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Plastic is everywhere, and not just in landfill. It’s in our clothes, our water, and the invisible systems that make 'single use' feel normal. We sit down with Simon and Vasundhara from Compound, a CoLabs venture exploring algae biomaterials, to ask a simple question with massive consequences: what if we could replace soft plastics with materials grown from seaweed?

Vasundhara brings an industrial design lens and a fast prototyping mindset, while Simon comes from tech and systems thinking. Together, they unpack why materials are the best place to start when you’re building towards a circular bioeconomy: fewer regulatory roadblocks than food, less capital intensity than carbon projects, and a direct path to everyday products people can actually touch. We also get into the uncomfortable history of petrochemical plastics, how wartime speed and cheap oil locked in “heat, beat, treat” manufacturing, and why the real challenge now is changing incentives, language, and consumer stress around recycling.

From invasive kelp like Wakame to local blue economy collaborations, we explore what resilient, bioregional supply chains could look like in Australia. Then we go deeper: biological time versus industrial time, designing for change and imperfection, and flipping the culture from unboxing to 'boxing it up' at the end of a product’s life.

If you care about regenerative materials, seaweed packaging, microplastics, PFAS, or life-centred design, hit play. Subscribe, share the episode with a mate, and leave a review so more people can find this work.

Keen to hear more about Compound?

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• Vasundhara
• Simon

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This is an evolving experiment.

The Strange Attractor is produced by Ecotone Studio — a creative practice exploring the fertile edge where art, science, technology and philosophy meet.

Like the ecosystems we are a part of, this project is designed to evolve. Every conversation changes the next one.

If there’s a question you’d like us to explore, a guest we should invite, or a theme you think deserves more attention, drop us a line.

We’re especially interested in the spaces between disciplines—the ecotones where unexpected ideas emerge. If you’re building something thoughtful, beautiful or regenerative, or simply wrestling with questions that matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening. Until next time — stay curious.

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David is a researcher-turned-innovator with three decades in biomedical science, a PhD-era discovery that reshaped our understanding of energy metabolism, and a new company, Utilium, born from a hospital bed and a handful of rocks from Bunnings.

In this episode, we sit down with one of CoLabs' Impact Members to explore his bio-inspired approach to biofilms: the invisible microbial communities that cost global industry $2–3 trillion a year, fuel antibiotic resistance, and lurk in the rubber seal of your washing machine.

David shares how crustaceans (who somehow keep their shells immaculate in an ocean seemingly devoted to the degradation of most things) became the blueprint for a technology that could transform healthcare, marine infrastructure, food production, and more.

In this conversation, we explore how daydreaming is a useful method for ideation, the freedom that comes with constraint, trusting your instincts, and why the gold is always hiding in the detail.

What we cover

• How David isolated AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) – a breakthrough enzyme central to energy metabolism – using a Velcro analogy and an analog lab setup, pre-internet
• The brutal economics of academic research: falling grant success rates, frozen samples, and an unceremonious exit
• A winding path through cannabis terpenes, horse probiotics, and ship biofouling that eventually pointed to biofilms
• What biofilms actually are – and why treating them as a bacterial problem misses the point entirely
• The first experiment: two rocks, some oregano oil, and 93 days in Port Phillip Bay
• How working with almost no equipment led David to discover something he would have missed in a fully-equipped lab
• The role of AI (including a helpfully sarcastic session with Gemini) in checking assumptions and staying honest
• Biofilm's reach: washing machines, chronic wounds, hospital sinks, dairy farms, pipes, marine hulls... a near-infinite problem space!
• Why antibiotic resistance is the wrong frame, and what crustacean shell chemistry suggests as an alternative
• Where Utilium is headed, and which applications David is backing first

Keen to learn more about Utilium?

• Linkedin
• Website
• Patched Up

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This is an evolving experiment.

The Strange Attractor is produced by Ecotone Studio — a creative practice exploring the fertile edge where art, science, technology and philosophy meet.

Like the ecosystems we are a part of, this project is designed to evolve. Every conversation changes the next one.

If there’s a question you’d like us to explore, a guest we should invite, or a theme you think deserves more attention, drop us a line.

