An autonomous cargo helicopter for last-mile deliveries
Spotted: Kawasaki has recently completed proof-of-concept testing of its un-crewed vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) cargo transport helicopter – the K-Racer X1. Built using the supercharged...
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Recycled styrofoam furniture highlights the need for local solutions
Spotted: Mini manufacturing plants near waste management facilities certainly reduce the cost of transporting materials for recycling. And this is exactly what Japanese design studio we+ wants to...
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Boosting crop yields by reducing stress
Spotted: Abiotic stresses, such as adverse environmental conditions, can significantly reduce crop performance, with crop yield losses ranging from 50 to 70 per cent. With the increase in extreme...
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Cellulose nanofibres could replace plastic
Spotted: Single-use plastics have their uses — they save lives when used in medical equipment and can improve sanitation. However, only 9 per cent of all plastic gets properly recycled, and the rest...
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New software enables non-specialists to train computers
Spotted: For many computer systems to work correctly, we must train them to recognise objects from video or image data. But the way we do this is not only inefficient, it is also complicated work that...
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New material made from worthless waste wood
Spotted: The global eco-friendly furniture market is estimated to be worth around $43.3 billion (around €40.6 billion) and is projected to continue increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)...
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An eco-friendly helmet made from waste scallop shells
Spotted: Each year, Soya district in northern Japan produces 40,000 tonnes of shells. This marine waste is an inevitable result of the fishing industry in Sarufutsu Village, which regularly wins the...
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Compressing biomass to create alternative fuel and antivirals
Spotted: Solid biomass is expected to be the fastest growing type of feedstock in the biomass electricity market, with the household market becoming the fastest growing segment of end users. At the...
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An exoskeleton helps to remove pain when working standing up
Spotted: As anyone who has worked in a job that requires manual labour can tell you, spending all day on your feet is exhausting and hard on the body. In fact, one study found that occupational...
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Artificial photosynthesis for biodegradable plastic
Spotted: By now, just about everyone is familiar with the issues surrounding plastic – one of these being that it is derived from fossil fuels. Because of this, even biodegradable plastics contribute...
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Cleaning up microplastics with sound
Spotted: Humans can no longer avoid consuming microplastics. The pollutants are found in almost every aspect of food supply chains, from farmland to fish and single-use plastic bottles. The World...
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Making the space economy more sustainable by removing space junk
Spotted: The space around our planet is getting very crowded. According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), there were 11,330 individual satellites orbiting the Earth at the...
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Brewing protein to make sustainable materials
Spotted: Textile production is a major user of energy and water resources – as well as a major source of CO2 and pollution. While progress is being made to develop less energy-intensive materials in...
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A self-healing plastic biodegrades in seawater
Spotted: Humans currently produce more than 350 million metric tonnes of plastic waste annually, and all this waste poses a serious problem for the environment, the ocean, and humans, so developing...
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How can AI make flying safer and more efficient?
Spotted: Turbulence, responsible for a third of all weather-related aircraft accidents, has often been seen as a barrier to meeting climate goals in aviation. This is because some argue that, to...
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A new method helps make the most of mushrooms
Spotted: Every year, the world generates two billion metric tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW), with thousands of tonnes of that rubbish sent to landfills every day. A significant proportion of...
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Nature-inspired inks for painting planes and more
Spotted: In traditional materials science, colour comes from molecules absorbing specific colours from white light. Over time, the molecules degrade and the colour fades. However, colour in some...
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An aerogel eases the roll-out of hydrogen logistics
Spotted: Green hydrogen has great potential for decarbonising heavy industry, largely because of its ability to generate high temperatures and, by reacting with a carbon source like CO2, create the...
View ArticleGreening cities with a platform for clean transport credits
Spotted: The continued growth in global urbanisation is leading to increased demand for infrastructure and services, thereby driving resource shortages. In fact, the World Bank estimates that cities...
View ArticleCould concrete capture more carbon than trees?
Spotted: Market analysts expect continued urbanisation and increased infrastructure development activities to contribute to the predicted growth of the concrete materials market to $364 billion by...
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