Biopesticides bridging the crop protection gaps
As the UK horticultural sector continues to evolve post-Brexit, the need for sustainable crop protection has never been more critical. Rising concerns over synthetic agrochemicals’ environmental and health impacts drive the industry to transition to greener alternatives.
Tackling skills and training
There’s an exodus of talent from the manufacturing sector, and organisations are struggling to replace people quickly enough to fill the gaps. Only a third (34%) of UK companies are regularly bringing in talented new hires, and a similar number have yet to establish relationships with educational institutions to build a needed pipeline of new staff.
Food traceability
An estimated 48m people are affected by foodborne illnesses in the US alone every year, resulting in 128,000 hospitalisations and 3000 deaths [1]. These shocking figures pose a significant public health burden – but they could be prevented with appropriate traceability measures.
Lean R&D benefits
Manufacturing processes focused on maximising value while minimising waste are the key to maintaining business competitiveness. Modern Lean Manufacturing focuses on streamlining production processes, reducing waste, time, and labour, and ensuring consistent quality in a repeatable environment. It emphasises standardised workflows, just-in-time production and minimising variability in output.
Booming market for sulfone polymers
Mega trends that will continue to drive sulfone polymer consumption include, but are not limited to, a sustained and increased penetration of sulfone polymers in aircraft and automobiles, supported by ongoing efforts in reducing weight to improve fuel efficiency and meet CO2 emission standards.
Are mushrooms plants?
Sometimes. At least, that is the answer to the question posed in this feature headline, according to a new court ruling. The ruling recently emerged from the new Unified Patent Court (UPC) opened in June 2023. It concerns a provisional injunction by US headquartered mushroom producer Amycel against an individual in Poland alleged to have infringed Amycel’s patent EP 1993350 concerning mushroom strain BR06 marketed by Amycel under the name Heirloom [1]. According to the UPC’s decision, Heirloom is currently the number one selling brown mushroom strain in the world.
A safer workplace?
British Safety Council recently commissioned a YouGov survey, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Health and Safety at Work Act, considering what lies ahead for health, safety and wellbeing, and the impact new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) might have on their workplace.
Sustainable concrete
Cement currently ranks as the third largest source of human-generated CO2 – after power and transport. It accounts for roughly 7% of all anthropogenic emissions . Globally, we produce over 4bn t of cement per year, which equates to around 560kg for every person on earth – with demand for concrete rising faster than demand for steel or timber.
Demand for helium to double
Helium is a finite resource that plays a critical role across several industries including medical imaging, thermal management systems for batteries, aerospace engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, semiconductor manufacturing and fibre optics. Helium’s high thermal conductivity, chemical inertness and cryogenic properties uniquely lend themselves to applications with limited or no available alternatives in some cases.
Diversity sparks creativity
Diversity and inclusion are important for any business. Increasingly, employers are recognising that recruiting a workforce from different cultures and backgrounds is not only progressive, but also makes good business sense.