Nanyang Technological University

Although great strides are being made in the field of "smart" contact lenses, one challenge remains – how do you safely and discreetly power the things? Singaporean scientists may have the answer, in the form of a tear-fluid-charged ultra-thin battery.

For some time now, it has been known that wounds with a zig-zag pattern heal faster than those which form a straight line. Scientists have now determined why this is so, and their findings could change the ways in which surgical incisions are made.

Solar stills provide a clever and simple means of purifying dirty or salty water, but they work at a rather slow rate. A new material has been shown to boost their performance, and it's made from fruit waste which would otherwise be discarded.

While the field of stretchable electronics does hold a lot of promise, joining the parts of such devices together can be tricky. A new connector is designed to help, as it stretches between the components plus it links them in a matter of seconds.

With demand for vegetable oil only expected to increase, a team of scientists in Singapore has demonstrated a way of increasing the yield of oil from plants through genetic engineering, which could increase the output by as much as 18%.

New research on aging in roundworms has thrown up some intriguing results, with scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore finding they could increase the animals lifespan by feeding them a high-sugar diet.

While wind energy systems can come in some pretty big forms, scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore have developed a small, low-cost device sensitive enough to capture energy from a light breeze.

As compared to traditional agriculture, hydroponic farming uses less space and less water, plus it requires no soil. It still does require a growth medium, though – and scientists have recently created a better such medium, derived from human hair.

As their sense of balance deteriorates, seniors are at an increased risk of potentially debilitating falls. A new wearable assistive robot could help, by detecting and preventing such falls before they actually occur.

Chronic skin ulcers are notoriously slow to heal, but an otherwise-wasted material may soon help change that. Scientists at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University have developed a new regenerative wound dressing, and it's made from frog skin.

In a typical poultry processing facility, much of the waste is simply dumped in a landfill or burned. Two new processes, however, make use of the feathers, blood and bones – plus one of them may ironically reduce the number of chickens slaughtered.

When cooking oil is extracted from peanuts and sunflower seeds, a waste product known as oilseed meal is left behind. New research shows that proteins harvested from that meal can be used to filter heavy metals out of contaminated water.