Features
How seaweed agtech can ease the fertiliser crisis
In 2010, California-based KZO Sea Farms received a permit for developing an offshore mariculture facility in US federal waters. Recently, the company was inspired by an Indonesian pilot study to develop a path-breaking offshore cultivation technique for seaweed. Its innovation…
Sensors go bio for clothes and medicine
Biosensors are instruments that detect the presence of specific molecules in just about any medium, even at trace concentrations. This capability relies on biological receptors housed inside them which chemically interact with target compounds on contact. These receptors are usually…
Bio-adhesives for boxes, body parts, and automotives
Glues may make up a relatively small proportion of individual products. Yet with around 14.7 million tonnes produced globally each year, the environmental impacts of adhesives add up. The solvents in liquid glues contaminate soil and groundwater while many wood…
Bioreactors today: challenges and innovations
Bioreactors are vessels where microorganisms, stem cells, or specialised cells are cultivated into functional materials. The oldest and simplest examples are containers used for baking bread or fermenting wine. Over the last twenty years, however, they have become sophisticated instruments…
Biomaterials and biotech converge to fight antibiotic resistance
In 2020, Swedish startup Amferia received $650, 000 to commercialise a bacteria-killing hydrogel that could be used as wound patches, wound-healing granules, and medical device coatings. Its active compounds are not antibiotics but peptides, molecules that occur in plant, animal,…
Biomaterials that live, grow and die
Whether algae-based or oil-derived, all our industrial materials are composed of dead matter. Predictable and, above all stable, inert substances are ideal for many practical purposes. Their relatively simple molecular structures can be heated, twisted, and chemically treated to obtain…