Rina Diane Caballar

Blending Māori knowledge into government-funded crayfish research, supporters say, simply makes for better science.

In the past 30 years, a wilderness has grown up in the heart of New Zealand's capital – so successfully its neighbours now complain about the raucous racket of rare birds. But this is just the first step in a much longer plan for wilderness in the city.

Much like its herbivorous namesake, the ocean-dwelling "leaf sheep" grazes for food; however, it supplements its diet in a unique way: through the power of the sun.

Image credit: alif_abdulrahman, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Philippines’ traditional three-hulled boat is being redesigned, to draw its power not from fossil fuels, but from the energy of the waves.

New Zealand has a fledgling space industry with unique geographic advantages and government and commercial incentives for growth. In this regional focus, Dawn Aerospace, SpaceBase, Kea Aerospace, Rocket Lab, and others talk about the innovation happening in this island nation.

An emerging trend in interior design reframes the built environment as a way to help people flourish.

The Beautiful Chemistry Project re-creates the era’s cosmetics to find the science behind them.

India-based start-up Next Big Innovation Labs (NBIL) is taking 3D printing to the next level, using the technology for bioprinting human skin. Aside from manufacturing a potential viable replacement for animal testing, NBIL hopes to bring Innoskin to the medical sector for clinical use cases such as skin grafts to treat injuries.
Image credit: courtesy of NBIL

As our reliance on tech increases, there’s a growing need to reduce e-waste while conserving metals vital to building tech products. The solution may lie in the tiniest of organisms: microbes. These microscopic life forms can extract metals such as cobalt, gold, and platinum from the devices we toss into landfills.

Cleaning contaminated water systems is a costly and grueling feat owing to their size and complexity. It could take years to decontaminate an entire system of interconnected aquifers, purification systems, storage facilities, and pipe networks. But what if a material or substance could clean waterways throughout a system? This is the role bioremediation could play in restoring already polluted waterways.

Synthetic biology innovations could aid the transition to a cleaner and more energy-efficient future. One of these innovations is the bio-battery, a biofuel cell powered by enzymes that break down organic compounds for fuel. To date, most bio-battery models have been inefficient and low-capacity. But now, an international research team may be giving this technology new life through DNA.

Researchers and scientists are constantly finding ways to train artificial intelligence to solve complex problems — from answering phones to driving cars — and they’re increasingly looking to nature for inspiration. Understanding animal behavior, it seems, can help intelligent systems discover optimal solutions.

That’s where ants come in.

As the planet warms, researchers and startups are developing innovative technologies for a cooler and more energy-efficient future.

Creating reliably random numbers isn’t as easy as you think, but a new alliance of organizations and individuals is decentralizing randomness for more equitable and trustworthy applications.
Illustration by Jinhwa Jang

"While emojis have made strides toward diversity, they still have a long way to go when it comes to representation. A more diverse approving body and a more transparent and inclusive approval process could lead to emojis that represent different cultures."
Illustration by Eva Cremers