Perched in the mountains of Nosara, a surfing paradise on the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, Casa Guayacán boasts a beautiful ocean view and a tranquil setting. A stunning example of sustainable architecture in a tropical setting, this home being designed by two talented professional architects comes as no surprise. Evangelina Quesada and Lucca Spendlingwimmer, architects who moved to the […]
Wood Lattice Walls Ventilates This Home
Experimental All Liquid-Metal Stays Liquid At Room Temp
Liquid and solid-state batteries each have their own advantages and disadvantages, but now researchers at the University of Texas at Austin claim to have developed a new battery that mixes the best of both worlds. The new design is the first all-liquid-metal battery that can operate at room temperature, and it apparently outperforms lithium-ion batteries. Liquid metal batteries have electrodes […]
Shipping Container Hotel
A total of 20 recycled shipping containers have been used to create a hotel and office building situated in a winery among 145 acres (58 hectares) of rolling vineyards in California. The container-based hotel rooms feature an unusual design centered around a raised roof area that’s meant to improve space, ventilation, and light inside. The project is named Geneseo Inn […]
World’s First Recycled Carbon Surfboard
A startup spun out of Australia’s Deakin University has leveraged its knowledge in organic chemistry and aerospace engineering to produce the world’s first recycled carbon fiber surfboard. Pitched as not just a way of preventing waste going to landfill, JUC Surf says it has overcome previous issues with carbon fiber construction to offer a board that performs just as well […]
“Fitbit For Chickens”
Even when they’re allowed to roam about the farmyard, chickens are still susceptible to infestations of blood-sucking mites. It now turns out that a backpack-like device could let farmers know when those mites are biting, so treatment could begin as soon as possible. Typically infesting the rear end of the chicken, northern fowl mites bite through the skin to feed […]
Handy Audio Recorder
Zoom has revealed a new app-driven portable audio recorder. Whether you’re out in the field, capturing the latest groove at band practice or producing your latest podcast, the H8 is like an all you can eat buffet for audio recording. When you need to record audio on the go, you can just whip out the smartphone in your pocket, choose […]
Giving Your Car Self Parking Abilities
Like a magician setting up a trick, Anuja Sonalker starts by making it clear that there is no hidden driver in her car’s front or back seat. Next, she presses the phone camera up against the side window and waves it around until I reassure her that I’m satisfied. (As with so many tech demos here in 2020, this demonstration […]
Toyota Announces Entire Smart City
Toyota doesn’t just want to demonstrate new tech on a small scale. The Japanese automaker is building an entire smart city in its home country to test out tech not just for cars, but for homes and infrastructure as well. Ground will be broken on this ambitious tech laboratory, dubbed Woven City, in 2021, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda announced at […]
Smart Stir Bar
It goes without saying that as a chemist stirs a solution in their lab, they need to check how its characteristics change. A new “Smart Stirrer” has been designed with that in mind, as it automatically detects and reports transformations. Developed by scientists at Britain’s University of Warwick, the device is an advanced type of magnetic stir bar. In its […]
“Towable” Backpack
Nine years ago, we heard about a towable backpack setup known as the Monowalker Hikingtrailer. Well, a new version is now being crowdfunded, and it’s claimed to be sturdier, more adjustable, and capable of carrying even more gear. Just to recap, the original German-made Hikingtrailer looked kind of like a wheelbarrow that was pulled along behind the user. That person […]