Earth is gaining renewed attention as a building material due to growing environmental concerns in construction, offering a healthy, low-carbon, and low-energy alternative to conventional methods. It is typically used for thick masonry or monolithic walls, often stabilised with cement, or as finishing layers like plasters and mortars. To the authors’ knowledge, thin earth elements are virtually absent. This study introduces bio-stabilised pressed thin earth elements for non-structural applications, using biopolymers (locust bean gum, sodium alginate) and natural fibres from banana pseudo stem. Agro-waste fillers, including rice husk and wood shavings, are also explored. At the intersection of fabrication, performance (mechanical, thermal, microstructural), and environmental impact (GWP), the results demonstrate the feasibility of producing cementless, unfired thin earth elements with tailored properties. Biopolymers enable fabrication and enhance toughness, outperforming lime, while natural fibres significantly improve ductility. Agro-waste fillers reduce soil use by up to 15 % and enhance thermal performance. A performance-based environmental assessment shows a competitive GWP compared to commercial alternatives. Long term, these results broaden earth’s role in construction, from structure to finish, offering a sustainable alternative to energy-intensive, petroleum- and cement-based thin components, and supporting a new generation of responsible building.

Specialized or secondary metabolites are small molecules of biological origin, often showing potent biological activities with applications in agriculture, engineering and medicine. Usually, the biosynthesis of these natural products is governed by sets of co-regulated and physically clustered genes known as biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). To share information about BGCs in a standardized and machine-readable way, the Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG) data standard and repository was initiated in 2015. Since its conception, MIBiG has been regularly updated to expand data coverage and remain up to date with innovations in natural product research. Here, we describe MIBiG version 4.0, an extensive update to the data repository and the underlying data standard. In a massive community annotation effort, 267 contributors performed 8304 edits, creating 557 new entries and modifying 590 existing entries, resulting in a new total of 3059 curated entries in MIBiG. Particular attention was paid to ensuring high data quality, with automated data validation using a newly developed custom submission portal prototype, paired with a novel peer-reviewing model. MIBiG 4.0 also takes steps towards a rolling release model and a broader involvement of the scientific community. MIBiG 4.0 is accessible online at https://mibig.secondarymetabolites.org/.