Souped-up hybrid crops, such as maize, bred through conventional techniques rather than high-tech genetic engineering, do not keep their desired properties from one generation to the next because of natural genetic shuffling.

ECONOMIST: Terminator genes

Michael Demkowicz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is developing a model that he hopes will address the problem from a different direction: specifying a set of desired properties and then trying to predict the nanostructures needed to deliver them.

ECONOMIST: New materials for renewable energy

Since the robocasting machine allows the researchers to manipulate several inks at once, they are able to make new kinds of composite materials this way interlacing the filigrees, and even leaving holes in the material if that helps to arrive at the desired properties.

ECONOMIST: A new way to build complicated materials, micron by micron

As a result, it is necessary to collect only a single type of plastic to ensure the desired material properties.

ENGADGET: Fujitsu making laptops from unwanted CDs and DVDs

As with the elephant crisis, the culprit is largely demand from Asia, where their horns are highly desired because they are believed to have medicinal properties.

NPR: UN Calls For Clampdown On Illegal Wildlife Trade

Because aluminum and steel have different properties, engineers have to look at different ways to use the metals to get desired results.

FORBES: Aluminum Usage In Cars To Grow -- Davenport & Co