Going green is fashionable, but dyeing our clothes has remained a decidedly eco-unfriendly practice. Now, British scientists have developed a way to grow harmless algae to add color to fabric and paint.The algae, called diatoms, are single-celled organisms that are unique because they pack iridescent shells. The hard silica shells act like crystals — depending on the configuration of the holes in the shell, the color changes. The perception of color is maintained without altering the chemical composition of fabric, which is a fundamentally different way of producing color. Alexis Madrigal

A few months ago I came upon an article on wired.com that was about the creation of eco-friendly dyes. I’ve been thinking about it lately and thinking about how great it’d be to be able to do artwork with eco-friendly materials, so I went back and dug up the article for you viewing pleasure.

Read the whole article here.