Wood

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.

Wind turbine blades can be truly enormous, reaching lengths of up to 107 m (351 ft). They often incorporate lightweight balsa wood, which may soon be easier than ever to reclaim for recycling when the blades' time is done.

Production of cement is a big source of CO2 emissions, so the more we can recycle existing concrete, the better. That's where a new study comes in, which indicates that discarded concrete becomes stronger than it was before, when wood waste is added.

While lumber has many desirable qualities, it has to be pressure-treated with eco-unfriendly chemicals to keep from rotting. With that problem in mind, US scientists are working on a greener alternative – giving the wood a shot of metal oxide.

Although it's unlikely that many people would think of wood-fired hot tubs as being "green" products overall, some of the things are certainly more eco-friendly than others. Such is the case with a new tub, that's already on sale in Europe.

Looking to take down a playtime target with a few rubber band bullets but can’t quite get them away quickly enough? Weaponized T-Rex is out to offer some rapid-fire capabilities with a motorized rubber band toy gun based on the Gatling machine gun.