At the UN Summit in New York on September 18 and 19, the heads of state and government of the United Nations discussed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the 2030 Agenda, the United Nations set ambitious goals in 2015 to advance the protection of natural resources, social justice and economic development worldwide by 2030.
An estimated three million kebabs are sold in Germany every day - many of them to go. Wrapping the kebab in aluminium foil prevents the heat from escapging or sauce from leaking during transport, but it creates a lot of waste. In addition, the production of aluminium pollutes the environment and requires large amounts of energy.
In nature, each plant competes for the best growing conditions. They are therefore confronted with diverse and changing environmental influences and usually grow in less densely packed neighborhoods than cultivated plants in the open. In addition to environmental conditions that are as uniform and stable as possible, there is also a certain amount of shading by neighboring plants due to plant density. Researchers at the IPK Leibniz Institute have now shown that a plant's selfish characteristics are often detrimental to agriculture.
Singapore and the USA are the only countries in the world where meat from the laboratory is already approved. In the EU, cell-based meat is not yet available for sale. Applications have not yet been submitted to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), not least because the approval procedure for novel foods covered by the so-called Novel Food Regulation is extremely strict. The first step towards an application for approval has now been taken by the Heidelberg-based biotechnology company The Cultivated B (TCB).
The fashion industry is responsible for 5% of global CO2 emissions. Water consumption and pollution from dyeing, as well as textile waste after use, also pollute the environment. But the textile industry is changing - not least because customers increasingly value sustainably and fairly produced clothing.
With the ERC Starting Grants, the European Research Council annually funds outstanding research projects by excellent young scientists at the beginning of their careers. The researchers' projects are supported with a total of 1.5 million euros over a period of five years. One of those who was able to acquire the coveted funding is Markus Jeschek from the University of Regensburg. The professor of synthetic microbiology is receiving the funding for the project "Biosensing by Sequence-based Activity Inference" - BiosenSAI for short.
Food packaging is designed to protect food so that it remains edible and reaches the consumer undamaged. Until now, petroleum-based plastics have mostly been used for this purpose. Yet the trend away from fossil raw materials also poses new challenges for the packaging industry. Sustainable alternatives are needed to conserve resources and protect the environment.
A high-load fermenter as a supplement to the established stirred tank fermenter could make biogas plants more economical. This is the conclusion reached by the Bio-Smart project of Münster University of Applied Sciences and the company PlanET Biogastechnik. This is because the high water content of residual materials such as liquid manure not only requires large fermentation tanks in conventional plants, but also a lot of heating energy.
It is the single largest investment in Bayer's crop protection business in 40 years and a clear commitment to the site in Monheim: the Leverkusen-based company plans to spend EUR 220 million to build a new research and development center here, thus strengthening its commitment to sustainable agriculture. In the presence of North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister President Hendrik Wüst, the construction site for the new buildings in Monheim was opened at the end of August with the traditional groundbreaking ceremony.
Molds are not only a health risk. They are also important microbial cell factories in biotechnology. The first process of this kind was the fermentation of citric acid more than 100 years ago. In the present, numerous other acids, enzymes and pharmaceutically active molecules have been added. How productive these manufacturing processes are also depends on the spatial structure of the fungal tangles in the bioreactor. A German research team has now succeeded in analyzing these structures.