Wood

A first-of-a-kind spacecraft is set to make history later this year, but will do so using materials you could find at your local hardware store. The world's first wooden satellite is set to enter orbit as a box made largely of birch plywood.

Scientists at Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology have produced a completely renewable version of see-through wood thanks to the addition of a fruit peel extract, which also happens to make it more translucent than previous versions.

Researchers at Yale University have developed a bioplastic made using wood byproducts. The material boasts high strength and durability, but also has the ability to degrade completely in the space of just three months.

It's a sad fact that many of the people who most need water filters are those who are least able to afford them. A newly demonstrated MIT technology could help, in that it uses locally sourced wood to inexpensively purify contaminated water.

There are untold energy sources all around us, if we can just figure out how to tap into them. Swiss researchers have now demonstrated an environmentally friendly way to make spongy wood flooring that can generate electricity with every step.

While lab-grown meat shows promise for sparing animals from slaughter, wood still comes entirely from trees that are cut down. That may not always be the case, though, as scientists are now working on growing it in a lab, too.

We've long been admirers of the work of Swedish designer Love Hultén, who has frequently paid tribute to the worlds of retro gaming and classic computing with beautiful hand-crafted creations. Now he's back with the bizarre Voc-25 chatterbox.

A breakthrough in material science is expanding the trickery of traditional timber, by showing how tweaks to its composition can turn it into a water-resistant film that gives off a warm glow in the presence of UV light.

Scientists in Germany have developed a technology that could give a waste product of the paper industry a new lease on life, converting the organic polymer lignin into the basis for a biopaste fit for 3D printing.

Evaporation is one of the most enduring methods of purifying water to make it drinkable. Now researchers in China have developed a novel device made of wood that can do just that, by employing bacteria to help build key nanostructures.

A number of hybrid wooden towers are taking shape around the globe, but all will be overshadowed by a new office block set for Sydney with software company Atlassian unveiling plans for the world's tallest.

The wheels have begun to turn on an interesting new form of wind turbine in Sweden, with the country’s first wooden power-generation tower now complete. It's hoped the tower will be a harbinger of cheaper and greener solutions for renewable energy.