innovation in forestry?

[pygmy]

Hey guys, I'm really curious and interested in forestry and innovative projects / ideas / etc. in this sector and the timber industry, so if any of you heard about something they thought was interesting, it would be great if you could share it! I think the last cool project I heard about was this novel Kielsteg lightweight construction element which won a prize in 2013. It consists of top and bottom flanges produced of timber, whose task is to take the tensile and compressive forces in the bending situation. They constructed plywood in a web to form a lightweight honeycomb structure using the element, which apparently can help industries making enormous material savings. Anyone heard of it?

[pygmy]

Anyone? Come on guys, I thought I'd have lots of answers with everyone here either being interested in or working in these sectors! Nothing at all that you can think of? Also, the project I mentioned was funded by the Schweighofer prize in case you heard of it, they fund all sorts of innovations in these sectors (in case someone wanted to have a look at their previous projects and post some stuff here :P ) 

[beenthere]

What we'd post would only be "innovative" to you if you had not heard of it before.
We can't read your mind as to what you have not heard before, so at a loss as to what to post.

And anything we haven't heard before just wouldn't come to our mind either... I don't think.   ;D

Catch 22??

And with no location/info in your profile, we have little to go on when trying to imagine what would be innovative to you and not everyday knowledge to most everyone else.
But the Forestry Forum has gazillions of bits and pieces of inventions, methods, and ideas that have entertained us over the years. Take a look. ;)

[pygmy]

Hi beenthere, sorry I thought that from the examples I gave, it was clear enough what I was looking for! I really just meant any new discoveries, inventions and research related to forestry - such as the construction element I mentioned. Any news related to timber and the environment, architecture, art, sustainability, recycling, etc. I am personally really interested in research relating to environmental science and forestry, but the thing is I didn't want to narrow things down too much since anything is of interest.
Why a catch 22? I didn't say "tell me about stuff you haven't heard of before" :P I asked for stuff anyone heard about and wouldn't mind sharing because they thought it was interesting - in the broadest sense, any news relating to research in timber and forestry.
I'm not sure how my profile would help matters - I live and study in the UK if that helps. Anything that sounded innovative to any of you is good enough for me I Hope that clarified things :D

[mad murdock]

A few years ago at the Oregon State University Wood Sciences Lab, (not sure of the exact name), there is a prof there that came up with a Kymene based adhesive that blows the lid off of any other adhesive.  There is a company in Delaware I believe that put up a lot of the research money, so I think they own patent rights, along with US plywood co, based in Portland ORE.  He discovered the protein compound that is secreted by Oysters in the ocean and synthesized it using soy based protein.  All the testing that was done on it in comparison to the best adhesives of the day, pale in comparison.  It is quite interesting to read about.  I will see if I can link it to this post.  Here is the Prof that discovered the process, and what he teaches, along with links to associated papers.  http://woodscience.oregonstate.edu/people/faculty/li-kaichang

[pygmy]

That sounds amazing, thanks for sharing mad murdoch! that's exactly the kind of projects I was thinking about I will definitely have a look at the website and see if I find anything else about it. It's incredible that they could use proteins produced by oysters... really goes to show how little we know about our environment, and how truly amazing nature is. Oh god this is odd, but come to think of it, I actually know someone studying at the Oregon State University and she studies forestry, I will try to find out whether she was studying at that particular laboratory, but seems likely considering its name. The world is so small!!!