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ASIAN INNOVATION AWARDS: FINALISTS 2003
A Dozen Ideas To Make a Difference
The 12 finalists in this year's Asian Innovation
Awards range from outlandish, hi-tech ideas to plain and
simple practical solutions. Each one offers a new way of
tackling everyday problems
By Michael Somers/HONG KONG
Issue cover-dated
October 30, 2003
Friendly Feed
Animals
reared for food have been fed antibiotics for years, to fight
against infection and make them grow bigger, faster. But some
strains of bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics in
animals. This, in turn, poses a threat to human health. Alex
Teo Yeow Lim and Tan Hai Meng, researchers at nutritional
ingredient-maker Kemin Industries (Asia) in Singapore, have
found a "friendly" bacterium in chicken guts that blocks the
growth of dangerous bacteria. They've used the bacterium to
form the basis of an antibiotic-free feed called CloSTAT.
Nut Net
Falling coconuts can injure and kill. But
thanks to Australian inventor Tim Straatmans, the tropical
fruit's reign of terror may be over. His solution is Coconet,
a net-like device that is attached to the tree under the
fronds to catch coconuts as they fall. Coconet eliminates the
need--and cost--of de-nutting, or chopping down trees.
Nice Rice
Nippon Paper Industries and two
Japanese research institutes have developed a type of rice
that can help secrete insulin from the pancreas and reduce the
blood-sugar level. The researchers modified genes so that the
rice contains peptide, an amino-acid component that helps
secrete insulin. It has the potential to release diabetics
from having to inject themselves with insulin.
Bad News For Mozzies
Malaria kills more than a
million people each year. Dr. Takaaki Itoh, of Sumitomo
Chemical, in Japan, has come up with a cheap and effective
weapon against the insects that carry the disease. He has
developed a way of binding insecticide into the fibre of
bednets. The Japanese scientist's Olyset bednets kill and
repel mosquitoes for up to four years, meaning nets no longer
need to be treated with pesticide every few months.
Heading Off Trouble
In Vietnam, there are about
35 traffic-related deaths a day. The death toll would drop if
more motorcyclists wore helmets. But many find helmets too hot
to wear in the stifling weather. Greig Craft, who set up the
Asian Injury Prevention Foundation, is working to change that.
The foundation's "Helmets For Kids" scheme makes special,
hot-weather helmets, donates them to Vietnamese schoolchildren
and teaches them the importance of helmet safety.
Beating Cancer
In order to increase the survival
rate of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia early
diagnosis is essential. The trick is to distinguish between
the six sub-types of this most common form of childhood
leukaemia. Researchers from the National University Hospital
of Singapore and the Institute for Infocomm Research have
developed a gene chip-based analysis that helps diagnose the
illness quickly, easily and cheaply. It also helps to ensure
that patients receive the right amount of chemotherapy.
A Touching Solution
Milan Dass, a senior
researcher with India's National Institute for the Visually
Handicapped, has put the world at the fingertips of blind
children. Using only simple materials--nylon-wire mesh
stretched across plywood boards--he has devised what he calls
the "versatile drawing tactile board." When used with stencils
and a small Braille-writing window, it allows the children to
explore and learn at their own pace a range of basic concepts,
subjects and experiences--such as maths, general science and
geography.
Good Enough To Drink
Hong Kong-based CK Life
Sciences International has developed a product for purifying
waste water with significantly fewer chemicals. WonderTreat
uses yeast strains and natural ingredients to break down and
degrade pollutants in waste water, making it clean enough to
be used in agriculture or for drinking. WonderTreat can be
applied to existing water-treatment plants with no capital
expense.
Drip-Feed
Australian inventor Jim Fah has
developed a hydroponic system that feeds water to plants as
and when they need it. That means no waste--a big plus in
places where water is scarce. The AutoPot System is a boost to
food production in all weather conditions and in parts of the
world where there is a shortage of suitable agricultural
land.
Inner Light
A team of Australian researchers and
Malaysian architects have shed new light on the problem of
illuminating buildings that have deep floor plans. The team
from the Queensland University of Technology and University of
Queensland came up with the idea of new light-deflecting
materials to capture sunlight with reasonable efficiency. They
made tiny parallel laser cuts on transparent acrylic material
that effectively deflect sunlight into pipes, which in turn
channel the natural light into high-rise buildings. Malaysian
architects T.R. Hamzah & Yeang applied the research,
coming up with a way of integrating the light pipes into
buildings.
The Good Oil
In Kalinga, a far-northern province
of the Philippines, the Gold In Grass Corp. grows lemon grass
and processes lemon-grass oil. Instead of expanding the
plantation, the private corporation encouraged local people to
plant the crop on their own land; it then buys the produce
from them. It has also developed a machine to more efficiently
distil the lemon-grass oil.
Spin Cycle
Water, water everywhere, and not a
drop to recycle or re-use--it's too expensive, needs too much
energy, and is too complicated. Once, maybe, that was so. But
that hasn't been the case at construction sites since Hong
Kong engineer Leung Wai On waded in with the WetSep
waste-water separation and treatment system in 1998. Now, with
ramped-up efficiency, it's being used on industrial effluent
and to make water in remote areas drinkable. All this, and it
runs on sunshine.
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