Around the world: 3D printed wood, fermentation and coral reefs
From a startup working to 3D print wood waste, to how fermentation can help avoid food waste and how climate change is affecting coral reefs—discover the stories that caught our eye this week.
We can 3D-print wood now
The most trafficked wild product in the world isn’t ivory or rhino horn, but rosewood, an endangered tree verging on extinction as demand for rosewood furniture in China clears out forests in places like Madagascar. But what if an identical material could be 3D printed from wood waste?
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Words by Adele Peters
How fermentation can avoid food waste
Researching the fermentation of plants, new raw materials, and surplus vegetables could help create more climate-friendly and circular food systems including more plant-based options.
According to the Fermentation State of the Industry Report from the Good Food Institute, in 2020 fermentation became the “third technological pillar of the alternative protein revolution,” besides plant-based and cultivated proteins.
The benefits of fermentation aren’t just limited to the environment. This ancient food preservation practice has multiple potential such as improving health and preventing growth of pathogenic bacteria.
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Words by Daniela De Lorenzo
How is climate change affecting coral reefs
The climate crisis will lead to changes in distribution and habitat loss of stony corals in the tropical Atlantic, shows a new study published by the open access publisher Frontiers. The loss of such coral species could have devastating consequences for the marine ecosystems they inhabit. The results of the study highlight an urgent need for coral reef management in the Atlantic.
Researchers at the University of São Paulo projected current and future distributions of three key reef building corals of the tropical Atlantic (Mussismilia hispida, Montastraea cavernosa and the Siderastrea complex). They conclude that all three species will experience changes in range due to the climate crisis, which will elicit negative cascading effects on the biodiversity of reef ecosystems. The results are published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
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Words by Suzanna Burgelman