Julian Melchiorri: The Hunger For The Present World

Throughout decades, humanity has desired “better.” The world has looked through the lens of, “how can we make this even greater?” The hunger for new innovation is a driving force for the present world, always furthering new discoveries and brightening the lives of generations to come. What fuels this hunger, however? People from different countries all around the world have been given a spirit of creation and desire to use their creativity to further society. As the humanity advances, so do the minds of upcoming generations, which in turn leads to more innovation in several areas of life. Julian Melchiorri, a graduate from the Royal College of Art felt this hunger to innovate his creativity and new ideas into the present world. Intrigued by recent discoveries in biology and material sciences, Melchiorri took it upon himself to explore the field of photosynthetic materials to bring the “efficiency of nature into the man-made world” (Melchiorri). As he poured time and effort into his research in the lab, Melchiorri reached a breakthrough. Through a combination of silk proteins and chloroplasts, he had created the world’s first man-made leaf: the Silk Leaf. The leaf is able to “breathe” air just as natural plants do, producing oxygen and glucose through artificial …show more content…
Because of past issues with artificial photosynthesis, the ability to keep the Silk Leaf “alive” is something to keep an eye on. There is no promise in self sustainability of the chloroplasts within the leaves, so this means that there must be a large source of leaves if brought into space. If used for architectural purposes, the Silk Leaf must be easily replaced because of its inability to self sustain. If used worldwide as Melchiorri has hoped, there must be a mass supplier of these leaves to provide considerable amounts to be practically used. Although usability is incredibly simple, the dependability of the leaf is not up to