A photo of a flower or leaf is usually enough for the app to recognize the plant. With Flora Incognita, researchers at the Illmenau University of Technology and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena have not only given amateur botanists a tool to easily recognize plants. Many researchers have since also been accessing the data sets in order to explore the distribution of plant species, for example. With the help of artificial intelligence, the team of developers from Illmenau and Jena was able to improve the performance of the app many times over.

Proteins are an indispensable part of nutrition. They are made up of amino acids, including L-alanine. Until now, most alanine has come from plant sources, which are mainly cultivated in the global south. The fields needed to grow it occupy large areas and affect biodiversity there. A research team at the Technical University of Munich has now presented an alternative production route: It is a biotechnological process based on the use of CO2 and green hydrogen as raw materials.

Bioplastics made from renewable raw materials and residues have the potential to replace petroleum-based plastics. Despite many advantages, however, there are still obstacles that prevent companies from manufacturing their products from bioplastics. These include higher production costs and an insufficient choice of bioplastic grades.

From yogurt pots and chip bags to cardboard boxes: The majority of packaging ends up in the trash shortly after use. 18.8 million tons of waste were generated in Germany alone in 2020, according to the Federal Statistical Office. 46% of this was generated in private households. To save raw materials and protect the environment, sustainable packaging solutions are needed. Students at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart have an alternative. A five-member team called EDGGY has developed edible packaging.

Fiber composites made from bio-based raw materials are increasingly in demand in industry. They are set to replace materials previously based on glass or carbon fibers or even basalt or aramid fibers. The intention is to produce more sustainable products, because the previous variants are very energy-intensive, both in production and in recycling. Yet sustainability is not to be achieved at the expense of processability or material properties.

What will food production look like in the future? Already today, more people live in cities than in the countryside. However, the majority of food is produced in rural areas. Due to climate change, however, there is less and less land that is suitable for growing food. In the joint project CUBES Circle, researchers have been working on an alternative for years.

Innovations in the field of life sciences secure the food production of the future and make it more sustainable. To accelerate innovation through start-ups in the fields of agriculture, food technology and biotechnology, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and UnternehmerTUM have launched the TUM Venture Lab Food-Agro-Biotech (FAB). The Lab FAB is one of now eleven TUM Venture Labs, which are designed to support TUM researchers and students in entrepreneurial spin-offs in the various fields of technology.

Less than two years ago, a team of researchers at the University of Leipzig reported that they had discovered an enzyme that degrades the plastic polyethylene terephthalate - better known as PET - at high speed. Now the experts have followed up and improved this enzyme even further.