Western Australia has the potential to become a global leader in renewable energy microgrid development and export, a new report

Ruth Downes has a passion for reappropriating everyday materials and objects to celebrate their intrinsic beauty. Materials for these ‘wearable’ artworks are from many sources –aircraft headsets to coffee capsules. Detritus from nature has been re-born as a fashion statement. The works question our values and how we award status on these everyday materials into the realm of art. This is much more than a simple ‘up-cycling’ exercise. Downes has an acute awareness of the potential of these materials. These 3D works are mounted on a spectrum of coloured ellipses with several ‘busting out’ on mounted body forms. www.ruthdownes.com.au

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, a part of The University of Tokyo, have developed a new procedure for recycling concrete with the addition of discarded wood. They found that the correct proportion of inputs can yield a new building material with a bending strength superior to that of the original concrete.This research may help drastically reduce construction costs, as well as slash carbon emissions.Concrete consists of two parts, aggregate-- gravel and crushed stone--and cement. It's the production of cement that is blamed for a large amount of the carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere.

A drug molecule "invented" by artificial intelligence (AI) will be used in human trials in a world first for machine learning in medicine.It was created by British start-up Exscientia and Japanese pharmaceutical firm Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma.The drug will be used to treat patients who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).Typically, drug development takes about five years to get to trial, but the AI drug took just 12 months.Exscienta chief executive Prof Andrew Hopkins described it as a "key milestone in drug discovery".