Last week a team of MIT engineers reported that they’d created a material that absorbs 99.995 percent of light — making it even blacker than the already mind-bending Vantablack.

Want to find out if a text conversation is flirty or friendly? A new batch of apps, which use artificial intelligence to evaluate communication patterns, may have the answer. 

Could spraying chemicals into the sky reverse some impacts of global warming? Scientists are considering the possible benefits and risks of solar geoengineering, a controversial concept that could possibly cut global temperature increases in half.  

Wind tunnels are a real challenge in major cities, especially for cyclists. Now London is implementing city-wide guidelines that call for shifts in skyscraper planning and design to minimize wind disruptions, making open spaces more enjoyable for those traveling by foot or on two wheels.

Robotics engineers at MIT have built a threadlike robot worm that can be magnetically steered to deftly navigate the extremely narrow and winding arterial pathways of the human brain. One day it could be used to quickly clear blockages and clots that contribute to strokes and aneurysms, while at the same time making the current state of robotic evolution even more unsettling.

The age ocean-crossing zeppelins ended in the 1930s, but new advances in technology are positioning the old-school airships for a modern comeback. Driven by environmental concerns, Lockheed Martin's hybrid airship could offer a more sustainable solution to commercial shipping.

The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany outlined an ambitious plan to use miniature submarines to spray trillions of tons of artificially-created snow over western Antarctica, in an effort to halt the ice sheet’s collapse and save coastal cities across the world from sea level rise.

Scientists in Switzerland are working on a vaccine for cats that could bring relief to pet owners with an ill-fated allergy to them. The research group, HypoPet AG, claims their vaccine already shows some success in neutralizing a known allergen in our feline friends.

As the demand for energy storage grows, given our increasing reliance on technology, scientists say inexpensive products, like soap and detergent, have properties that could help create alternatives to lithium-ion batteries.  

Grab your reusable bottle since Dasani is rolling out 100 BYOB vending machines – essentially, refillable water stations – as a test approach to curb plastic waste. The company also will start selling water in aluminum cans, which are made from more recycled material than plastic bottles, in the northeast this fall.

Although it may seem like it, Facebook can’t yet read your thoughts, but the company’s Research Lab is making progress into getting inside your brain using infrared. In collaboration with the University of California in San Francisco, Facebook has run recent experiments analyzing brain activity in real-time.

Since apparently there are not enough people we can interact with in the world, we are now able to communicate with plants. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which has specific researchers for “cyborg botany”, has developed technology that allows plants to act as sensors and displays. 

Lyft has joined the likes of services such as Uber and Bird who have been integrating their vehicles into cities like Washington D.C. Coming later to the game has the advantage of working out the kinks from the other services to create a better model.

The new design will be fully recyclable, reusable, or compostable, as compared to the current tube that is not accepted by most recycling facilities. 

Step aside, plastic bottles. With its bacteria-killing technology, LARQ is paving the way for the next generation of bottled water. The self-cleaning water bottle combines clean design with peace of mind.

Everlane and Adidas may be soaking up all the literal limelight right now for their forays into sustainable sneakers, but they'll soon by joined by Keds. The casual sneaker company will unveil a new collection built on a collaboration with textile company Ace & Jig, featuring shoes made entirely from scraps of waste material. The collection exemplifies Keds two-pronged approach to sustainable footwear, prioritizing ethical materials over trends. 

In Fuji City, Japan, Tezuka Architects have built what is quite possibly one of the cutest and most wholesome nursery schools, ever. The Muku Nursery is comprised of a series of round timber structures that when viewed from above look like bubbles or parasols. Inside, the rooms are open and are drenched in natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the structures. 

What happens to the shopping malls abandoned for online retail convenience? In most cases, they become derelict edifices of pre-internet capitalism. But America's oldest shopping mall, the Arcade Providence, is getting a new lease on life thanks to Northeast Collaborative Architects. The firm transformed the building into a mixed-use, multi-unit housing project with 48 charming and affordable micro-apartments that start at just $550 a month in rent. 

