For thousands of people living with limb loss in India, getting a prosthetic limb can remain out of reach because of cost and limited access. Vidushee, Shravya and Shloka, students of Mallya Aditi International School in Bengaluru, have developed a material that they believe could help make some prosthetic components more affordable. Their project, Reviv3D, uses a composite made from recycled plastic, bagasse and basalt. The students say the material is stronger than some fibreglass alternatives, considerably cheaper and recyclable.

The project has now won the global finals of Monash University’s Change It Challenge in Melbourne, giving the students an international platform to present their approach to an issue that sits at the intersection of healthcare, materials science and sustainability.

A Shortage Shaped By Cost

Access to a prosthetic limb is not determined only by whether the technology exists. Its cost, availability and suitability for an individual’s needs can determine whether a person is able to obtain and use one. The competition material cites around 23,000 amputations annually in India and notes that many people do not receive prosthetic limbs because of their cost.

India has developed several approaches to making prosthetic technology more accessible. The Jaipur Foot, for example, became widely recognised for providing relatively low-cost prostheses designed around local requirements.

Reviv3D approaches the problem from another direction: the material itself. The students asked whether materials that are readily available as waste could be combined to produce a strong, functional and lower-cost material for prosthetic applications.

Reviv3D: Three Waste Materials, One Composite

Reviv3D combines three main inputs. Recycled plastic forms the polymer component of the material. Bagasse, the fibrous residue left after sugarcane or sorghum is crushed to extract its juice, provides plant-based reinforcement. Basalt, sourced from stone-crushing waste, adds another reinforcing component. Together, these materials form a composite. The principle behind a composite is to combine materials with different properties so that the final product can perform better than its individual components might on their own.

Bagasse has been studied as a natural fibre for reinforcing composite materials, while basalt is valued for properties such as strength and stiffness. The students’ work brings these materials together with recycled plastic for a potential use in prosthetic technology.

Their stated aim is to produce a material that can offer the required strength at a substantially lower cost than some conventional alternatives.

An Environmental Solution Alongside a Healthcare Problem

The project also has a second dimension. Each of the materials used in Reviv3D comes from a waste stream or a material that can otherwise have limited value after its primary use. Plastic waste is one of India’s persistent environmental challenges. Agricultural residues such as bagasse are generated in large quantities, while stone-crushing produces substantial quantities of mineral waste.

Using such materials in a new composite creates the possibility of turning waste into a resource. This idea is central to the circular economy: rather than following a linear model in which materials are extracted, manufactured into products and eventually discarded, materials are kept in use for as long as possible.

Reviv3D does not solve the plastic or industrial-waste problem by itself. But it demonstrates how a waste material can be considered as an engineering input rather than simply something that needs to be disposed of. That becomes particularly interesting when the resulting product is intended for a socially important application.

Why the Material Matters

For a prosthetic application like Reviv3D, affordability cannot come at the expense of performance. A prosthetic component may be exposed to repeated loads and movement over long periods. The material therefore needs to withstand mechanical stress while remaining light and durable.

That means the students’ claims about strength and cost will need to be tested systematically. Further research would need to examine properties such as tensile and compressive strength, fatigue resistance, impact resistance, weight, flexibility and durability. Researchers would also need to establish whether the material can be manufactured consistently at scale.

The conditions in which a prosthetic is used can also affect material performance. Exposure to moisture, temperature changes and repeated mechanical stress can alter materials over time. If Reviv3D progresses towards medical use, additional safety testing, clinical evaluation and regulatory approval would be required.

The information released by Monash does not indicate that the material has undergone clinical trials or received regulatory approval. It is therefore more accurate to describe Reviv3D as a student-developed material innovation with potential for further research, rather than as an already validated prosthetic technology.

From Bengaluru to Melbourne

The project Reviv3D was developed by Vidushee, Shravya and Shloka at Mallya Aditi International School. Their work progressed to the global finals of Monash University’s Change It Challenge, which brings high school students together to develop solutions to real-world problems.

Vidushee and Shravya represented the team at the Melbourne final, while Shloka was unable to attend. The judging panel, led by Monash University Executive Director of Student Recruitment Amy Gledden, praised the team’s problem-solving abilities, scientific approach and human-centred design.

As part of the programme, the students attended academic sessions, visited Monash’s Clayton and Caulfield campuses and interacted with researchers.

For Vidushee and Shravya, the experience also offered an opportunity to develop the project further. They said the competition helped them strengthen their research, communication and teamwork skills and encouraged them to explore how their work could contribute to more affordable healthcare.

What Needs to Happen Next?

Winning the competition is an important milestone, but determining whether Reviv3D can become a practical prosthetic material will require further research. The first step would be rigorous laboratory testing to establish how the composite behaves under different mechanical conditions. Researchers would then need to examine manufacturing, cost, durability and the specific prosthetic components for which the material might be suitable.

There is also an important question about who would use the technology and how it would be produced for them. Prosthetic devices often require individual fitting and adjustment, so affordability depends not only on the raw material but also on manufacturing, design, fitting and follow-up services.

These are challenges that the students’ prototype cannot answer on its own. But Reviv3D begins with an important idea: a healthcare problem does not always require a solution from a single field. Here, materials science meets assistive technology, while waste materials become part of the search for a more affordable solution. The project does not yet establish that recycled plastic, bagasse and basalt can replace existing prosthetic materials. That will depend on further testing.

What the three students have demonstrated is that a question about access to healthcare can lead to another question about how we use the materials around us—and whether some of what we call waste could instead become part of the solution.

The race to make electronic devices smaller and more powerful has reached a point where conventional materials are approaching their physical limits. Scientists have long believed that molecules—the tiny clusters of atoms that make up matter—could offer a way forward. They are incredibly small, their properties can be customised, and they hold promise for building faster computers, advanced sensors and quantum technologies.

