Turning Trash into Treasure: a New Tech bringing Urban Mining Closer to Fruition
A team of researchers from Rice University in Houston, Texas have identified a novel application for a method originally created to produce graphene - extracting valuable metals from electronic waste.…
India’s AgTech Landscape: Ripe for a change
India’s agricultural industry is a market ready for innovation. Over the last 50 years the country has seen its agricultural productivity grow at a phenomenal rate, outpacing even its population…
Researchers make Synthetic Starch out of Carbon Dioxide
Rice, potatoes, maize, corn. All seem relatively innocuous foods that we often need not think about twice. Yet they all make a foundational carbohydrate that not only forms a crucial…
Toilet Trained Cows – an Unexpected Solution to Agriculture’s High Emissions?
Can you toilet train a cow? It’s a question most of us probably have never thought of, and the more pertinent question may seem to be why would we want…
Australia’s nuclear question
Earlier this month Australia signed a defence pact alongside the US and UK to deploy nuclear-powered submarines in its fleets, an announcement that has quickly stirred up the muddy waters…
The race for lithium – a new method makes water-derived lithium possible
Lithium is the mineral on everyone’s mind. Also termed as the ‘white oil’ of the renewable revolution, the material is a central component of batteries for electric vehicles (EV’s) and…
The Solution in our Water: from Waves to Wastewater
As our global population grows, so our water supplies are experiencing greater pressure to meet people’s needs - from drinking to irrigation to sanitation - and bringing us face to…
GM Crops: the Answer to Africa’s Bid for Food Security?
Booming population sizes are by now a familiar fear for governments the world over, putting unwelcome pressure on our water, food and land supplies as we expand to meet blossoming…
Turning Carbon into Solar Fuel – Closing the Loop on CO2 Emissions
Carbon emissions are the primary driver of our rising global temperatures, and curbing emissions has been a consistent priority for researchers around the world as we work towards a greener…
Seaweed: the new material of our sustainable future?
In the global bid to curb our plastic production, manufacturers are increasingly turning to the natural world for organic, sustainable alternatives. Created out of everything from mushrooms to agricultural waste,…
The University Bringing Algae-based Biofuels to Commercialisation
In the future of fuel, we may need to look no further than our local waterways to find an alternative that is carbon neutral, and easily cultivated. Algae, with its…
Researchers are Bringing Sustainability to Chemical Manufacturing
Last week, a research team from the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory identified an enzyme that could transform poplar trees into a source for industrial chemical building block…