Can design help solve the global water crisis? If so, how? That was the prompt given to designers by A/D/O by Mini and Jane Wither Studio for the Water Futures Design Challenge. Over 2,000 designs from over 30 countries were submitted, and on April 4th the winning projects were debuted. Read on to learn more about the winners and cast a vote for your favorite project. 

Who says crime doesn't pay deliciously? In Brazil, Burger King will give you a coupon for a free whopper if you use their app to burn rival fast-food chains' advertisements in augmented reality. The campaign is tied to the launch of Burger King's mobile payment technology.  

How do you get people to stop wasting water? Appeal to their aesthetic and moral sensibilities. Sukle, a Denver-based advertising agency, did just that with a series of billboards that made use of sticky notes, colored pencils, aluminum cans, clay, and LEGOS, among other materials, to remind people to only use what they need. 

It may sound fantastical, even Wonka-esque, but future urban citizens will navigate their cities not by foot, but by a multi-directional elevator system called MULTI. First proposed in 2014, MULTI could use magnetic levitation technology to move multiple cabins of people up, down, and sideways in "hanging cities" of the future. These hanging cities, says squareone's Design Director Kostas Poulopoulos, will create "a three-dimensional mega-grid that combines towers and multi-story horizontal sectors into a 24-hour urban hub for live, work, and play."

MS Paint may be gone, but there's a souped up, soon-to-be-released tool out there waiting to take its place. This new tool, called GauGAN, can transform simple computer doodles into breathtaking photo-real images in real time. GauGAN even comes with different filters that adjust for time of day and style of painting, meaning someone could turn a simple doodle into a beautiful Impressionist sunset picture. 

It may be taboo to discuss death, but the fact of the matter is that we modern day humans continue to mess up the planet long after we've stopped driving our cars or picking up our trash. Coffin production wastes natural timber resources, embalming leaches toxic chemicals into our water, and cremation emits chemicals into the air. That's why New York-based designer Shaina Garfield invented Leaves, a sustainable coffin that decomposes the body naturally with the aid of a fungi-laced rope and a pine wood surface.

There's no question that reforestation is a critical component to combating climate change, but the manual labor and cost are frequently-cited deterrents to getting it done. Two Brazilian brothers may have found a solution to the problem. Their biodegradable planter protects seeds and saplings from ants and helps keep them adequately watered, enabling the baby plants to grow into the giants that people think of when they hear "rainforest".

It's called the Replicator and it could very well be the future of 3-D printing. Inspired by both Star Trek and CT scanners, the Replicator projects a video of a 3-D image into a synthetic resin that solidifies under certain intensities of light. The result is a super smooth, bespoke object. Right now the Replicator can only print things at the centimeter scale, but the possibilities once it is scaled up could be astounding. 

Sidewalk Labs has revealed some of the concept renderings for Quayside, the Alphabet-helmed smart city development project in Toronto, and it certainly looks like a city of the future. The predominant construction material is timber and the overall design skews towards modularity. There will also be a built-in recycling and composting system that could divert 80% of the district's waste from the landfill. If all goes according to plan and approval is given, Sidewalk Labs estimates Quayside could be up and running within five to six years. Still, the project has attracted a significant amount of controversy due to high levels of secrecy surrounding the contract signed between Alphabet and Waterfront Toronto, as well as concerns over furtive data-gathering apparatuses built into the neighborhood's infrastructure. 

According to Circular Ocean, some 705,000 tons of fishing gear are lost or discarded in the ocean every year. That's a lot of virgin nylon, a strong and durable material, floating uselessly in the ocean and even worse, strangling thousands of whales, sea lions, and other marine animals. Once the problem became apparent, a whole industry popped up around gathering these discarded fish nets and transforming them into viable new products. Internationally-renowned design firm Snøhetta joined the competition at the 2019 Stockholm Design Week with their S-1500 chair, which is made of recycled fishing gear and repurposed steel. Because it uses locally sourced recyclable materials, the S-1500 has one of the lowest carbon footprints on the market.