Squid self-repairing design inspires U.S. military, microflora-based vegan ice cream, dairy-waste to hand sanitizer, banana fiber PPE, and more: The Digest’s Top 8 Innovations for the week of August 6th

While taking a dip in the ocean, take a good look at that squid in a different light…researchers at the US Army Research Institute are developing a renewable, self-healing material inspired by squid teeth in the hopes it can be used to design self-repairing robots and uniforms. Then enjoy some surfside “Brave Robot” vegan ice cream made from Perfect Day which uses genetically modified microflora to produce milk proteins casein and whey to make the ice cream taste…well…like dairy ice cream.

In today’s Digest, these innovative developments plus more pandemic pivots like New Age Renewable Energy now converting dairy waste (whey acid byproduct from milk production) into hand sanitizer to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, or the Philippines work in finding that banana fiber PPE can combat the pandemic without adding to plastics waste, and more!