The UK’s first naturally filtered outdoor swimming pool is opening in London this May. The bathing pond will use plants instead of chemicals or machinery to keep the water clean, which will in addition provide habitat for wetland fauna. The…
Innovation
This California start-up will deliver weed to your door
BY: DANIEL KORN When I was in high school, there was a popular service called Dial-A-Bottle. You’d call up the company, tell them what booze you wanted, and they’d have a guy drive over to your location and drop it…
In 2017, you can buy a robot chef that will mimic the world’s best cooks
BY: DANIEL KORN One of my favourite bits of technology in Star Trek is the “Replicator,” a big grey box that can materialize any object you tell it to. Its most common use in the show is for food and…
Solar-powered 3D printers are giving near-instant disaster relief to underdeveloped communities
BY: ROB HOFFMAN Michigan Technological University Professor, Joshua Pearce, has invented the first mobile, solar-powered 3D printer, offering his design free and open-source in the interest of helping off-grid developing economies. By organizing a wide selection of printable items on…
20-year-olds turned a van into a mobile laundromat so that even the homeless have clean clothes
BY: SINEAD MULHERN Lucas Patchett and Nicholas Marchesi (both 20 years old as of October) felt that not enough was being done about Brisbane’s homelessness problem. So they came up with an incredibly innovative idea. They set up washing machines…
A deserted lot in Wyoming will become one of America’s first vertical farms
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Long and bitter winters can mean many things: depression, fatigue and grumpiness to name a few. But months of heavy snow are also a downer for agriculture– often forcing winter-heavy cities to import their fruits and veggies…
Scientists invent a spray that puts you to sleep after one sniff
Being a night owl is not always by choice. Sure, sometimes I will find myself in a late-night Pinterest spiral, pinning pictures of cats, motivational quotes and recipes that “I’m definitely going to try tomorrow.” But more often than not,…
Architect designs an urban tree house that can clean polluted air
Architect, Luciano Pia, recently proved eco living is completely possible in an urban setting by designing a 5-story apartment complex in Turin, Italy, that lets tenants reconnect with their childhood dreams— letting them feel like they are living in an…
DNA nanobots will target cancer cells in the first human trial using a terminally ill patient
BY: DANIEL KORN The very mention of “nanobots” can bring up a certain future paranoia in people—undetectable robots under my skin? Thanks, but no thanks. Professor Ido Bachelet of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University confirms that while tiny robots being injected into…
The windows of your house could soon be made of solar panels
BY: DANIEL KORN One of the biggest hurdles in the way of the average citizen getting on board with solar power is the way they look. It’s not hard to understand why—rectangular panels covering the top of your roof is…
These 360-degree cameras could put GoPro out of business
BY: DANIEL KORN I am a terrible photographer. I have a point-and-shoot digital camera with no knowledge of its various settings. My Instagram account mostly consists of overly filtered pictures of my pet bunny. I’m aware of the “rule of…
This pod that lets you turn into a tree when you die will change graveyards forever
BY: ZOE MELNYK Instead of being placed in a barren abandoned cemetery, the creators of the Capsula Mundi Project came up with the idea to burry the deceased in an organic pod, to use their remains as nutrients to grow…
You will soon be able to charge your phone by jacking off
BY: DANIEL KORN PornHub—yes, that PornHub—is releasing a product that will allow men and women to charge any device by making a quick, arousing trip to the bathroom. It’s called the WankBand, and it’s a piece of wearable technology that…
In 2014, K-Cups buried in landfills would circle Earth more than 12 times
BY: JESSICA BEUKER In the words of my favourite fictional TV mom and coffee addict, Lorelai Gilmore, “ I need caffeine. Whatever form you’ve got. I’ll drink it, shoot it, eat it, snort it, whatever form it’s in. Gimme.” I…
These new apartments with moving walls could re-organize your life.
BY: AYA TSINTZIRAS In an age of 500 square foot condos, here’s a radical idea: the creation of a house whose walls literally move in order to create a larger space. The story of PKMN Architecture’s “All I Own House”…
This neuroscientist thinks he can perform a human head transplant by 2017
BY: DANIEL KORN There’s a Philosophy 101 thought experiment called Theseus’s Ship. The paradox goes like this: say I have a wooden sailboat, and I want to replace every plank of wood on the thing one-by-one. The planks are made…
This 19-year-old invented a prosthetic arm that you can 3D print for free
BY: DANIEL KORN Need a hand? 19-year-old Easton LaChapelle has a mechanical one for you that is more advanced than standard limited-motion prosthetics. Oh, and its 3D printing schematics are available for free, courtesy of his accessible technology start-up Unlimited…
These cyber-thieves have stolen up to $1 billion from world banks and haven’t been caught
BY: ZOE MELNYK Hundreds of millions of dollars were recently stolen from banks across the world by criminals without the use of traditional guns and ski masks. In fact, they have never even set foot in the banks they’re stealing…
These wind turbines disguised as trees could populate city streets.
BY: AYA TSINTZIRAS Jerome Michaud-Lariviere has invented The Wind Tree, a windmill that looks like a tree. Made of metal, it has 72 fake leaves that are actually turbines, and looks like a piece of art. The most significant part:…
If you’re sick of suburbia and paying heating bills, Earthships might be your way out
BY: DANIEL KORN Earthships, created by architect Mike Reynolds, are houses constructed with a combination of natural and recycled material that have been built for minimal reliance on public utilities or fossil fuels. Structural walls are typically made of recycled…