The pink seesaws that bridge the gap between the US border and Mexico have been named Design of the Year 2020. The designers of The Teeter Totter Wall hoped that the seesaws would create a sense of community, and be a playful approach to building bridges between borders. Find out more >>

Researchers have found that, through targeting the orbitofrontal cortex (the part of your brain that sits just above your eye sockets) with an alternating current, they may be able to reduce compulsive behaviours such as OCD. The new personalised approach could go on to reduce OCD by up to 30% and improve the quality of people’s lives. Find out more >>

Lizzie, a 9-year-old girl from the UK has launched a petition to call for the reduction of plastic waste. The young budding activist raised concerns over sending waste to low-income countries, and has reached over 80,000 signatures due to her initial concerns for the planet. Find out more >>

Researchers from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology have developed a new cancer-targeting phototherapeutic agent. The light-based therapy targets individual cancer cells, leaving the surrounding tissue unharmed, meaning there are almost none of the side effects typically associated with chemotherapy. Find out more >>

The First National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, is the youngest person to recite a poem at a president’s inauguration, which has become a beacon of hope for young American’s. Gorman’s poem shed light on the issues she cares most about including the African diaspora, race, feminism, and marginalisation. Find out more >>

Israeli company StoreDot and Chinese manufacturer Eve Energy have developed a car battery that can be completely charged in five minutes. The new generation of batteries could go on to charge in the same amount of time it takes to fill a car up with petrol or diesel. Find out more >>

Alondra Nelson, a specialist in bioethics, has been appointed as the Deputy Director of the Office of Science and Technology in the US. Nelson is a scholar of multiple disciplines including social inequality, medical discrimination, science, and technology. President Biden’s appointment of Nelson, is a movement to inclusion and diversity in his administration. Find out more >>       

Thysenkrupp, the German multinational, will go on to build one of the world’s largest hydro-electrolysis facilities in Quebec, which could generate 11,100 metric tons of green hydrogen every year. Canada is already number 4 in the world for producing hydrogen, and the new plant is a step toward a sustainable future. Find out more >>

An innovative product designer is creating eyewear specifically for Afropolitan’s. Ackeem Ngwenya startup, Reframd, develops custom eyewear for black people’s nose profiles, using a parametric algorithm that runs in a 3D program. Find out more >>

Using high resolution satellite imagery and deep learning, a team from the Universities of Oxford and Bath have been able to count elephants from space. The satellite monitoring eliminates any risk of disturbing the species, and this conservation technology could offer great promise for the conservation of elephants. Find out more >>