The challenge has been finding a way to integrate these fragile molecular materials into electronic devices without damaging them.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) now say they have found a solution. Their newly developed fabrication platform allows delicate molecular materials to be incorporated into electronic devices using existing semiconductor manufacturing techniques while preserving their structure and performance. The findings have been published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Molecular Electronics: Why Molecules Matter

Unlike conventional electronic materials, molecules can be chemically designed to perform specific functions. This flexibility makes them attractive for applications ranging from memory devices and optical technologies to emerging forms of computing.

However, traditional chip manufacturing relies on high temperatures, harsh chemicals and complex processing steps that can easily destroy molecular structures. As a result, molecular electronics has largely remained confined to laboratory experiments rather than practical devices. The MIT team’s approach aims to bridge that gap.

Building First, Adding Molecules Later

Instead of exposing molecules to conventional manufacturing processes, the researchers reversed the sequence. They first fabricated the electronic device using standard semiconductor techniques. Only after the device structure was complete did they introduce the molecular layer.

To create the final electrical connection, the researchers relied on forces that naturally exist at the nanoscale. As the liquid containing the molecules evaporated, capillary forces gently pulled two metal electrodes together, trapping the molecular layer between them. Another natural interaction, known as van der Waals force, then held the structure firmly in place.

The process avoided mechanical damage while creating stable electrical contacts with molecules less than one nanometre thick.

A Breakthrough in Reliability

The researchers fabricated more than 1,000 molecular electronic devices using the technique. Around 96 percent functioned successfully—a remarkably high yield for molecular-scale electronics.

Equally significant was their durability. The devices continued to operate reliably after tens of thousands of electrical cycles without signs of degradation, addressing one of the biggest obstacles that has slowed the development of molecular electronics.

The team also demonstrated interconnected arrays of molecular memory devices, suggesting the method can support larger circuits rather than isolated experimental components.

Lab to Real World Technologies

The significance of the work extends beyond improving individual devices. By making molecular materials compatible with existing chip manufacturing, the technique could accelerate research into entirely new classes of electronic systems.

Potential applications include ultra-low-power computing, high-performance sensors, photonic technologies and quantum devices that operate at scales far smaller than today’s electronics.

Rather than replacing conventional semiconductor manufacturing, the platform complements it by enabling new materials to be integrated into existing fabrication processes.

As researchers continue to push the limits of miniaturisation, this approach could help move molecular electronics from experimental research into technologies that shape future generations of computing.

Nitrogen makes up nearly four-fifths of the atmosphere, but turning that abundant gas into a fertilizer plants can use is not easy. The nitrogen molecule, N₂, is held together by one of the strongest chemical bonds in nature.

However, some microbes, using enzymes called nitrogenases, convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, which can then be used to build proteins and other essential molecules.

Now, studies from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are helping explain why one class of these enzymes works so well. The findings could eventually guide the design of synthetic catalysts for producing ammonia with less energy, a possibility that could matter for the future of fertiliser manufacturing.

The Tiny Chemical Trick Behind Nitrogen Fixation

Nitrogen-fixing enzymes, called nitrogenases, come in three main types depending on the metal at their active site: molybdenum, vanadium, or iron. Among these, the molybdenum-based version is the most efficient at converting nitrogen gas into ammonia. But scientists have long wondered why this is the case, especially since iron is thought to be the main site where nitrogen actually binds.

To investigate this, MIT researchers studied simplified versions of the enzyme using iron–sulfur clusters. They found that larger metal atoms like molybdenum and tungsten helped the cluster hold N₂ gas more strongly, while smaller metals such as iron, vanadium, and chromium did not show the same effect.

A follow-up study suggested an explanation: molybdenum may not need to directly bind nitrogen at all. Instead, it can influence nearby iron atoms through electronic interactions, making it easier for iron to transfer electrons to nitrogen. This electron transfer is a key step in weakening the strong nitrogen bond so it can eventually be converted into ammonia. In simple terms, it means that molybdenum seems to assist iron in doing the hardest part of the reaction.

From Microbial Enzymes to Cleaner Ammonia

Ammonia is the starting point for most N₂ fertilisers, including urea. Industrial ammonia production relies mainly on the Haber-Bosch process, which requires substantial energy. That makes ammonia production an important target for efforts to decarbonise the fertiliser sector.

The MIT findings offer a design principle that catalysts may be made more effective by getting different metals to cooperate electronically. If such principles can eventually be translated into robust synthetic catalysts, they could help researchers explore ammonia production under less energy-intensive conditions.

Why This Matters to India: Green Ammonia

For India, the question is particularly relevant because ammonia sits at the centre of the fertiliser system. Producing it through the conventional Haber–Bosch process is highly energy-intensive, requiring high temperatures and pressures and accounting for a significant share of global industrial energy use, largely supplied by fossil fuels. This not only adds to production costs but also links fertiliser prices to energy markets. The country has also faced periodic fertiliser shortages and import dependence, making efficient and lower-energy ammonia production strategically important.

India is already building a policy framework around green ammonia. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy issued a Green Ammonia Standard for India in February 2026, while projects for green ammonia production are being developed across states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

That makes the MIT research relevant beyond the laboratory.  The bigger challenge is still ahead. Nitrogenase is an extraordinarily complex biological system, and reproducing its efficiency, stability and selectivity in an industrial catalyst remains difficult.

But microbes have already demonstrated that atmospheric nitrogen does not have to remain chemically out of reach. The real challenge now is whether scientists can translate this biological solution into a process that is efficient, stable, and scalable enough for industrial use.