We’re especially interested in the spaces between disciplines—the ecotones where unexpected ideas emerge. If you’re building something thoughtful, beautiful or regenerative, or simply wrestling with questions that matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening. Until next time — stay curious.

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Kelp forests are disappearing into white rock deserts, and Henry Cole is wading straight into the problem—then bottling the solution. We bring you a frontline look at how invasive seaweed and exploding urchin populations can be harvested to restore reefs and transformed into premium skincare actives and agricultural inputs that people already want.

Henry’s journey runs from deep-sea fishing and oil-and-gas diving to helping build Victoria’s first commercial seaweed farm. The science landed; the scaling dragged. Meanwhile, wakame kept spreading, and long-spine urchins carved out barren 'Moonscapes' across Victoria and Tasmania. That mismatch unlocked a practical pivot: remove what harms ecosystems now and convert it into high-value products that fund more removal. Think wakame-derived fucoidan and fucoxanthin for barrier support and collagen-friendly skincare; think water-soluble chitosan from urchin shells replacing harsh antifungals in farms, improving seed protection, and adding film-forming performance to hair care and sunscreens. After extraction, the remaining biomass flows into fertilisers and foliar sprays to rebuild soil health—no waste, just new value.

We dive into shark gates and tuna ranching, government policy gaps, and why 'commercial capacity' is the missing link between plans and thriving reefs. Henry breaks down how authorisations, pro dive teams, vessels, and onshore processing create a true ocean-to-shelf pipeline, while partnerships with abalone divers, Surfers for Climate, and research groups steer work to where it counts. The vision is clear: within a decade, juvenile kelp returns, apex predators follow, and coastal towns gain new jobs in bioproduct manufacturing alongside healthier fisheries and tourism.

This is a story of logistics and hope, engineering and ethics, and a business model built on collaborative advantage. If you’re curious about the bioeconomy, seaweed science, chitosan, and how consumer products can drive real restoration, you’ll find a roadmap you can act on. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves the ocean, and leave a review to help more people find conversations that turn problems into products.

Keen to know more? Check out what Henry's up to here:

• Website
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• Henry's LinkedIn

Keep Following the Pattern

• Sam's Instagram
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• CoLabs Newsletter

This is an evolving experiment.

The Strange Attractor is produced by Ecotone Studio — a creative practice exploring the fertile edge where art, science, technology and philosophy meet.

Like the ecosystems we are a part of, this project is designed to evolve. Every conversation changes the next one.

If there’s a question you’d like us to explore, a guest we should invite, or a theme you think deserves more attention, drop us a line.

We’re especially interested in the spaces between disciplines—the ecotones where unexpected ideas emerge. If you’re building something thoughtful, beautiful or regenerative, or simply wrestling with questions that matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening. Until next time — stay curious.

Send us Fan Mail

What if the issue isn’t the material itself, but the system wrapped around it?

In this conversation, we jump straight into the uncomfortable truth that there are no sustainable materials – only better choices made in context. Joining us is designer and Halo co-founder Sarah de Silva, as we unpack how coatings, building codes, logistics, incentives and infrastructure can quickly turn a ‘green’ option into a risky one. We explore how designers and decision-makers can find their way back to integrity, through clear end-of-life thinking, transparency and honest trade-offs.

We move beyond slogans and into what actually works. Think material passports that track what things are made of and where they’ve been. Think facade-as-a-service and take-back models that plan for recovery from day one. Think internal marketplaces that keep fit-out and retail materials circulating rather than sending them to landfill. We dig into why paper-versus-plastic isn’t a morality tale, when mono-material PET can outperform fibre, and why local infrastructure often decides the real-world outcome.

Place matters, and Australia has a rare opportunity right now. We talk bioregional manufacturing, smarter import standards, and pairing Indigenous knowledge with processing close to feedstocks. From fast-growing kelp to hemp, we highlight materials with outsized potential when paired with circular systems, and get real about what actually drives change within organisations: risk, talent and resilience.

If you’re working in circular design, packaging, architecture or supply chains, this conversation offers a grounded path from theory to practice. Give it a listen, share it with someone who writes specs, and tell us the one barrier you’d love to see removed next.

