- Field Notes HBTX - A crazy idea, a real problem, a team of near-strangers building a business prototype from scratch. A few months ago, none of this existed. Just a banana nobody wanted and a hunch that it could become something more. Yet, at the beginning of August, we submitted a real application to a national startup programme for Australian-grown innovation. And we have a project serious enough to have real industry conversations. The problem that shouldn’t exist - but… 20 August 2026
- Field Notes The day we made strangers eat our Banana ideas Four biotech students, three prototypes, and the fist Banana Innovation Day that Melbourne - the whole world - has ever seen. Today my HBTX students ran the first ever BioScience Banana Innovation Day — an event they booked, invited, and built themselves — and put a Blue Banana, a Tuxedo Banana, and three banana sounds in front of a first… 12 August 2026
- Field Notes A third of Australia's bananas never make it to a shelf Australia throws away about a third of its bananas before they reach a shelf. Not because they’re bad. Because they’re bent, or freckled, or too short, or too long, or curved the wrong way for the box. The fruit is fine — it fails an audition, not a food-safety test. Roughly 30% of the crop is turned away for looking… 28 July 2026