Evolution in the Bathroom
Koert van MensvoortI have been conducting some attempts to backtrack the evolution of Gillette shaving razors appearing in my bathroom. Whereas older shavers were simple sticks with a blade on top, …
I have been conducting some attempts to backtrack the evolution of Gillette shaving razors appearing in my bathroom. Whereas older shavers were simple sticks with a blade on top, …
The things we design will end up designing us. Slogan of the week. Retrieved from the essay Exploring Next Nature .
Talking about nature and nurture as separate, clear-cut forces is far adrift from the complexities of developmental science, says Evelyn Fox Keller in NewScientist . ONE of the …
Humanity has three options when it comes to our evolution. Dr. Harvey Fineberg makes a case for "neo-evolution".
Next Nature Night on Design & Evolution, Tuesday 30th June.
Since we don't need to be able to move our heads anymore these days we might as well use the unused space between our head and our shoulders. That's what designer Francesca …
Two middle class cars molded into one luxurious limousine. Created by Ahmet Ögüt . See also Waves of Asphalt , Interchange , On the Road , Sexy Car .
At this year's TED conference , held in Long Beach California, Biotechnologist Juan Enriquez argued that even as mega-banks topple, the big reboot is yet to come. It will come …
I deem you have to be over sixty to have an object with so many historical layers of media in your house. Let's analyze. We are looking at a chandelier in which the candle …
The world of tissue engineering is usually associated with medical applications . But how about some tissue engineered toys? The Epidermits toy is the Karten Design firm 's …
While out in the wilderness , I was in need for a condom. This is what I found. It doesn't look very comfortable, but having an organic lifestyle has it's price I guess? Peculiar …
Fashion has a natural cycle of its own, which is more dependent on market and media forces than seasons or weather. Trends are predicted, recycled, set and followed. Seasons in …
When you think of solving mazes, you think of mice. Mice have been use to do science for ages. In turns out that mice are not the only beings that can solve a maze. In fact you …
Our peculiar image of the week was created by artist Olaf Mooij . Seen at Discovery Festivals Cabinet of Curiosities .
At TEDGlobal 2010 , author Matt Ridley argues how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. According to …
Corporate logos constantly have to adapt in order to survive. In the case of the Shell oil company this results in an image that ironically resembles the ones we know from the …
All too often, technology frustrates us. It forces our behavior into constrained pathways. Even more insidious, technology can knock us out of alignment with our values, goals or …
Our second principle: Humane technology revives human intuitions, in particular those we might have forgotten about. 'Conventional' technology aims to overcome our hominid …
Our peculiar image of the week is not what it seems. Rather than a man with a gigantic chicken on a leash, you are looking at a normal chicken with an incredibly shrunken man …
Dutch newspaper NRC Next features a shortened version (in dutch) of the Razorius Gillettus essay, written by Koert van Mensvoort. Download the scan . A longer version of the essay …
Our bodies are maps of our ancestor's social lives. We evolved, physically and behaviorally, in incredibly complex social groups. Such intense sociability may have favored the …
There is a domain of creatures that diffusively encircles an entire planet. There are so many of them that they occupy every conceivable ecological niche. Yet, despite their …
Designer Tuur van Balen argues biotechnoloyg is actually very accessible and creates an 'anti-depressant yoghurt' on stage.
Dig the three minute introduction. Script by Claudia Vickers, Animation by Orlando Mee, Produced by Stephan Kern.
Will extended pollution cause carnivorous plants to turn to a fully vegetarian diet?
A psychiatrist argues that beer gave us civilization - but do intoxicants play a deeper evolutionary role than that?
We humans simply feel more comfortable with technological change when it comes in a familiar form that refers to an existing and accepted object, habit, value, tradition or intuition.
Artist Maja Smrekar modified yeast with her own DNA to produce human lactic acid.
Thanks to evolution goats can climb, shifting their ecosystems to the trees.
Only genetic engineering can stop citrus from going commercially extinct. But is the public ready to accept GM orange juice?
Interview with our own Koert van Mensvoort in the IKON Television Documentary 'Paradise Reset' on the future of human nature.
The self-repairing sole is a dynamic solution to an everyday problem.
The first – and only – mechanical gears found in nature.
One of the arguments that environmentalists use against factory farming and burning fossil fuels is that these activities are "unnatural" or that they "go against nature." But …
Historian Yuval Noah Harari takes us on a journey through the whole human history.
Two students found a way to break down plastics using soil bacteria.
Digital natives have trouble understanding life before 24/7 online connectivity.
Meet Humanity beyond Race, it's Beautiful
A team of scientists created a semi-synthetic organism with an expanded genetic alphabet.
Designer and artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg explains how synthetic biology inspires her for designing the cars of the future.
In these modern times a traditional first aid kit won't do anymore. As the world around us innovates, our needs in case of an emergency change as well.