Keen to see more about Hyloh?

• Website
• Materials Encyclopaedia Book
• Sarah's LinkedIn

Keep Following the Pattern

• Sam's Instagram
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• CoLabs Newsletter

This is an evolving experiment.

The Strange Attractor is produced by Ecotone Studio — a creative practice exploring the fertile edge where art, science, technology and philosophy meet.

Like the ecosystems we are a part of, this project is designed to evolve. Every conversation changes the next one.

If there’s a question you’d like us to explore, a guest we should invite, or a theme you think deserves more attention, drop us a line.

We’re especially interested in the spaces between disciplines—the ecotones where unexpected ideas emerge. If you’re building something thoughtful, beautiful or regenerative, or simply wrestling with questions that matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening. Until next time — stay curious.

Send us Fan Mail

What does a $10k cultivated meat dumpling taste like?

Pretty great.

But honestly, that’s not the point.

The real story is how fast that price is free-falling, and what that unlocks for real food on real plates. In this episode, we sit down with Magic Valley CEO Paul Bevan to get past the headlines and into the gritty, resilient work of building a cultivated meat company in Australia.

We kick off with culture, because tech is easy compared to humans. Paul shares why hiring for outcomes over optics is essential, and how the best interns don’t wait for job descriptions; they earn them by solving obvious problems early.

From there, we dig into the power of storytelling and marketing, especially when you don’t have a product yet. In emerging categories, education is the product. Media isn’t vanity, it’s scaffolding. It is how you build trust with investors, regulators and supply chain partners.

Then we talk money. Mission-aligned angels, smaller VCs who understand timelines, matched grants like the Industry Growth Program, and making the most of Australia’s R&D Tax Incentive. We touch on why crowdfunding works best when you already have a crowd, and why disciplined runway beats hype every time.

And the plot twist? The economics are finally shifting. Food-grade suppliers are undercutting pharma, bioreactors once costing millions are dropping into six-figure territory, and culture media is falling fast with a credible path to one dollar a litre. Add FSANZ’s dedicated cellular agriculture pathway, and the route to viable products looks far more concrete than the doom-scrolling suggests.

If you’re into cultivated meat, future-fit food systems or the art of founder survival in tough markets (with integrity, clarity and a dash of cheek), this episode is for you.

Hit subscribe, share with a friend who geeks out on food tech, and drop us your biggest question.

Keen to hear more about Magic Valley?

• Website
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• Youtube

Keep Following the Pattern

• Sam's Instagram
• Substack
• CoLabs
• CoLabs Newsletter

This is an evolving experiment.

The Strange Attractor is produced by Ecotone Studio — a creative practice exploring the fertile edge where art, science, technology and philosophy meet.

Like the ecosystems we are a part of, this project is designed to evolve. Every conversation changes the next one.

If there’s a question you’d like us to explore, a guest we should invite, or a theme you think deserves more attention, drop us a line.

We’re especially interested in the spaces between disciplines—the ecotones where unexpected ideas emerge. If you’re building something thoughtful, beautiful or regenerative, or simply wrestling with questions that matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening. Until next time — stay curious.

Send us Fan Mail

If you could ask a living material to help fix our mess, what would you grow first – packaging, panels, or leather? We sit down with Amanda from Fungi Solutions to share how mycelium turns waste streams into durable, lightweight, and compostable products that actually work at scale. From early experiments binding fashion off-cuts to refined packaging that replaces polystyrene, we map the practical steps, the surprises, and the mindset shift from manufacturing to collaboration with living systems.

We get specific on biofabrication: substrates, environmental tuning, and the difference between compressive strength and torsion when you’re eyeing the built environment. Amanda walks us through treatments and finishes – waterproofing, laser texturing, surface skins – and why designing for decomposition is a feature, not a flaw. We talk testing before certification, how to manage MOQs as a small team, and the honest limits today: organics are ready now, plastics need pretreatment and more R&D. Along the way, there’s additive manufacturing with mycelium pastes, sculptural interiors people refuse to throw away, and the sensory surprise of a material that feels like cork meets velvet.

