Here at OVO we’re always keeping our eye out for the latest cutting-edge tech that might benefit the environment. That’s why we’re incredibly excited about the news that Julian Melchiorri, a design student at the Royal College of Art, has created the first man-made, biologically functional leaf. Christened ‘The Silk Leaf’, it’s the ultimate in ‘green’ technology in more ways than one.

The leaf contains chloroplasts taken from real plant cells, which are suspended in a silk protein material. When this comes into contact with carbon dioxide, water and light, it converts it into oxygen, just like a real plant.

The advantages are obvious. Melchiorri quite rightly suggests that his invention could have huge implications for space travel, providing a renewable supply of oxygen to astronauts and allowing them to undertake longer journeys than previously possible.