In Venice, Italy, a publicly owned research centre is exploring new ways to rehabilitate the environment and generate energy. Scientists, engineers, and psychologists at the lab have created prototypes that harness natural organisms to do useful jobs, often resulting in sculptural designs that attract resident artists. Photographer Luigi Avantaggiato has documented these devices, including Purple-B, which uses a bacterium commonly found in the Venice lagoon to convert human waste into hydrogen.
The experiment has been funded by the European Space Agency and could have applications both in space and on Earth