The Conversation recently ran an article by Francesco Grillo on the ‘internet of beings’. A radical new approach to what could be the next revolution in medicine. The idea that … Read more
SAWA, the 50-metre timber residential building on Rotterdam’s Lloydpier, has won the 2025 National Timber Construction Award, just hours after Dutch queen Máxima officially opened the building, highlighting its national … Read more
Many are cynical about the annual circus of UN climate negotiations that takes place at ‘CoP’ – the Conference of the Parties to the UN’s climate convention. Summits, critics complain, … Read more
Change.inc contained an article by Teun Schroder on the sustainable transition. Does this make headway? Messages on blows to these goals abound. And yet… In the Netherlands, the Planning Agency … Read more
Landfilling, eco-toxic chemicals, a rising carbon footprint, and endless consumption. The modern clothing industry imposes a huge burden on the planet. But the EU is taking action. In October 2025, … Read more
The Dutch grid needs a major upgrade in order to solve problems around grid congestion, as more solar and wind will be connected. Moreover, it needs to be used smarter … Read more
Researchers at Wageningen University & Research and Utrecht University are exploring how we could grow tomato plants in factories. This concept could transform food production and make it more sustainable … Read more
Alarming images: smoke belching from the thick forests of the Amazon. Spanish firefighters battling flames across farmland. Blackened celebrity homes in Los Angeles and smoked out regional towns in Australia. … Read more
Lignin is a notoriously difficult resource to develop. Nevertheless, there has been progress in recent years. There is a growing landscape of technology developers. Commercial success might come within ten … Read more
The use of first-generation agricultural biomass (like cereals, sugar and oil plants) for bio-based energy and materials, has many benefits. This will produce food security, biodiversity, agriculture and climate-change mitigation. … Read more
In recent years, there has been staunch opposition against the use of food crops for industrial applications. This would reduce the amount of food available, and hence undermine food security. … Read more
A team of Northwestern University presents a cheap nickel catalyst that may appreciably simplify everyday plastics recycling. The catalyst breaks down polyolefins to oils and waxes. We use these plastics, … Read more
Jack Marley, environment editor to the Conversation, recently summed up the (mostly) bad news for global climate. Global temperatures, he writes, have been 1.5°C hotter than the pre-industrial average for … Read more
A team of Northwestern University presents a cheap nickel catalyst that may appreciably simplify everyday plastics recycling. The catalyst breaks down polyolefins to oils and waxes. We use these plastics, … Read more
Change.inc recently published an article by Jeroen de Boer (most references in Dutch) about remarkable innovations in wind energy. One of the fastest growing renewable energy sources. That growth is … Read more
Exports of medicines from India and China haven’t taken place because the Western world invited them to do so. To the contrary, there were many visible and invisible obstacles. The … Read more
For over 50 years, our medicines supply has been without major worries. They were always there, and the variety became bigger all the time. Costs mounted, but government and insurance … Read more
Our planet has arrived in unknown territory; all kinds of records are being broken. During four consecutive days in July 2023, Earth experienced the hottest day ever. And the North … Read more
Ruben Boot wrote an article about an investigation on nanoplastics, published in Nature; of Sophie ten Hietbrink, Dušan Materic et al. The researchers calculate that the top layer of the … Read more
Bad climate news is everywhere. Africa is being hit particularly hard by climate change and extreme weather, impacting lives and livelihoods. We are living in a world warming at the … Read more
Which energy technologies will be able to supply an alternative to oil, gas and coal? That question is essential for the speed of the energy transition and for reducing the … Read more
Biocementation was one of the subjects at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2025. Researchers from ETH Zurich and École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) unveiled it. … Read more
A study published in the Nature journal Sustainable Agriculture found that Western consumers are unlikely to accept insects as food. The barriers are psychological, taste-, culture- and price-related in nature. So, do … Read more
In the Netherlands, the construction of wind turbines on land has almost come to a standstill. But hybrid wind parks, in combination with a solar park, batteries and an industrial … Read more
