Located in northern China Shanxi province, this dreamy landscape, Xiechi Lake, is consider by some to be China’s dead sea. This 500 million years old saline lake, on which a human could easily float, randomly changes colour as a result of extreme heat. It is the multiplication of bacteria, or algal bloom, that “paints” the lake with these peculiar colours. Tints vary along magenta, green and yellow gradients, giving a Rothko-like appearance to the scenery, and making it our peculiar image of the week. Via NatGeo.
The gift giving season is once again upon us and to help out those who are struggling to find the perfect present for that special someone, we have brought together a collection of Next Nature inspired gifts. Whether you need ideas for that early adopter colleague or something for your very ‘merry’ auntie, please enjoy our 2017 Next Nature gift guide.
A visual impairment does not have to be confining and futile when it comes to traffic control. As a blind traffic regulator, you wear a haptic suit that translates the traffic situation into impulses on your back. Equipped with sensors scanning the environment and vibrating motors to make traffic a sensible experience, you have a set of eyes in your back.
How much does a like cost? How about a retweet, or a single play of a song on Spotify? How much carbon does a YouTube video burn? Greenpeace’s #ClickClean initiative, which has been going since 2010, calls on big tech companies like Facebook and Google to use renewable energy sources.
They say that money makes the world go round. But how does it work, and how has it changed over time? While developing the ECO Coin, we’ve been thinking a great deal of money, past and present. From the origins of civilization up to present day, economy has gone through countless shakeups, and yet we tend to take our current way of thinking about money for granted.
So, we’ve put together the story of money: an accessible roadmap from prehistory to digital age – from cows to credit, from gold mining to bitcoin mining. The series consists of six parts, each one exploring a different age: livestock, cowry shells, gold, paper, plastic and bits.
Robots are becoming more lifelike every day. As these increasingly human machines get closer to us, many are wondering how exactly we should relate to them, socially, politically and legally. Sophia the Humanoid is one such robot, designed to be especially human-like in appearance and mannerisms – and she was just granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia.
Games are often played to escape a boring daily reality, but they can also teach us to take control over the land as farmers do. As a farm director you work in a gamified environment where you plant and harvest your crops with the help of a console. And with that, you also control your drone and tractor. Gone are the days of failed harvests and wasted raw materials. Welcome to Farmville 2.0!
The farm director is one of the 16 positions from HUBOT, the job agency for people and robots. Are you interested in this role? Take the HUBOT jobtest and discover which HUBOT job suits you best.
Conductive thread has been around for a while and it became the backbone of many smart textile creations, such as this one. Its versatility has been proven once again in a paper by a team of researchers from the University of Washington. They designed a smart fabric able to encode data readable by a magnetometer, like the one in your phone, without the need of electronics or batteries.
Working from home is accepted more openly these days, and with modern technology, why not? You can have a conference or video meetings with everyone from your office, while you sit at home in your PJs. However, imagine being able to attend work and meetings, as well as operate in a professional environment from anywhere – and not just by taking your work laptop to a coffee shop or remote location. We are talking about actually entering the work environment you are used to, thanks to a digital representation of reality. It sounds crazy, but it’s entirely possible with technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality.
As a home healthcare professional you are responsible for the support of elderly, ill or disabled people deprived of care. You used to work like a robot on a tight 15-minute schedule per patient and your main task was cleaning before you had to rush to the next appointment. Not anymore! While the intelligent cleaning drone tidies up the house, you have the time to talk to your patients and give them full and proper attention.
