Bionic City

Ellie Birkhead uses human hair and manure to make region-specific bricks

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Ellie Birkhead has developed a process of brick making that incorporates local waste products from the Chiltern …

Blandscaping that Erases Local Ecological Diversity

Ecological gentrification (Dooling, 2009) is a negative social process in which ecological improvements to neighbourhoods lead to gentrification and …

Bird-building collision risk: An assessment of the collision risk of birds with buildings by phylogeny and behavior using two citizen-science datasets

by K. Samantha Nichols, Tania Homayoun, Joanna Eckles, Robert B. BlairBird collisions with buildings are the second largest anthropogenic source of …

Open call - your recordings of nature wanted! - Cities & Memory | Field Recordings, Sound Map, Sound Art

We’re very proud to launch the open callout for our latest major global sound project –<b>Sounding Nature</b> – in which we collect, map and reimagine the …

As Spring Arrives Earlier, Arctic Geese Speed Up Their Migration

The birds are arriving in the Arctic up to 13 days earlier than they used to. But at a cost: hunger. Annie Sneed reports.

Buildings made from fungi? Meet London’s pop-up bio-lab innovators

The atmosphere of the place helps break down the barriers between people working in different fields<p>If there’s one place you wouldn’t expect a new biotech research lab to be built, it’s slap bang in the middle of a busy London market.<p>Yet navigate through stalls selling fish, fabric and phone cases …

Animals Need Infrastructure Too

Highways are dangerous barriers for all sorts of wildlife. Around the world, bridges and tunnels just for animals make it easier for them to migrate, mate, eat, and survive.<p>Sometimes the only thing that keeps a slithering salamander from becoming a squashed one is a little attention to …

Red light at night: A potentially fatal attraction to migratory bats

Light pollution is rapidly increasing around the world. Nocturnal animals are likely to be especially affected, but how they respond to artificial …

Experiments in Prokaryote BioSemiotics. Coloured glyphs generated by bacteria-to-bacteria communication & interaction. Two colourless strains of bacteria (a signal emitter and receiver) move through enabling fibres. Where they meet & communicate with each other, one turns purple https://t.co/PaDtfyJWtr

The Campana brothers launch cork furniture collection

Brazilian design duo Humberto and Fernando Campana have created a collection of furniture consisting of an armchair and three cabinets made almost …

Carrots could be key to stronger concrete

Concrete mixtures could be strengthened by adding nanoparticles extracted from carrots and other root vegetables, research currently underway at …

BIHOME

Jessica Gregory is a bio-designer with an interest in bio-design and organic aesthetics. Focusing on creating objects and materials for human and …

Pollutionwatch: city sparrows' decline linked to car exhausts

The cheeky house sparrow is the archetypal city bird. You can find them around the world, but they are in serious decline in cities in Italy, Canada, India and the UK. London’s house sparrow population fell by 60% between 1994 and 2006.<p>Scientists from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds …

A Shoe-Sized Oyster Found in the Hudson River

With its the murky water and long history of pollution, the Hudson River is not a place that most would think of as a suitable habitat for thriving …

Crème grows gourds in moulds to create biodegradable HyO-Cup

Brooklyn-based design studio Crème uses home-grown vegetables to produce a sustainable alternative to disposable coffee cups.<p>The Jun Aizaki-led …

Oksana Bondar uses human hair to create biodegradable stool

Kingston School of Art graduate Oksana Bondar has created a dressing table stool from human hair to demonstrate the design possibilities of the …

New bacteria-based solar cell doubles density, reduces production cost

Scientists have discovered a way of doubling the current density of biogenic solar cells. A team of researchers under Vikramaditya Yadav, a professor …

Ying Wang's tea ceremony installation makes bioplastic using milk and vinegar

Central Saint Martins graduate Ying Wang has recreated a traditional tea ceremony ritual that uses milk and vinegar to produce an alternative to …

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(<i>Alage Cellunoi</i><i>, Richard Beckett, marcosandmarjan, Guan Lee</i>)<p>(<i>Helico</i> digital masonry, Richard Beckett & Sam Welham)<p>Richard Beckett is a London-based …

Mammals such as deer, tigers and bears are being forced to become nocturnal because of humans

Humans are driving mammals including deer, tigers and bears to hide under the cover of darkness, jeopardising the health of the creatures that are …

Wood pulp could replace fossil materials in synthetic chemical manufacture

<b>Finnish and UK scientists develop method for making lignin particles react with enzymes in water, opening up new possibilities for bio-based polymers</b> …

From sea urchin skeleton to solar cell

Noorduin expects the new material will lead to improved solar cells. As the researchers now have control over the shape of the solar cell, they can …

projects

Aerolis, Joris Putteneers

Aerolis | Joris Putteneers A data driven air filtration system. Wind velocity data is imported into a vector field wich drives the iterative growth …

Bent bird feathers repair themselves when soaked in water

Splashing around in water doesn’t just get a bird clean – it can also repair broken feathers from the inside.<p>Marc Meyers at the University of …

Bacteria teach us how to make green fuel from carbon dioxide

Bacteria have inspired artificial enzymes that can convert carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons, which could be used to make fuel or plastics.<p><i>Azotobacter</i> …

Grape skins and stems can be turned into a greener plastic

Wine production doesn’t use every part of the fruit. It leaves behind a pile of skins, stems, and seeds called grape marc – but we may be able to use …

Studio Swine unveils nine-metre-tall "breathing" sculpture at the Eden Project

A nine-metre-tall ceramic structure inspired by the shape of cyanobacteria, one of the world's smallest living beings, has opened to the public at …

DNA shape changed by scientists to create tiny machines and computers

The shape of DNA can be manipulated to create tiny machines and computers, and scientists have discovered a range of new “triggers” to control this …