Zooming out, we explore the circular economy infrastructure at a systems-level scale. From waste mapping, regional feedstock modelling, and how AI might supercharge biomaterials (automating humidity, predicting contamination, and powering local facilities). We celebrate community labs, open-source cultivation, and non-traditional pathways into STEM, because access fuels innovation. And there’s fresh news: mycelium leather is now available for distribution, with R&D underway to push performance and craft.

Suppose you are one of those wonderful humans who care about sustainable packaging, biomaterials for construction, regenerative manufacturing, or want to see fungi outcompete foam. In that case, this conversation offers an insightful take from someone who is actively pushing forward in this space.

Enjoyed the chat? Follow, share with a friend who geeks out on biodesign, and leave a review to help more people discover these regenerative solutions.

Keen to learn more? Check out the links below:

• Amanda
• Website
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Keep Following the Pattern

• Sam's Instagram
• Substack
• CoLabs
• CoLabs Newsletter

This is an evolving experiment.

The Strange Attractor is produced by Ecotone Studio — a creative practice exploring the fertile edge where art, science, technology and philosophy meet.

Like the ecosystems we are a part of, this project is designed to evolve. Every conversation changes the next one.

If there’s a question you’d like us to explore, a guest we should invite, or a theme you think deserves more attention, drop us a line.

We’re especially interested in the spaces between disciplines—the ecotones where unexpected ideas emerge. If you’re building something thoughtful, beautiful or regenerative, or simply wrestling with questions that matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening. Until next time — stay curious.

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when a hospitality veteran with a passion for problem-solving discovers her new puppy is predisposed to joint issues? For Paloma Newton, it sparked, naturally, led to an Australian-first in pet healthcare.

Paloma's path to founding Elita is anything but conventional. Infact, her entire journey is about as unconventional as can be, but like most great innovators, the meandering path is the one most often taken. From call centres to cocktail bars, advertising agencies to venture capital, her career spanned across many industries before she found herself asking a deceptively simple question: why can't I bank my dog's stem cells for future use? When veterinarians responded with 'great idea, but we can't do it,' she recognised not just a gap in the market but a genuine opportunity to improve pet healthcare.

The science behind Elita's approach is both elegant and powerful. By extracting and preserving a pet's own stem cells while they're young (currently during routine desexing), owners gain access to a biological insurance policy. These cells can later be used to treat conditions like arthritis, hip dysplasia, and potentially even kidney disease – all without risk of rejection since they're the animal's own cells. 'The worst thing that can happen is they don't work,' Paloma explains, contrasting this with pharmaceutical options that often carry significant side effects. Currently, they bank enough stem cells for ten potential treatments, making it remarkably cost-effective compared to donor stem cell therapies.

What makes Paloma's story particularly compelling is how her varied background became her superpower. With no formal science training, she approached the problem with fresh eyes and a beginners mind, both of which pair perfectly with her determination to execute quickly. 'My style of being a founder is execution over everything,' she says, describing how she built the company from CoLabs before even hiring scientists (bold move, we know). This fearlessness, coupled with a vision for more ethical healthcare that extends beyond profit margins, positions Elita Genetics at the forefront of a transformation in how we care for our animal companions.

Curious about banking your pet's stem cells or learning more about this revolutionary approach to pet healthcare? Visit their website or follow Paloma and her inspiration, Chief Morale Officer Edgar Allen Paws, and join in on their journey toward better, more personalised pet medicine.

Keep Following the Pattern

• Sam's Instagram
• Substack
• CoLabs
• CoLabs Newsletter

This is an evolving experiment.

The Strange Attractor is produced by Ecotone Studio — a creative practice exploring the fertile edge where art, science, technology and philosophy meet.

Like the ecosystems we are a part of, this project is designed to evolve. Every conversation changes the next one.

If there’s a question you’d like us to explore, a guest we should invite, or a theme you think deserves more attention, drop us a line.

We’re especially interested in the spaces between disciplines—the ecotones where unexpected ideas emerge. If you’re building something thoughtful, beautiful or regenerative, or simply wrestling with questions that matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening. Until next time — stay curious.