How does an indigenous culture sustain, extend, and evolve nowadays? Probably, it mainly depends on the preferences of the tourism industry. Here is an example from the Mursi, one …
C-sections have an unexpected side effect on human evolution. Newborn heads are getting bigger, while the mothers birth cannals are becoming smaller.
A road safety campaign in the Australian state of Victoria exposed an educational, yet confronting picture to raise awareness to the vulnerable human body on the road.
A group of researchers is working to optimize the way we sleep, increasing our relaxation, and therefore reducing the time devoted to our naps.
Eating meat has made us who we are today: evolved, intelligent humans, able to use a verbal language.
While we can’t just leave the coast permanently without upsetting the delicate balance of this new environment we created, we can take better care of it to ensure that it is around for years to come.
The advent of digital communications media is bringing along some health conditions.
Tons of living animals have floated from Japan to the United States traveling across the ocean on plastic junk and debris.
What if you had the choice of sparing your child from diseases and disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease or autism?
The Texas Heart Institute researches in the field of organ transplantation. With the “ghost heart” — an heart organ scrubbed clean of all its former cells, the researches are on the verge of creating a sustainable and effective way of transplanting organs.
"To understand why a product is the way it is today, you need to learn about its evolutionary background." Meet Huub Ehlhardt, an engineer with a PhD in product design . Huub …
Scientists have created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles – by accident. The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling …
The oldest known serious candidate forerunner for the bicycle is the ‘running machine’ built by the German Baron Karl von Drais. His two-wheeled machine became known as the …
Writing is recognised as one of mankind’s foremost inventions and the mechanization of writing is one of these developments that typify what is commonly regarded as the work of …
For thousands of years people used oil lamps and candles to illuminate their homes during the hours of darkness. Neither produced much light and both were inconvenient in use as …
Written by Werner Lippert & Peter Wippermann, Curators of the Entryparadise exhibition (26/8 until 3/12, 2006, at Kohlenwäsche, Zollverein) Design is about to undergo a …
If your house just isn't big enough to have a leopard, you can allways buy these 20.000 dollar cats. Nailcaps are included to prevent scratches on the matching cat furniture. I …
Peculiar object of the week is this square watermelon, found in Japan. Very practical and cost efficient when you want to pile them in boxes and ship them. Artist Piet Mondrian …
While time seems to flow in this one direction, some people just know how to walk straight through that fourth dimension; catch it in a videoclip and throw the message into …
Seen in an article of Smashing Magazine . See also: Better than the real thing .
A 21-leaf clover discovered on June 3 by Iwate prefecture farmer Shigeo Obara has shattered the Guinness world record for most leaves on a clover stem ( Trifolium repens L. ). The …
Energy problem? Why not genetically alter bacteria to have them provide 'renewable petroleum'. Crude oil is only a few molecular stages removed from the acids normally excreted by …
Who would not need a bananawall in their officegarden? This modular freestanding, indoor/outdoor bananawall system was designed by Stefan Sagmeister . It is made of 7200 banana's. …
Take a bite from this pear and I'll spare you all the default connotations with the apple of eden. Source photo by Pablo Montanez . See also Modernistic Watermelon , Ferrari …
Murata Boy, is a robot capable of riding bicycles unassisted. Balancing, pedaling and directing the bicyclee, turning the bike to avoid obstacles, etc. And this is his nephew, …
We posted this fella two years ago but the guys at Boston Dynamics haven't been sitting still. Improvements have been made and Big Dog got puppies! Little Dog (a learning robot …
Will Wright's hugely successful games SimCity and The Sims let players shape the structure of urban areas and the lives of virtual humans; his upcoming game, Spore , lets them …
Corpus 2.0 by Marcia Nolte is a set of seven portraits illustrating how the human body could adjust itself to the design of products, including an enlarged SMS thumb (above), an …
Playing God? – "We are not playing..." After having seen this TED talk by Craig Venter , I came across a cynical yet clarifying comic (etcgroup.org) on his plans to build a new …
Try selling cars these days without some good old genetic manipulation...
