature before and by harnessing biological methods to produce artificial materials, we could make real breakthroughs in the struggle to conserve our planet.

How Nature Could Help Produce Technology

“Ultimately, we will be able to program our own versions of bulk materials akin to bone and wood,” explained Dr Forman to The Memo. “Since biological analogues exist for all the components needed to make an iPod, I ask is it feasible that one day we might even produce fully functioning devices this way?”

Clearly, the doctor thinks that it is feasible. Of course, such technological breakthroughs are not likely to come to pass in the immediate future, but we are already seeing that synthetic biology constitutes an integral part of emerging technology in the fields of healthcare, pharmaceuticals and health and safety regulation.

Looking farther into the future, Dr Forman predicts that eventually synthetic techniques will be employed to produce our consumer products, electronic devices, construction materials and even the food we live on.

“In the long run I see devices, possibly even entire buildings and ecosystems driven by this kind of technology,” he commented.

Why Would a Synthetically-Grown iPhone Be Better?

If we are able to harness the remarkable environmental properties of nature, we could cut down on waste and inefficiency by staggering amounts.

“Biology is brilliant at recycling and that’s what we need to become if we are to eliminate all of our waste, including carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,” said Dr Forman.

He also added that governmental incentives for such green technologies could be introduced to encourage companies and consumers to get behind the idea.

“Technology and nature would harmonise sooner if people had to pay for the cost of protecting nature as well as the cost of their product,” he theorised. “One way of doing that would be through taxation or regulation; the cost of a taxation or regulation that forced a company to fix environmental damage would be passed on to consumers. Solutions that didn’t damage the environment in the first place would then be cheaper than their evil cousins, and so everyone would win.”

As things stand, scientists have already developed a synthetic gene which could improve air quality. If we were able to use synthetic biology to produce all of our modern conveniences, from gadgets to textiles to whole buildings and infrastructures, we would surely be making great strides in improving sustainability and reducing our detrimental impact on this planet.