Rina Diane Caballar

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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."

Taking matters into their own hands, developers created their own front-end frameworks to supplement what they thought was missing from the JavaScript language. The distinct ways in which these frameworks were built reflected the varied methods of developing user interfaces and the different techniques used to address what the language lacks.

While the language began more than 25 years ago as a way to style and lay out pages on the web, CSS has since evolved to become a crucial element of user interfaces, a means of improving user experience, a vehicle for accessibility, and a major technology in front-end development. Yet developers are increasingly finding new ways to extend its limits, proving that there’s more to the language than just style—it’s also filled with substance.

Canterbury District Health Board never stops working—even in tough times. Here’s how its digital transformation helped build agility and resiliency.

"Software development is inherently a complicated process, but this complexity continues to increase as the world of programming continues to change."

Societal assumptions about women have historically placed them in the home as house-wives and caregivers. As such, cities and public spaces haven’t been built to address their particular needs. Their voices, historically missing, aren’t reflected in the everyday design of the cities they live and work in. This highlights the need to actively incorporate women’s perspectives in designing and planning urban spaces.

"These incidents have not gone unnoticed as lawmakers and city officials are starting to take action to make women feel safer on the streets. Quezon City, the largest and most populous city in Metro Manila, revised its Gender and Development Code on May 16 to include penalties for sexual harassment of women in public spaces."