This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the incredible discovery of graphene. The elusive nano-material demonstrates astounding properties with applications including electronics, clothing, paints, healthcare and water purification. In particular graphene is actively being explored as a foundation for targeted therapeutics and implantable devices and sensors. Collaborations between industry and research groups have been forging…
As concerns over groundwater nitrate levels grow, scientist engineers from the Southern Hemisphere have been exporting a unique nitrate sensing technology globally. Now the company is being spun out from it’s university consultancy origins, in the hope of securing investment and scaling up the operation considerably. Hydro-Metrics started life as a business unit within Lincoln…
Chemical engineers agree that methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Atmospheric methane is estimated to have over 80 times the impact of CO2 over a 20 year period, despite a lower longevity in the atmosphere. From the biogenic methane of farm animals and plant waste through to losses from landfill decay, humans…
A spinoff company from the Australian National University plans to shake up the garment industry with recycling of polyester, a commonly used fabric derived from petrochemicals. Now with fresh funding of AUD $100 million, the company is building up a family of biological catalysts with applications across a wide range of industries. Samsara Eco sprung…
Conflicts, climate change, constrained investment and the requirement to reduce agricultural emissions are all factors impacting our global food production system at present. Novel approaches will be needed in the future if we are to feed an estimated population of 10 Billion by 2050. Foodtech and agritech are likely to play an increasing role in…
Competing and thriving as a nation in a highly technological, fast changing and globalised economy increasingly dictates that universities and institutes step up and generate economic returns on their research. But although there have been a few notable exceptions here in New Zealand universities, we continue to underperform in the commercialisation of new scientific knowledge…
I first clapped my ears on Ghost In The Machine, the fourth album in the illustrious career of British rock band The Police, as a spotty faced teenager. The cover art for that album features images of three musicians depicted as a glitchy digital display, alluding to the concept of the human mind taking on…
“Where there’s muck, there’s brass”. So the saying goes. But in the case of University of Canterbury technology startup Zincovery it was more a case of, wherever there’s horrid industrial waste there’s zinc. So when chemistry student Jonathan Ring and his Masters supervisor Dr Aaron Marshall discovered just how much of that waste was going…
