“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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Once a Scandinavian speciality, the circular economy has gained momentum in Europe, and now companies across the US are seeing the benefits Wednesday 26 August 2015 07.49 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 26 August 2015 07.51 EDT Laptops made of plastic from old laptops. Aluminium car body Read More...
While European politicians still struggle with the refugees coming by boat from Africa, and try to find ways to keep them out, more and more citizens are standing up to offer help and support. Manon van Hoeckel, a graduate student at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, has created an Read More...
"Friction and wear are two of the biggest challenges in systems of several individual components," Christian Greiner of the Institute for Applied Materials says. A solution is found in nature: Snakes, such as the ball python, or li ards, such as the sandfish skink, use friction to move forwards, Read More...
Your friends ask you to fund their marathon training, their home renovations, even their potato salad. Why not crowdfund something you'd actually use, such as a bike path or a public park? That's what a growing number of startups are helping people do, as communities with a goal look for sources Read More...