These designers made a sustainable new building material from corn

A new 3D-printed construction technique turns corn into a novel building material. Corncretl is a biocomposite made from corn waste known as nejayote that’s rich in calcium. It’s dried, pulverized, and mixed with minerals, and the resulting material is applied using a 3D printer. [Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura] This corn-based construction material was made by Manufactura,…

Read More

Microbe with the smallest genome yet pushes the boundaries of life

Symbiotic bacteria live inside specialised organs called bacteriomes within insects. This image shows a cross-section of the planthopper Callodictya krueperi, with fluorescent probes labelling three microbes: Vidania (red), Sodalis (yellow) and Sulcia (green) Courtesy Anna Michalik et al Symbiotic bacteria living inside insect cells have the smallest genomes known for any organism. The findings further muddy the distinction between cellular organelles…

Read More

The case for being exclusive at work

Most leaders understand their message needs to define exactly who their work is for. Fewer realize that it should also define who it’s not for. Fewer still realize that their message is unintentionally excluding some of the very people they want to attract. Effective messaging repels on purpose. Careless messaging excludes by accident. And for…

Read More