You can’t predict the future. You can build the fitness to respond to it. Mindcandy is the fuel for strategic conversation about what’s next.
Not AI. Not quantum. Biology.
Enzymes to power microelectronics, synthetic bacteria, bio-computing, redesigning microbes into min-factories, and synthetic genetic circuits. Biological platforms are about to generate an operational context that most leadership teams are not remotely prepared for.
What happens when biology becomes the infrastructure?
All the prompts:
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Enzymes to energize microelectronics
Bioenzymatic fuel cells provide a metal-free alternative to power the next generation of microelectronic devices that will rely solely on widely available ingredients: carbon, cellulose, sugar and enzyme
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44222-026-00448-0
All Life Uses 20 Amino Acids. Scientists Just Deleted One in Bacteria
The synthetic bacteria push the limits of life and could open the door to designer proteins and new medicines.
Scientists 3d-printed bendable soft sensors into every brain fold, opening a new path for personalized neurology
A new study has found that soft 3D-printed brain sensors can follow individual brain folds more closely than standard rigid devices.
I’m Scared About Biological Computing
To play DOOM, the system feeds visual data to the neurons. For the neurons to react, they have to interpret that data in some way. When our brains interpret electrical signals from our optic nerves, we call it “seeing.” So… are the neurons on that chip seeing?
With large DNA fragment assembly, scientists can design microbes that produce countless complex products
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1126723
A review in Quantitative Biology demonstrates that scientists can now reliably build and combine very large pieces of DNA, making it much easier to redesign microbes such as yeast and bacteria to act as efficient “cell factories.”
Breaking the bio-barrier to supercharge microbial manufacturing
In a laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan, populations of bacteria have been engineered to sense when they have the right density to start producing industrially useful chemical compounds. The system is governed by synthetic genetic circuits, and it is a solution to one of the most persistent problems in biomanufacturing: the growth–production trade-off.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-026-00059-8
TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2026
One thread running through this year’s list is the power of narrative: the ability of a company and its leader to articulate a vision worth following, and to keep communicating it long enough for the rest of us to catch up.
https://time.com/collection/time100-most-influential-companies/2026/
Why organizations need to experience the future – not just analyze it
Many organizations mistake exposure to future-oriented information for future readiness. They commission trend reports, develop strategy papers and fill slide decks with sophisticated analyses. Others avoid structured foresight altogether, viewing it as too time-consuming, too abstract or too distant from practical impact. In both cases, the bottleneck is rarely the availability of information. It is a matter of connectivity
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/05/business-future-planning-strategy-futureslam/
Humanity Is About to “Fork”
Creators vs consumers, longevity escape velocity, brain-computer interface, earth vs the stars and digital consciousness (i.e., uploads).
https://metatrends.substack.com/p/humanity-is-about-to-fork
