Turning Cork Into Fabric

Portuguese studio Digitalab has won the rising star award at Stockholm Furniture Fair, with an innovative method of turning cork into thread. Architects Brimet Silva and Ana Fonseca of Digitalab have together developed a method of turning cork into a thin thread that can be used in the manufacture of furniture, lighting, textiles and accessories. Called CO-RK, the thread offers a sustainable, non-fibrous […]

Monitoring Heart Patients

In the not-too-distant future, when congestive heart failure patients are being released from hospital, they may be given a special toilet seat to take home. That device would measure their vital signs every time they sit on it, sending alerts if more heart trouble were detected. Developed by a team at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the seat is equipped […]

Detecting Bogus Medicine

In the developing world, about 10 percent of medications are actually inferior counterfeits of the real thing. Unfortunately, these same regions often lack the equipment needed for detecting those fakes. An inexpensive new system, however, could remedy that problem. Developed by a team at the University of California-Riverside, the setup requires users to start by placing a liquid pharmaceutical sample […]

Arms Race For A Cultural Dominion Ridiculous?

It has been 60 years since Welsh theorist and critic Raymond Williams wrote that “culture is ordinary”. Williams, who had grown up in foothills of the Black Mountains, argued against the divisive class-based idea championed by the poet TS Eliot and others that there is high culture, enjoyed by the educated elite, and low culture for the rest. “An interest […]

Infinity Seat

It was back in 2013 that California chiropractor and triathlete Vincent Marcel took to Kickstarter, to finance production of his bizarre-looking but supposedly very comfortable Infinity Seat bicycle saddle. Well, it’s become a commercially-available product since then, and guess what? It works! The Infinity Seat has actually been available for some time now, although the E2 model was just released […]

Monowheel Scooter

When launched in 2017, the KO1 monowheel scooter – a kind of cross between a Segway and a Solowheel – offered a range of 20 miles and a top speed of 20 mph. The KO1+ has a very similar look to the original, but is quite a different animal. Kiwano’s latest monowheel features LG battery cells stowed away in the […]

#Trashtag For The Environment

Regardless of where in the world you live, chances are, litter is a huge problem. More than 9 billion tons of litter ends up in the ocean every year, and the garbage that ends up outside of the landfill often interferes with the natural ecosystem and wildlife. People are now encouraging others to fight back against litter with the #TrashTag […]

A Jewel Indeed

We can probably agree that unless you’re a plane spotter, an airport isn’t the kind of place where you want to hang out. But Singapore’s award-winning Changi Airport could be about to change all that when its stunning Jewel complex opens next month. The Jewel is a massive new shopping, dining, entertainment, and accommodation complex that’s connected to the airport […]