Design
Weird microscopic animal inspires new kind of glass
A really weird, really tiny animal — the microscopic tardigrade — is the inspiration behind a new material that could improve the efficiency of things like LED lights and solar cells. The material under investigation is glass, and tardigrades (sometimes known as "water bears" or "moss Read More...
Cities made of salt may hold the key to sustainable urban planning
As climate change wreaks havoc on our eco-system, many drought-prone regions have been left wondering how to deal with issues like urban planning and global desertification. The latter is an increasingly dire issue that has caused those in the architecture community to look for innovative Read More...
Los Angeles plan to reshape the streetscape in favor of bikes, buses and pedestrians
This city of fast cars and endless freeways is preparing to do what not long ago would have been unthinkable: sacrificing car lanes to make way for bikes and buses. The City Council has approved a far-reaching transportation plan that would reshape the streetscape over the next 20 years, adding Read More...
Should you hope your child never has to drive a car?
In its most recent monthly self-driving car report, Google notes that it hasn't set a timeline for rolling autonomous vehicles out to the public in any real way — there are still plenty of kinks to iron out — but it does say that "project lead Chris Urmson's goal is to make sure Read More...
These prize-winning, game-changing designs tackle some of our toughest global challenges
“Design’s purpose is to improve lives,” explained this year’s jury chair Mikal Hallstrup of the design industry’s Index Awards. “It’s not about tea cups or fancy chairs.” Organized by a non-profit organization based in Copenhagen, Denmark, a city looking to its architects and Read More...
The newest proposed hotspot for micro-housing: parking lots
Elevate Structure, a Hawaiian tiny house company, envisions adding compact and affordable housing in cities around the U.S. — without sacrificing parking. The firm’s pre-fab design props the small dwellings on top of a trunk-like base so they float over the asphalt. Add “tree Read More...
A new journal wants to publish your research ideas
Do you have a great idea for a study that you want to share with the world? A new journal will gladly publish it. Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) will also publish papers on your methods, workflows, data, reports, and software—in short, “all outputs of the research cycle." RIO, an Read More...
When robots move more smoothly, they save energy
Smoother machines are greener. Robots have never been particularly graceful, but now researchers have created algorithms that will eliminate the herky-jerky movements of robots, saving as much as 40 percent of the energy they typically use. Robots tend to rush through tasks as quickly as possible Read More...
Swans help create smoother camera drone videos
The next time you see a graceful, dramatic video shot by a camera drone, you may have a swan to thank for the absence of any jittery footage. Stanford University researchers are developing camera suspension technology inspired by whooping swans, whose heads remain remarkably still even when they're Read More...
Think like a tree: Learning from the oaks that survived Katrina
Ten years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, bringing floods and gale-force winds that devastated the region and displaced more than a million people. But New Orleans’ live oaks were surprisingly resilient, as biologist Janine Benyus describes in Read More...