People Fixing the World

As many countries contemplate the best way to care for an ageing population, a common question is how to support the elderly to continue living in their own homes for as long as possible. One idea is to monitor their use of home appliances, such as kettles and ovens. Advocates say NILM – non-intrusive load monitoring – offers family and carers an insight into a person’s daily life without invading...

Is it possible to construct a new building, just by reusing materials from homes and offices that have been knocked down? That’s the dream of a pioneering Swiss architect Barbara Buser, who trains specialist treasure hunters to track down everything from window frames to steel beams for her buildings. People Fixing the World finds out about her latest project, which is made of 70% reused material....

Togo has found a high-tech way to identify people who need financial help in the pandemic and send them emergency cash, using satellite photos and mobile phones. Computers search for clues in images, such as the density of buildings, roofing materials and road surfaces. They combine this with data collected before the pandemic to work out how wealthy different areas are and which ones may need fin...

A greenhouse cooled and humidified by seawater and the wind is transforming arid land. In Somaliland, vegetables have been grown in a spot previously thought too hot and dry for farming. It works by creating a cool oasis that shields the plant from the heat. The designers believe if more were built, they could make Somaliland completely self-sufficient in fresh produce. Presenter Julie Ball Writte...

The world generates more than two billion tonnes of rubbish every year. So we’re visiting companies in Sweden that want to make it easier to mend things when they break instead of replacing them – whether that’s clothes, bikes or washing machines. We also hear about the country’s tax breaks designed to give people a financial incentive to repair more. Produced and presented by Maddy Savage

Head injuries in sport can have a devastating effect on the brain, which is often only noticed later in life. So lots of people are investigating ways of making it safer to play sports such as American football, boxing and soccer. We look at new technology including smart mouth guards and innovative helmets, and we find out about the latest medical developments that are helping people to combat th...

A small team of Indian scientists think they’ve found a new way to kill superbugs. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are killing hundreds of thousands of people every year, and that number is going up fast. But one Bangalore-based biotech company thinks they might be on the verge of a breakthrough. Produced and presented by Jo Mathys Picture: Science Photo Library

Giant towers of building blocks rising into the sky and huge vats packed with volcanic rock or molten salt are being used as massive batteries. They are the latest ideas for storing energy generated by the sun and the wind – so you can keep the lights on when it’s dark or the wind isn’t blowing. We meet the entrepreneurs and scientists who are trying to harness the fundamental forces of physics to...

A clever invention is saving the lives of hundreds of children. Pneumonia kills about 1.4 million children under five every year. Treatment with concentrated oxygen could save many of them, but the machines that provide it need a reliable source of electricity. Some hospitals have frequent power cuts though, which can be fatal. So scientists in Australia and Uganda came up with an innovative way t...

A suit originally designed for astronauts has been adapted to save the lives of mothers who experience bleeding after giving birth. It stems the bleeding, buying time until people in remote areas can get to hospital for treatment. Produced and presented by Craig Langran

Forests the size of tennis courts are being planted in towns and cities around the world. They use a special method from Japan which can grow a dense forest in just a few years. At that size they won’t make much of a dent in global warming but they do have many benefits including bringing increased biodiversity into the heart of the city. Produced and presented by Richard Kenny Picture: Afforestt

Dhruv Boruah’s mission is to inspire other people to solve problems facing the planet. What’s more, he gets them to come up with their ideas in just one day. But are their solutions any good and can they survive in the real world? Nick Holland went to Dhruv Boruah’s first solutions event in 2019. Two years on, he tracks down some of the people who were there to see whether anything came of their i...

Imagine a ring doughnut. This is the basis of an idea about how we could run the world in a way that gives everyone what they need - food, homes, healthcare and more - and save the planet at the same time. Economist Kate Raworth, who came up with the idea, explains how it works. And we visit projects in Amsterdam that are using the model to provide food, clothing and sustainable housing. Produced...

We revisit Lewis to find out how the hydrating sweets he designed for people with dementia have gone into production. We find out how a housing project where residents have to promise to socialise has coped with Covid. And the latest from a pharmacist in the Netherlands - after a setback, her operation to make cheap medication for her patients has started up again. Produced and presented by Claire...

Women in a village in Northern Nigeria have come up with an emergency transport scheme that is saving lives. They decided to act when they saw mums-to-be and their unborn babies dying in childbirth because they couldn’t get to hospital in time. Their solution also inspired the state government to help thousands of other women. Produced and presented by Bara’atu Ibrahim

Imagine if the meat we ate was all grown in shiny silver vats, with no animals harmed in the process. That’s the vision of start-ups around the world, each trying to perfect lab-grown or cultured meat. It’s a huge challenge in bioengineering to make it work at a cheap enough price. But there are big benefits for the planet if they can pull it off. Presented by Amy Elizabeth Produced by Amy Elizabe...

Companies are growing light and durable packaging from mycelium that is easy to compost. Another team in Europe is creating a fungal home, which will sense when it’s dark and switch the lights on. And researchers in the UK are developing strains of fungi that won’t just replace plastic, but eat it as well. Produced and presented by Claire Bates Picture: Getty Images

A new kind of solar cell - made by drying a special liquid on a surface - is being heralded as a revolution in solar power. The minerals known as perovskites were discovered more than 150 years ago. More recently, their crystal structure has been copied using other materials and used to produce energy. If it can be made to work, these crystals could be used to literally print out solar cells to pu...

Can you make the railways greener by powering trains with energy from the sun? We hear about the pioneering train in Australia that’s run entirely on solar power. Plus we visit the solar farm that’s plugged directly into a railway in Britain and hear about Indian Railways’ big plan for converting to renewable power. Produced and presented by Richard Kenny

Why former criminals are being chosen for jobs at hundreds of companies in a small US city. One boss even tells us that some violent and sex offenders have become her best employees. Produced and presented by Jo Mathys Photo: Getty Images

Audience members praise and pick holes in solutions we’ve covered. Nick Holland and Kat Hawkins hear the best comments and questions and try to get answers. Among the solutions under review is a story about a man who regrew a rainforest in Ecuador. One listener is worried it’ll just get cut down again when he dies. And eyebrows are raised about nurses in Kenya using motorbikes to rescue snakebite...

In this inspiring episode, we hear ideas from high school students in Asia, Africa, Europe and America. They’ve created a new form of sound insulation, refined a forensic process to use at crime scenes, won an award for predicting crop yields and made going to the beach a little safer in the age of Covid. Image: Team Hibla from the Philippines.

The mass stranding of dolphins, orcas and whales is depressingly common. We join a team on the East Coast of the United States who have dramatically improved the survival rates of beached dolphins there. And we are with them as they fight to save a dolphin mother and calf. Plus we look at how Silicon Valley AI tech, and its power to understand dolphin communication, could lead to even more being s...

What happens when you take a little box containing some of the vast knowledge amassed on the internet, to communities that live offline? From a peaceful valley in the remote Himalayas to a bustling Rohingya refugee camp, people are carrying gigabytes of data - from school curricula to the whole of Wikipedia - into places where access to the internet is impossible. Inspired by one of our listeners,...

Jellyfish blooms can cause havoc, scaring away tourists, clogging up fishing nets, and even getting stuck in power station cooling pipes. But scientists are finding ways to use the creatures to help us solve some big problems. They think jellyfish mucus could filter microplastics from our water systems, and their collagen could help us develop new medicines. And some want to see jellyfish on our p...