Afghanistan's all-girls robotics team, the Afghan Dreamers, found a way to build emergency ventilators out of car parts, arming healthcare workers with much needed equipment during the pandemic. 

Even NASA's technology experiences glitches now and then. About a decade ago, its Spirit rover got stuck in a sand trap on Mars, unable to wriggle free. But engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology developed a series of motions that could help future rovers blaze ahead, even in challenging terrain. 

Researchers at the University of California San Diego are developing a  “thermal camouflage” material that enables wearers to hide from heat-detecting sensors, including infrared cameras and night-vision goggles. Can your jacket do that? 

Design professors share tips and tricks for creating your own face mask at home. 

Two Italian engineers—founders of a company that makes items such as earthquake sensors and silicone bandages—take their country's ventilator valve shortage into their own hands. 

There's no shortage of speculative plans that reimagine the future screetscape. But is it a road to nowhere? 

As the tech scene booms in Manhattan, The Company Building at 335 Madison, designed by SHoP Architects, is hoping to reap the benefits by appealing to creative workers with its coffee shop vibe. 

LEGO invited artist Camille Walala to create a whimsical public art installation in London, which incorporates the brand's new 2D tiles: LEGO DOTs. 

Mercedes-Benz unveiled a futuristic concept car inspired by the film "Avatar" at CES, and it's as groundbreaking as the movie. 

Dog days aren't all fun and games. One company is creating a wearable device that generates data on your dog's emotional state. It works by taking into account a dog's heart rate, which spikes when they're stressed or anxious—just like ours.

Google has created a somewhat mythical office culture with its nap pods and upscale food options, but the company also has a knack for transforming old warehouses, factories, and storage facilities into sleek workplaces. Take a look at some of Google's most unique offices. 

The world's first 3D-printed neighborhood is in the works in a rural part of Mexico, offering impoverished families an opportunity to live in sturdier homes than those constructed themselves from materials on hand.

The next wave of nuclear reactors won't look like this! One energy startup created a compact prototype reactor, which uses hardly any nuclear fuel and is small enough to ship to any location.

This company wants to make drinking this high-end vodka called Air one way to save the Earth. How? Well, they claim the vodka is manufactured in a way as to take greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere. 

Ex-cycling pro Simon Gerrans wants to make your ride safer with this 3-D printed custom bicycle helmet produced by HEXR.

Haptics—the science of touch—along with all the other sensory inputs can be influential tools, offering designers exciting possibilities when deciding which materials to use in a space. As workplace design shifts to prioritize more human-centric spaces, our approach to these environments morphs, too, says Mindy O’Gara, director of product and learning experience at Interface. Now more than ever, we’re understanding through neuroscience that we have the opportunity to forge memorable connections to materials creating more meaningful experiences with the built environment. “One of the first sensory connections we have is to material,” says O’Gara. “Our emotional interpretation of the materials that surround us inform how we feel about a space and whether or not we’ll use it.  Is it appealing?  How does it engage or behave?  Can it shape to specific needs?  All of these qualities are very important when we think about the value and depth of materials.” One solution is to seek out adaptive products with timeless design elements.

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.

One U.K. start-up, called Stroodles, is betting on the future of pasta straws, which more closely resemble the texture of plastic than other materials on the market. The straws, made by an Italian pasta manufacturer, do not change the flavor of the drink and they’re edible–if you’re into alcohol-infused raw noodles.  

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.

Would you purchase textiles dyed with food waste or clothes that sprout plants? Fashion designers introduced three innovative eco collections that incorporate these elements at the inaugural TILL: bioFASHIONtech Summit in Stamford, Connecticut. The Summit brings together biotechnology, soil science, community building, and fashion. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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."

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.