Living ceramic can smell formaldehyde

By populating porous clay with bacteria, researchers have made living ceramics that sense tiny amounts of toxic formaldehyde and that capture carbon dioxide from air ( Adv. Mater. 2024, DOI: 10.1002/adma.202412555 ). Engineered living materials typically consist of soft hydrogels, polymers, or biofilms seeded with microorganisms that allow the materials to sense and degrade toxins , deliver therapies , and repair themselves. To host living cells in a hard material, bioengineer Anton Kan, materials scientist André R. Studart , and colleagues at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, 3D printed ceramic structures with pores ranging in size from 20 µm to 130 µm and 20 nm to 80 nm. The smaller pores create a large surface area for cells to stick and proliferate, while the bigger pores allow the flow of nutrients. The team used a vacuum to pull a nutrient solution into the ceramic’s pores and dipped the