Flower power (no, not that kind...)
Why a 19th-century invention is only now finding its place in the sun as a 21st-century energy source. Greg T. Spielberg | October 2010 issue The SunCatcher is an enormous solar dish made of mirrors and metal, but it’s best thought of as a giant silver flower. At thirty feet (11 meters) tall, the Read More...
Talkin' 'bout my generation
Good news! Soaring energy costs could get even worse, spurring a new era in which people make clean power for themselves. Blaine Greteman | September 2008 issue In the 1920s, millions of rural Americans got their energy the same way they got their butter—they made it themselves. Off-grid when Read More...
Chasing the Cheetahs
More than 40 percent of Africa’s people are under 15—and they’re getting ready to change the way the continent works. Vijay Mahajan | September 2008 issue In the centre of Harare, Zimbabwe, a two-story retail shop is filled to the brim with the hopes of African parents for their children. Read More...
Soft machines
New technologies can help lessen the sonic impact of generating and consuming energy. Marc van Dinther | July 2008 issue Just name the noise, and chances are someone somewhere has launched a campaign to tone it down. Don't like the sound of lawn mowers? Call in the California firm Goats R Us, Read More...
Pulling themselves up by their keyboards
By bringing computers into slums, an Indian physicist shows that illiterate children can educate themselves - and help their country progress. Lex Veldhoen | Jan/Feb 2007 issue The alleys are narrow in Madangir, a slum on the edge of New Delhi. Rickety huts crammed together house emigrants from Read More...
There is not enough africa in computers
Brian Eno - artist, composer, inventor, thinker - spoke to Wired about the meaning of Africa for music and technology. Kevin Kelly | September 2004 issue "Africa is everything that something like classical music isn’t. Classical—perhaps I should say “orchestral”—music is so digital, so Read More...