The increasing demand for living space is driving a rethink in the construction industry. Renewable raw materials such as wood or straw are becoming increasingly important in order to conserve finite resources such as sand, an important aggregate for concrete. To make construction more sustainable, scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are conducting targeted research into new materials that are not only environmentally friendly but also recyclable.

Using so-called genome-editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas, the genetic material DNA can be processed as precisely as never before. The molecular tool can be used to selectively exchange or change specific sections or even individual building blocks of the DNA - the nucleotides. There are possible applications for these tools both in medicine and in agriculture: it would be much easier and faster to breed heat-resistant, pest-resistant or higher-yielding crops. In the US, some genome-edited plants are already approved for cultivation.

Be it hay fever, strawberry or cat hair allergy: more and more people are suffering from allergies. According to a study by the Robert Koch Institute, around 30% of adults and 20% of children and adolescents in Germany are allergic. Frequently, those affected even suffer from several allergies. While chronic colds can be treated quite well with medication, people who react sensitively to food can only protect themselves by doing without. About three to four percent of adults and five percent of children are affected.

A growing world population also means more mouths to feed. At the same time, consumers everywhere are becoming more and more aware that the traditional way of producing food and especially meat is unsustainable. One solution would be to replace animal protein with plant proteins from e.g. legumes or beans or even insects. Another approach is to use cultured meat rather than breeding, feeding and slaughtering animals. The term cultured meat refers to meat grown from muscle tissue in cell culture

All over the world, droughts are causing  plant damage. Trees wither or die and entire forests perish. Such scenarios are being observed more and more frequently in the Southwest of the USA. Climate change is often cited as the reason for this. But this explanation does not go far enough. The increasing pollution of the environment by particulate matter also contributes to this, as an international study carried out with the participation of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn shows.

Better together – this applies in particular to many creatures that form symbioses with microbes in order to tap new food sources or protect their offspring. The same goes for the wool beetle Lagria villosa. This beetle is colonised by several strains of closely related Burkholderia gladioli bacteria, which protect the beetle's eggs from fungal attack.

The ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding the regulation of crops created with new molecular and genome-editing breeding techniques was announced yesterday, July 25^th, in Luxembourg. The long-awaited decision was met with cheers by environmental groups and consumer organisations, but caused disillusionment and lack of understanding among researchers and entrepreneurs

If material researchers and engineers had a favourite material, carbon fibres are probably it. Why? Because they are light-weight but extremely sturdy. Motor and wind energy industry as well as space, aviation and naval industries are already using the composite material for their lightweight constructions and applications. However, thus far the versatile material is still petrol-based. This not only translates to an expensive manufacturing process, but also requires large amounts of resources and is simply not sustainable.

Brand and product piracy is a worldwide problem. The economic damage is immense: in 2016, German companies alone recorded losses of around 53 billion euros, as a study by management consultants Ernst & Young (EY) shows. The use of such fraud in medicine is particularly problematic. The scandal surrounding inferior breast implants in 2010 showed what health consequences this could have. The French manufacturer Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) had used cheap industrial silicone to reduce production costs.