New breakthroughs in science occur almost daily. Many of them would be very useful to further a more sustainable economy and to provide food and shelter for a growing population. However, customarily, new results are published in scientific journals and many of those charge expensive subscription fees to researchers, universities, and interested readers around the world.
It’s a worn-out cliché: A woman standing in front of her packed wardrobe, complaining that there’s nothing in it she could wear. However, if the skin of the woman (or man) is extremely sensitive and is in fact allergic to many fabrics, most clothing stores do indeed not offer any wearable options. Sabine Schmidt knows this problem all too well, she herself has been suffering from severe neurodermatitis for years. Appropriate clothing is of the upmost importance under these circumstances, as inferior or chemically treated material worsens potential skin irritations.
There are still many places in the world where people have to live without electricity. Until recently, the Senegal was one of those places – until Heidi Schiller and her family business KAITO Projekt GmbH and their small solar panels literally brought light to the villages in West-Africa. Now Schiller is focusing on a new project at the same location: SENtypha.
Berries are popular and healthy. But the plants cultivated today are by no means as versatile as the biodiversity of berries appears to be: in the course of breeding, the genetic basis of many berry species has steadily diminished. Today, there are only a few closely related varieties on the market, which have lost many of the characteristics of their ancestors. This often makes it impossible to adapt these varieties to new challenges such as certain diseases or climate change through conventional breeding efforts.
The chemical company BASF is counting on synthetic biology for industrial production and is investing in the Chinese start-up Bota Biosciences Ltd. (Bota Bio) through its in-house venture capital company BASF Venture Capital GmbH. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. Founded in 2019, the Hangzhou-based company relies on a platform that combines IT, biotechnology and automation. With the help of the technology, microorganisms for the production of various products can be quickly identified, characterised and reprogrammed.
Teak not only looks noble, the material is also easy to work with and very durable. Therefore, teak is in great demand - not only in Europe but also in Africa where the teak tree Pterocarpus angolensis grows. There, the tree is used in traditional medicine. However, slash-and-burn agriculture endangers its cultivation and new plantings are difficult due to the nutrient-poor soils. Even seedlings grown in nurseries have only a limited chance of survival.
In view of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, the German government realigned the German Sustainability Strategy in 2017 and formulated concrete measures for sustainable development in various areas of society. Now the German government has published a further development of the German Sustainability Strategy. It takes up the "Decade for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda" proclaimed in 2019 and also considers relevant political measures in response to the Corona crisis.
Jonagold, Boskop or Elstar: apples are the Germans' favorite fruit. There are almost 2,000 different varieties in the country. The fruit has few calories, but many healthy ingredients such as vitamins and minerals. Researchers at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences have developed an apple that is even richer in one health-promoting ingredient and is also said to strengthen the immune system. The innovation: The new fruit called Selstar impresses with a particularly high selenium content.
Competition is part of the natural environment: animals compete for food sources while plants mainly compete for light, which is essential to their growth. Similar to animals, plants have several options of how to react in the face of competition. Biologists from the University of Tübingen have now demonstrated that plants can in fact choose between alternative competitive responses according to the stature and densities of their opponents.
It’s been more than two years since international and national players across policy and science discussed the meaning of bioeconomy at the „Global Bioeconomy Summit“ (GBS). More than 700 guests from 82 countries came to Berlin for the two-day meeting in order to talk about such pivotal topics as global warming, protecting the environment, decarbonisation, and the fight against world hunger.