One of man’s most important inventions is a flimsy sheet of wood pulp that became the heart of human’s first long-distance communication, among its many other uses. Of course, there have been various writing surfaces used beforehand—tortoise shells, wood, parchments, anything where the ink drips and stays like a warning sign for others to read.… Read More The tragedy and remedy of paper
“My sole aim is to leave everything in suspension, in flux, in order to avoid our community solidifying into a conventional academy. Our initial resources may be few, but our spirits are high, receptive, and excited, and that seems to me to be the most important thing right now”. Walter Gropius, architect, founder of the… Read More LIFE IN FLUX – To Challenge Apathy in the 21st Century
Re-posted from The Santa Fe Reporter, July 12, 2017, by Julia Goldberg Science fiction lovers will probably recognize the galactic tribunal trope from any number of graphic novels, books or films. Santa Fe Institute President David Krakauer introduces the notion of cosmic judges rendering decrees on humanity as part of a thought experiment: “I’m so interested… Read More Out of this World – Santa Fe Institute launches an Interplanetary Project with Galactic Ambitions
These stunning 3-D printed hat designs by Gabriela Ligenza caught yours truly by surprise! Design thinking like this lightens our step and inspires a smile. We love Gabriela’s work. Molecule becomes an instant fan! Interview by Dezeen Magazine. Re-posted June 20, 2014 Milliner Gabriela Ligenza, who originally trained as an architect and interior designer, has launched… Read More Gabriela Ligenza launches 3-D printed hats for Ascot
Artist and TED Fellow Aparna Rao re-imagines the familiar in surprising, often humorous ways. With her collaborator Soren Pors, Rao creates high-tech art installations — a typewriter that sends emails, a camera that tracks you through the room only to make you invisible on screen — that put a playful spin on ordinary objects and… Read More Aparna Rao: High-tech art (with a sense of humor)
Concrete has a sometimes-bad reputation as a harsh, rigid, cold-to-the-touch and straight-edged material. Litracon is doing a great deal to change that image of concrete through a score of creative and sustainable applications for their patented light-transmitting concrete. Filled with optical fibers that run from one end of a poured piece of concrete to the other, these… Read More Light Transmitting Concrete
Two Cambridge University departments — the science-driven Biochemistry lab and the design-focused Institute for Manufacturing — have teamed up to dream up biophotovoltaic devices of the future. Biophotovoltaics generate renewable energy (and a few other useful by-products) from the photosynthesis of living organisms like algae and moss. Prototype devices have recently been constructed and tested in… Read More Biophotovoltaics – generating energy from photosynthesis