Some suppose that trees and plants communicate with each other through fungal networks, sometimes across major distances -and even help each other. We wrote about that, earlier. But new data … Read more
The article in BioScience, The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth, is particularly distressing. ‘We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster,’ is … Read more
Industrial chemicals and chemical products have been increasingly used for practical societal services such as health care, personal care, food preservation, crop protection, housing, and transportation. In most cases, the … Read more
SWB superpower (= solar, wind and batteries) will make an end to the era of energy shortages. We will enter into an era in which mankind will produce much more … Read more
RethinkX, the organization that reformulated the energy problem a few times already, published an even more radical vision on the future. After the era of fossil fuels, so they hold, … Read more
Already since the fifties, cultivation of plant cells is well-known. We produce medicines with it. We don’t use the entire plant, just separate cells in a liquid. Wood production in … Read more
We can store any excess of solar energy (or another form of green energy) in the walls and floors of our own homes. Or in a boiler. That might mean … Read more
CRISPR is making headway. The first medical therapy using CRISPR has just been approved. CRISPR-Cas systems show up in complex cells. There’s a lot going on in the genome editing … Read more
Is artificial intelligence or AI a threat to mankind? Would AI ever be able to take over our computer systems? Could this system influence our behaviour without us being able … Read more
The choice between paper and plastic may seem simple at first glance, but there’s more to it than you might think. Paper packaging is becoming increasingly common in stores, supermarkets … Read more
An article by Daniela Castillo Monagas drew our attention to the interesting properties of eggshells. Companies, she wrote, have been developing new materials using eggshells. A renewable and circular feedstock … Read more
No waste stream grows as fast as electronic waste or e-waste. Recycling companies now pay attention to it. They can recover gold, copper and nickel from it, among others. Hannah … Read more
Insects aren’t doing well. Several scientific studies show that three quarters of them have disappeared over the past 30 years. For instance, by agricultural practices that removed much of natural … Read more
The world’s first solar power plant in history (link in Dutch) was constructed by Frank Shuman. His aim was to liberate us from fossil fuels. He was far ahead of … Read more
We don’t need animals for protein production – even of the required quality. The method in question is being researched intensely. Vivici, a company founded by Marcel Wubbolts, is one … Read more
Urban biomining can unlock valuable metals in post-consumer waste. This is especially important for Europe, a continent with little mineral resources of its own, therefore dependent on imports. Urban biomining … Read more
Yuki Kabe, Technical Advocacy Specialist at Braskem, signals an incorrect judgement of ‘biobased’ or green plastics in lifecycle analyses. As a chemical engineer, he has more than 20 years of … Read more
Bamboo is a fast-growing crop that thrives almost anywhere in the world. Because it grows rapidly, it absorbs a lot of CO2 from the atmosphere, which is an attractive option … Read more
In Delft, The Netherlands, the construction of a large-scale wooden building has started, The Urban Woods. This will pave the way towards sustainable high-rise building construction in the Netherlands. High-rise … Read more
Knowable Magazine ran an article by Katarina Zimmer on geothermal energy. Long regarded as just a small source, to be applied in selected places; but now more a versatile technology, … Read more
Increasingly, methane (CH4) emissions are on the critical path – the path towards limiting climate change to 2°C. This is the upper target of the 2015 Paris agreement. Methane emissions … Read more
High dependence on fossil carbon, associated high carbon footprint, low recycling rates and microplastics: several solutions are emerging. Written by Asta Partanen and Michael Carus. More information on the Cellulose … Read more
In the Netherlands, the business case for wind turbines and solar panels keeps getting worse; writes Roy op het Veld on change.inc (in Dutch). The supply side of the energy … Read more
RethinkX’s Bradd Libby recently posted two useful articles on technological change. He distinguishes between partial and real solutions, or as he calls it ‘band-aid’ versus ‘bona fide’ or disruptive solutions … Read more
Synbiobeta ran an article by Gabrielle David on the world of silk. And how we learn to master the art of producing this wonderful material by a natural process, much … Read more
Is Europe still the world leader in climate issues? The continent has ambitious plans. But in the field of energy transition, things do not play out as planned. Europe may … Read more