City University of Macau to partner with Hult Prize UN-backed sustainable projects competition

Scientists have developed a hardened wood material that, when sharpened, is three times sharper than a stainless steel dinner knife, according to the new study on the work. The research comes from the University of Maryland’s Teng Li and a team that developed a new method to generate extremely hard wood. Among other things, the development may lead to more sustainable building materials.  Wood contains between 40- and 50-percent cellulose, with the rest of the material compromised of binders called lignin and hemicellulose. While cellulose has a greater strength-to-density ratio than materials like metal and ceramic, the binder materials make wood overall weaker than man-made counterparts.

As smartphone sales have skyrocketed, so has the device’s contribution to waste streams and carbon emissions.
Manufacturers will need to conserve resources as 6 of the key elements for mobile phones will run out in the next 100 years. Changes to business models and consumer habits will be needed to tackle electronic waste. The ability to repair phones will be key to conserving resources, tackling e-waste and climate mitigation, and building a circular economy for electronics. Roughly four in ten people globally owned a smartphone in 2018 and that number continues to grow rapidly. This growth is driven by steady sales of the devices – more than 1 billion each year – putting hand-sized computers in people’s pockets.

How humans produce and use energy — from generating light to the way we cook — has a huge impact on the health of individuals and communities. Sustainable energy is created and used so that it meets peoples’ needs now but doesn’t compromise our health and society in the long run.