A block away from the Starbucks on Seattle’s busy Western Avenue, a woman bends over a coffee grinder and a black kettle full of bubbling water sits on a hotplate. The air is thick with the roasty aroma of fresh-brewed java. The scene would be entirely unremarkable except for a few outstanding details. One, the woman is wearing a lab coat. Two, there’s a steaming glass beaker instead of a mug. And three, not a single coffee bean was involved in making it...