Can we reimagine our material world—from the clothes we wear to the creams we use—using biology as our blueprint? What if the materials of tomorrow were hiding in the natural world—and all we needed was a way to grow them? In this episode of Ignition Sequence, host Dylan Bohbot speaks with Dr. David Breslauer, co-founder of Bolt Threads, about the science and promise of bioengineered materials—from spider silk and mycelium leather to proteins designed for personal care.

Dr. Breslauer shares how decades of obsession with spider silk turned into a company making real-world products with custom-designed biomaterials. From sustainable textiles to fungus-based leather alternatives, and even proteins that replace microplastics in face creams, Breslauer reveals how biology, evolution, and biotechnology can come together to solve some of our biggest material challenges. They also explore the role of AI in designing new proteins, the future of regenerative materials, and the deeper mystery of how human learning actually works.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. Why spider silk is one of the most powerful natural materials—and so hard to replicate

2. How microbes are engineered to produce proteins like spider silk at scale

3. What Bolt Threads is doing with mushroom-based leather and beauty products

4. Why microplastics and synthetic additives in clothing and cosmetics are a growing concern

5. How AI is helping design better proteins for next-generation biomaterials

Timestamps

00:00:27 – Meet Dr. David Breslauer: bioengineer and co-founder of Bolt Threads

00:02:11 – Discovering spider silk and launching a biomaterials company

00:04:39 – The problem with synthetic materials and microplastics in clothing

00:07:29 – Why biodegradable, bio-based materials are the future

00:10:20 – Making spider silk from microbes: how it works

00:17:20 – Spinning silk into fibers, films, and more

00:20:05 – What are B-Silk, Microsilk, and Mylo? Product breakdown

00:21:44 – Replacing toxic chemicals in skincare with bioengineered proteins

00:24:09 – How genome databases unlock new silks from bees, crickets, and more

00:26:31 – Why spider silk is so difficult to manufacture

00:32:02 – Spider silk for wound healing and medical applications

00:34:02 – The challenge of bringing bio-based apparel to market

00:38:12 – Using AI to design new proteins and biomaterials

00:41:42 – Color without pigment: the next frontier of natural dyes

00:44:01 – Milo: Bolt Threads’ fungus-based leather alternative

00:47:09 – Curiosity beyond silk: how do humans actually learn?

Helpful Links

🔹 Bolt Threads: https://boltthreads.com

🔹 Accelerator Media: https://acceleratormedia.org

Your support helps fuel our mission to ignite curiosity and empower future world changers around the world. Learn more at AcceleratorMedia.org.

What if your cells could talk—not just through molecules, but through light? In this episode of Ignition Sequence, host Dylan Bohbot sits down with Dr. Nirosha Murugan, Canada Research Chair and biophysicist at Wilfrid Laurier University, to explore how the body emits and responds to light, magnetism, and electricity—and why that may be key to detecting disease, regenerating limbs, and even decoding consciousness itself.

Dr. Murugan unpacks her pioneering work measuring ultra-weak light emissions from living cells, detecting cancer noninvasively, and using electric and magnetic fields to kickstart regeneration in non-healing species. From the physics of life to brain photonics and quantum biology, this episode dives into emerging frontiers that challenge our deepest assumptions about how biology communicates, heals, and perceives the world.

Is light just a metabolic byproduct—or could it be a fundamental language of life?

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. Why living cells and tissues emit ultra-weak light—and how to detect it

2. How magnetism, electricity, and photonics may help us regenerate limbs

3. The surprising role of mitochondria in cellular light production

4. How Dr. Murugan’s lab detects early-stage cancer using light patterns

5. What it means to think of biology not just as chemistry, but as energy

Timestamps

00:00:27 – Meet Dr. Nirosha Murugan: biophysicist studying light, magnetism, and life

00:03:17 – How cells emit light—and how her lab detects it using astrophysics tools

00:06:01 – Bio-photon emissions vs. bioluminescence: what’s the difference?

00:09:22 – Regenerating limbs using electricity, magnetic fields, and silk-based scaffolds

00:17:06 – Detecting cancer noninvasively by reading cellular light patterns

00:21:03 – Brain light emissions: are they a form of communication or consciousness?

00:27:30 – Can light in the brain travel like fiber optics? Early research insights

00:31:15 – Intelligence without neurons: what slime molds reveal about cognition

00:34:14 – Rethinking biology as an energetic—not just chemical—landscape

00:38:07 – Altered states, psychedelics, and surprising findings about brain light

00:44:16 – Scientific resistance, open inquiry, and the future of interdisciplinary biology

00:49:06 – Off-topic reflections: why aviation, nature, and creativity still matter

🔗 Helpful Links

🔹 Exploring ultraweak photon emissions as optical markers of brain activity paper: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225002792

🔹 Accelerator Media: https://acceleratormedia.org

What is carbon—and how can this element, born in dying stars billions of years ago, be responsible for all life as we know it, while also driving the instability of Earth’s climate system? In this episode of Ignition Sequence, host Dylan Bohbot is joined by Prof. Raymond Thomas Pierrehumbert, FRS, Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, to unpack the cosmic and planetary journey of carbon—from the heart of exploding stars to its pivotal role in shaping life and climate on Earth.

A leading voice in climate physics and planetary atmospheres, Prof. Pierrehumbert shares how carbon became the backbone of biology, why Earth’s climate is uniquely stable (for now), and what alien worlds with exotic atmospheres can teach us about our own. They dive into everything from exoplanet discoveries and Mars microbes to solar-powered spacecraft, beer carbonation, and what the future might hold if we don’t change our carbon trajectory.

This is science at its most expansive—connecting astrophysics, climate change, and everyday life into one thought-provoking conversation.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How carbon formed in stars and became the backbone of life on Earth

2. Why Earth’s carbon cycle is so stable—and how this balance is changing

3. How scientists “read” exoplanet atmospheres across light-years

4. What kinds of life might survive on Mars—and whether we should bring microbes home

5. A physicist’s take on beer, solar-powered space probes, and planetary stewardship

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Timestamps

00:00:27 – Meet Prof. Raymond Pierrehumbert: climate physicist and Oxford professor

00:01:58 – His early inspiration and journey into science

00:03:41 – Exoplanets with crystal rain and alien chemistry

00:06:49 – How we detect chemical signatures in other worlds’ atmospheres

00:08:22 – The origin of carbon and the building blocks of life

00:18:42 – Could life exist without carbon? The search for chemical precursors

00:27:47 – Should we bring extraterrestrial microbes back to Earth?

00:31:41 – What life might survive on Mars today

00:35:57 – Hubble, James Webb, and the future of space observation

00:41:24 – Solar power in space: how probes run off starlight

00:44:48 – Earth as a self-regulating system—and what carbon is doing to it

00:46:10 – What makes naturally carbonated beer so different?

00:54:08 – The problem with burning ancient carbon

01:02:50 – What keeps Prof. Pierrehumbert curious outside of science

01:07:43 – Final reflections on life, the universe, and a bubbling pint

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🔗 Helpful Links

🔹 Find Raymond on Bluesky: http://climatebook.bsky.social/
🔹 Raymond Pierrehumbert at Oxford: https://physics.ox.ac.uk/our-people/pierrehumbert

🔹 Principles of Planetary Climate (among his books): https://amazon.com/Principles-Planetary-Climate-Raymond-Pierrehumbert-ebook/dp/B00CF0K3D2?ref_=ast_author_dp

🔹 Accelerator Media: https://acceleratormedia.org