Technology
There has been no era like ours for the rapid development of technology. Stay updated on the hottest trends and advancements from all over the world.
Necessity is the mother of invention: the bike is celebrating its 200th birthday
This week, 200 years ago, Karl von Drais rode his Laufsmaschine for the first time. The German baron rode his two-wheeled invention, a bicycle without pedals, five miles from the center of Mannheim and back in less than an hour—much faster than a horse. And that was the point. At the time the Read More...
Sound-dampening earbuds let you control real world audio like a volume button
Knops work mechanically to reduce real-world noise to very low levels. Sound can be a wonderful thing, but too much noise can mark the onset of migraines and hearing decay. Billed as an “acoustic hearing solution” that enables full control over the surrounding sounds you hear, this Read More...
Possibility: Drones for peace
From The Intelligent Optimist Summer 2016 Imagine for a moment that a child is critically ill in a small village weeks away from any hospital. With no quick means of transportation, the child’s worried doctor picks up the phone or sends a text and, in a matter of hours, the much-needed medical Read More...
Ode to Abeer Seikaly, Amman, Jordan
From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 A new kind of mobile home People move. It’s what they have always done and what they will keep doing. Architect, artist and cultural producer Abeer Seikaly, from Amman, Jordan, designed an elegant and practical home for people who are forced to move on to a Read More...
Creating cheap solar cells with an ingredient from a delicious Indian berry
The berries of the Jamun tree are popular in India. The fruit is known for its nutritional and medicinal value. It’s cheap and often sold on pavements and at traffic junctions. But Indian researchers have found a new benefit in the berries: They may be used to make solar panels far less Read More...
Watch Elon Musk’s TED talk on his grand tunnel plan, self-driving cars and more
Elon Musk, the CEO of at least three companies that we know of, was on stage at the 2017 TED conference in Vancouver last Friday, mostly blowing minds with a demonstration video for his vision of how a network of underground tunnels might ease traffic concerns. Musk talked about The Boring Company Read More...
How biomimicry innovations are revolutionizing renewable energy
Nature has been doing research and development for some 4 billion years. Human existence is a direct result of all that research and human innovation has often been inspired by nature—looking at birds ultimately led to the invention of aircrafts. Recent advances in technology allow for a much Read More...
New cycling system helps Dutch riders beat red lights
The Dutch love their biking culture so much that they’re pioneering a new system that will help riders beat red lights. The system, called Flo, uses speed cameras placed 100 meters before each set of traffic lights to calculate whether or not the cyclist should change speed to hit the green Read More...
The founder of Wikipedia is bringing a fact-based mentality back to journalism
Fake news is an online virus of deliberately misleading information masqueraded as legitimate news. To put an end to it, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is launching a community-driven online news service that will bring the fact-based, fact-checking mentality of Wikipedia to the news. The project, Read More...
The solar-powered TrashPresso converts trash into tiles
Isolated communities often lack the infrastructure needed to easily dispose of trash. That’s why a design company has created the TrashPresso, a semi-portable, solar-powered plant that turns trash into tiles. The Trashpresso fits inside a 40ft container that can be trucked around to remote Read More...