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Skyscrapers and city-scapes aren’t known for giving the green movement warm, fuzzy feelings, but a new generation of architects and engineers have been hard at work to change that nitty-gritty image and no idea inspires cuddling up to the concept of close cohabitation like the Strawscraper.

Designed by Swedish firm Belatchew Arkitekter, Strawscraper would harness wind power with something called piezoelectric technology, eliminating the need for wind turbines.

According to My Modern Met’s Jacob Paul Wiegmann:

Piezoelectricity works through the compression of specific crystals found inside the straws that coat the building. By covering the outside facade in millions of plastic bristles, not only will energy be created every time the wind blows but it will add a unique, ever-changing look to the building. The architects state: “What is usually considered to be the most static of all things, the building, suddenly comes alive and the construction gives the impression of a body that is breathing.”

Guess it’s time to start referring to the pant rather than the pulse of city life.

Full story at Belatchew Arkiteker’s website via My Modern Met.

Breathing new life into architecture.

Do certain rooms of your house have an unwelcome feel to them?

Perhaps you’ve just been greeting it all wrong.

With the Hand-le doorknob, every opening provides a new beginning or at least the opportunity to lose that dead fish handshake.

Seriously, that’s never impressive. Time to get a grip.

Full story at Dutch By Design via Trendhunter.

Familiar design.

Researchers find fire ants tightly regulate the diameter of their tunnels to insure ideal mobility and traction—but when they slip, antennae take grip.

“Our hypothesis is that the ants are creating their environment in just the right way to allow them to move up and down rapidly with a minimal amount of neural control,” says Daniel Goldman, an associate professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “The environment allows the ants to make missteps and not suffer for them. These ants can teach us some remarkably effective tricks for maneuvering in subterranean environments.”

Full story and video at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: Nick Gravish

There may be more to perfection than a lot of practice, according to a small study of chess players and musicians.

A new study shows that even copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely studied activities: chess and music.

In other words, it takes more than hard work to become an expert. Natural talent and other factors likely play a role in mastering a complicated activity, says Zach Hambrick, associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University.

Hambrick and colleagues analyzed 14 studies of chess players and musicians, looking specifically at how practice was related to differences in performance. Practice, they found, accounted for only about one-third of the differences in skill in both music and chess.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: hannahwillow/Flickr

The public can help scientists by deciphering and recording the hand-written field notes that accompany a million insect specimens, many dating back more than 100 years.

Along the way, participants in the project, called Calbug, are getting a peek into history and the treasures held in museum collections. Among the many scientifically valuable objects in University of California, Berkeley’s Essig Museum collection is at least one—a ground beetle from Tierra del Fuego, Chile—that was collected in 1833 by none other than Charles Darwin.

“Through Calbug, our goal is to make at least some of those records, which are normally inaccessible to the public, available to people around the world,” says Rosemary Gillespie, principal investigator of the Calbug project. “And by converting those labels into electronic records, it will be possible for us to track any changes in range for different species, and that provides insight into how animals react to changes in the environment.”

Full story and additional image at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: Marek Jacubowski

Gabriel Dawe’s Prismatic Installations

Crocheted Playgrounds by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam

The Swedish Furniture Fair Installation

Full article with more fantastic art on BuzzFeed

Photo credits: archdaily.com, hefoxisblack.com and fc02.deviantart.net

A McKinsey iConsumer survey spotlights key trends in e-commerce, mobile, multichannel, social media, and big data.

From McKinsey via Visual.ly.

Tons of excellent infographics in one place.

Photo by Laura Blanc

You may have noticed cat owners prowling around the Internet lately sporting peculiarly feline facial hair, so it shouldn’t be surprising that dog people are lining up to put their mark on this particular meme.

According to Laughing Squid,

You can view more photos of people sporting a dog beard by searching in the Instagram tags#DogBeard and #DogBearding.

And you thought the rest of the week was going to be a bore…

Photo by Shovebug

Full story at Laughing Squid.

For the love of dogs.

Ever idly wonder what the difference was between a coaxial cable and an ethernet cable?

Wonder no more thanks to this infographic by DSL.com, and enjoy talking shop with the cable or phone guy next time he comes to call some time between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM.

Via DSL.com.

Feel a little smarter with infographics.

Those who call Oklahoma home but have addresses elsewhere or are worried about the areas where their loved ones lived can now see how severely specific areas were affected thanks to the cooperative efforts of Google Maps, the City of Oklahoma City, the City of Moore, and Cleveland County.

The data was collected on May 22, and one can see building footprints when they zoom into an area of interest.

Full story at NPR.

Weather’s wrath.