Death shrouds for Mars burial (no joke), algae skis, bacteria-built house, biobased food packaging, Coca-Cola, Absolut go paper, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of February 12th

We all will die eventually, but one burial-garment designer and one bioengineer are thinking of future human burials on Mars with a new death garment made of four 100% biodegradable layers from silk and they plan to run experiments in which they dissolve the Martian death garments using alkaline hydrolysis to ensure residues do not cause any toxicity issues for using the human compost for growing crops.

In today’s Digest, let’s not get totally bummed out about getting buried on Mars with biobased, biodegradable death shrouds – let’s also enjoy life and have some fun skiing on algae skis, living in a bacteria-built house, eating out of bioplastic food packaging, and drinking Coca-Cola and Absolut out of paper bottles instead of glass or plastic. This and more ready for you now at The Digest online.

#1 Death shroud designer thinks ahead to burials on Mars

In Australia, bioengineer J.J. Hastings and burial-garment designer Pia Interlandi have partnered to develop end-of-life solutions for the early—and resource-starved—colonizers of Mars.

Because bacteria do not exist on the planet, any solution must promote decomposition—otherwise the planet would become overrun with mummified corpses.

The two thus developed the Martian death garment, which features four, 100% biodegradable layers made from silk. Because Mars colonization would require resource efficiency, the body would then essentially be recycled into compost that would be rich in minerals and valuable to the mourning Martians left behind.

Interlandi and Hastings plan to run experiments in which they dissolve the Martian death garments using alkaline hydrolysis to ensure residues do not cause any toxicity issues for using the human compost for growing crops.
More on the story, here.