Innovation

Electric cars are widely seen as a wonderful idea for the future, but too expensive and impractical for now. It’s time to bust some of the myths that are preventing their widespread rollout, [...]

A social enterprise is transforming human waste into a clean, affordable fuel in Kenya. It smells like the future, discovers Oliver Balch

Majd Mashharawi has invented environmentally friendly, cheap and lightweight blocks that use ash instead of sand. Could ‘Green Cake’ help rebuild the besieged Gaza Strip?

From motion-powered mobile phone chargers to urine-powered electricity; three ways in which human energy is pushing society forward

The designer behind a range of clothes that expand to fit growing babies and toddlers has been awarded the James Dyson award for student innovation

With such limited space, how can cities be designed to feature more greenery? China is thinking outside the box: vertically

From laser labels to ‘plastic’ derived from sugar cane, three environmentally-friendly alternatives to plastic packaging

Author Mark Stevenson has travelled the world, from Brazilian favelas to a shed in the English home counties, meeting remarkable innovators

The first project of its kind in Asia, towers covered in thousands of plants and trees are under construction in China. The architect wants to build more across Chinese cities to help offset pollution

Science is shrugging off its lab coat. Here are our top five science projects you can get involved in

From architecture to healthcare; we look at new ways in which 3D printing is helping society to progress

A Museum of Tomorrow is at the centre of a £1.36bn facelift of Rio de Janeiro’s once-dingy port district

With many of the world's refugees finding themselves in 'temporary' settlements for decades, researcher Marlen de la Chaux argues that fostering entrepreneurial initiatives in camps could combat [...]

Rather than waiting around to see what happens at the Paris climate talks in December, a group of European creatives got together and came up with some low-tech solutions to the world's [...]

Three international science organisations have announced that 2016 will be the International Year of Global Understanding, aiming to show “how to translate scientific insight into more [...]

Between the established circles of ‘old power’ and the thriving yet young dynamism of ‘new power’, it may seem society is caught in stalemate in enacting real change. But as Noa Gafni shows, the [...]

From Guernsey to the Seychelles, island communities are working to reinvent themselves. Lucy Purdy explores the new social and economic systems being developed offshore

For a long time the progress of renewable energy has been hampered by its transient nature: neither the sun nor wind is ‘on’ 24/7. But now Elon Musk’s new energy storage invention is set to [...]

A London-based surf brand wants to tackle increasing levels of plastic waste along the UK coastline by transforming it into beachwear

Five innovative programmes are aiming to diffuse the “ticking time bomb” of Africa’s youth employment crisis