Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. One of the most efficient solutions to fighting climate change could ...

Achim Menges uses computer-guided techniques designed to make buildings more sustainable and affordable. Humanity has long sought to tame wood into something more predictable. Sawmills manufacture ...

Wood is becoming an increasingly popular building material, but the timber is harvested mainly just from the long, straight trunks of trees. Aiming to reduce waste, an MIT team has developed a method ...

Chopping down trees and processing the wood isn’t the most efficient or environmentally friendly way to make furniture or building materials. Scientists at MIT have now made breakthroughs in a process ...

Using simple chemical processes, Hu’s lab partially washes away lignin—the polymer that holds cellulose fibers in wood together—and exploits the natural complexity of wood’s nanostructure. Hu licensed ...

For as long as scientists have studied trees, we have categorised them into two types based on the sort of wood they make. Softwoods include pines and firs and generally grow faster than hardwoods, ...

The wood that provides the structural basis of trees is non-living, i.e. a dead material, but it is surrounded by living material that grows, regenerates and transports fluid and nutrients around the ...

A large portion of North America’s 8.7 billion ash trees are now infested by a beetle called the emerald ash borer. Since its discovery in the U.S. in 2002, the emerald ash borer has killed hundreds ...