Carbon nanotube yarn could help create battery-free wearables, powered entirely by their users' movement. Imagine being able to harness the energy produced during your morning jog and using it to power a music player or fitness tracker. Researchers have developed a special ultra-thin yarn created from carbon nanotubes. It efficiently converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. The yarn can be twisted into elastic-like coils that allow the threads to generate electricity when stretched. The energy from one piece of yarn can generate 250 watts per kilogram when a number of them are bound together and stretched 30 times per second. https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/carbon-nanotube-yarn/

In the largest agriculture-tech funding round in history, vertical farming startup "Plenty" attracted US$200 million. Some experts say the investment could make the indoor farming industry more viable as a whole. Instead of growing greens outdoors, the farm grows its food on glowing, LED-lit 20-foot-tall towers inside a former electronics distribution center in South San Francisco. The towers don't require pesticides or natural sunlight. The technique is called indoor vertical farming. Food grows on trays or hanging modules in a climate-controlled, indoor facility. The process is revolutionary. Certain types of food could be produced year-round, anywhere, in a small space. http://www.businessinsider.com/food-investment-vertical-farming-2017-8/

A spill of bioactive ink made from ovarian cells led to the creation of paper made from organs and tissues, with various potential medical uses. The discovery happened, as so many discoveries do, by accident. Adam Jakus, then a postdoctoral researcher in materials science at Northwestern University, was working with the biological ?ink? his lab uses to 3D print ovaries. Standing beneath the lab?s fume hood, Jakus knocked over the container, spilling it onto the lab bench. By the time he went to clean it up, it had formed a solid sheet so strong it can be folded into origami. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/lab-accident-leads-bioactive-tissue-paper-180964511/?

A new device that reprograms skin cells could represent a breakthrough in repairing injured or ageing tissue. The new technique, called tissue nanotransfection, is based on a tiny device that sits on the surface of living skin. An intense, focused electric field is applied to the device, allowing it to deliver genes to the skin cells beneath it, turning them into different types of cells. This is an exciting opportunity when it comes to repairing damaged tissue - turning a patient's own tissue into a bioreactor to produce cells to either repair nearby tissues, or for use at another site. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/07/nanochip-could-heal-injuries-or-regrow-organs-with-one-touch-

A Finnish research team has taken a step towards the future of food by developing a method for producing food from electricity. If scaling it up proves to be successful, it could help in the fight against world hunger and climate change. The researchers created a batch of single-cell protein that is nutritious enough to serve for dinner using a system powered by renewable energy. The process requires electricity, water, carbon dioxide, and microbes. After exposing the raw materials to electrolysis in a bioreactor, a powder forms consisting of protein and carbohydrates. Textures can also be changed by altering microbes. https://futurism.com/a-team-of-scientists-just-made-food-from-electricity-and-it-could-be-the-so