Louisiana State University Associate Professor Naohiro Kato is at it again. He and his students have produced 1,500 cool-looking, 3D-printed, biodegradable Carnival bead necklaces, some of which will be tossed from floats during the 2026 Freret and Tucks parades in New Orleans and the Artemis parade in Baton Rouge.
The beads, which are meant to break down harmlessly in the soil, are spidery, geodesic orbs held together with delicate chains. They’re colored purple, green and gold, and since they were made at LSU, they’re lettered with the words “Geaux Tigers!”
And get this: Inside every orb is an okra seed. So, if you dispose of the beads in the compost pile, they’ll sprout and eventually produce a crucial gumbo ingredient.
The professor’s bio-bead quest began years ago, when he noticed an oily residue in a beaker full of algae in his laboratory. It was a eureka moment. The algae byproduct, Kato speculated, could be used to make a moldable, biodegradable plastic…