Good morning anywhere in the world! Waking up is a problem (at least for 50% of the population). That's why alarm clocks exist; machines and devices are invented to solve …
Since the early days of the net, the electronic pastoral has lent itself to all sorts of dubious agendas pushed by science, the military and even libertarian tendencies. In the …
Famous technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil states: it's going down by 2029, so be prepared to get digital on entirely new levels. According to Kurzweil, machines will have both …
Ten tons of cement were pourred into this grasscutters ant colony, revealing a subterranean structure of 8 meters / 26 feet deep. 'Ant-City' was built including circulating …
With their project 'Rules of Six' architects Aranda & Lasch envision an unpredictable, self-generating landscape of interlocking hexagons that could represent rooms, buildings …
A commercial by an orthopaedic reconstruction company introducing the next generation of joint replacements: " Highly advanced hips and knees. Engineered to meet the needs of your …
A future physical anthropologist who knows nothing about the human race and would dig up a contemporary desktop computer, might conclude homo desktopus must have been the user of …
This peculiar, half-human creature could be your cousin. No really; it is a sculpture by Patricia Piccinini entitled The Young Family , which, in turn, is part of a larger …
Written by Kevin Kelly , published in The Technium . I claim that technology has its own agenda. What is the evidence that technology as a whole, or the technium as I call it, is …
While swimming in second life, India Leigh came across this cool lion fish. See also: Redefining Nemo , Augmented Fish Reality , Who wants to drive a fish? .
://nextnature.net A typographical film on the term ' Intelligent Design ' and its relation with design. Created by Christian Bramsiepe from the Köln International School of Design …
Lilium Urbanus is a collaborative senior thesis project by Anca Risca and Joji Tsuruga, recent graduates of SVA. Pretty cool to watch, the video is a metaphor of urban landscapes …
This is not a 3-D-animation of a fictional creature, but an actual existing animal: the Angora Rabbit.
You can watch it grow in front of your eyes. Via Core.form-ula .
Make no mistake. The children of the 80's are the bioengineers of today. ://nextnature.net
In 1921 the word "Robot" (meaning "labor") was introduced by Czech writer Karel ?apek . In his play "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots), robots seem happy to work for humans. …
The struggle between the born and the made is being fought out in a wardrobe on Saturn. By: 1stavemachine.com | Related: Sixties Last
This lecture by Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek – never mind the crappy sound & image quality: this is philosophy folks! – should provide all next nature explorers with a …
Wool sculptor Stephanie Metz researched the meaning of 'cute' through the morphology of some Teddy bear species. Related posts: PacMan's Scull | Animatus
At first I thought this first pregnant man was a hoax, but after I saw it on Oprah I realized it must be 'real'. Well, the pregnant man is actually a former woman who had a sex …
In our NextNature event BVPS (May 2008), Kevin Kelly spoke of technology as the 7th kingdom of life : a form of evolution whithout the nasty side–effect of dying (Every object …
"Nature adapts, even to human actions that seem to destroy everything. The amazing power of evolution has given birth to a new species of insect. Their ideal habitats are old …
This skeleton truck was dug up created by Jitish Kallat . Related: Skeleton mouse , Animatus , Pacman’s skull .
I love this parody of the famous Shepard Fairey Obama poster by Mike Rosulek .
Are bacteria faster than a computer? According a group of biological engineers they are. The scientists have done a research in which they have used the well-known bacteria …
If the six hour crash course on synthetic genomics is a bit too much for you, there is always a more snappy TED lecture in which Craig Venter ponders on whether we can create new …
It is a well known secret that plastic hardly breaks down and almost all of the plastic ever made still floats around somewhere . With the great pacific garbage patch now twice …
Since it is Sunday, let's have a genetically photoshopped egg with a handy integrated eggholder. Not sure if these should be mass produced (if possible): Too painful for the …
Will we in the future still buy several needs according food in shops, or will we grow M&M’s ourselves? There is a lot happening on in the field of food technology , think for …
Susan Blackmore studies memes: ideas that replicate themselves from brain to brain like a virus. She makes a bold new argument: Humanity has spawned a new kind of meme, the teme, …
Are you ready for some techno-optimism? Buckle up and enjoy the ride with bio-tech evangelist Gregory Stock . Some quotes from his prophetic TED talk : "We are seizing control of …
No silly. Of course sneakers can't be grown from transforming Koi Karpers. This is merely an fictional piece by Yoske Nishiumi. But then again, do you have any idea where your …
The next step in biomimetic body extentions for propelling yourself through water. Man moves on from copying ducks to become a dolphin-like cyborg. With these fins you can be …
What is genomics? How will it affect our lives? Serial entrepreneur Barry Schuler explains the genomics revolution. We are now not just reading genomes, we are writing them. …
Miniaturization of mobile phones visualized in the style of a Russian Matroesjka doll. If this continues your phone will soon be small enough to fit into your tooth ? Created by …
When a bird builds a nest, we call it nature, but when a human puts up an apartment building, suddenly it’s culture? As if the dividing line between nature and culture wasn't …
Recently were introduced, the OOMouse ... ...and the Magic Mouse . Both tools are developed to browse the ones and zeros more easily. It almost seems unfair to compare them, so I …
It is nature, but not like we know it when chairs biomimic the pelvis. This anatomic Ruby rockingchair was designed by Pouyan Mokhtarani , Tehran (Iran). Via b oingboing.net | …
Bird spotting is not a typical activity for us next nature explorers, yet occasionally we bump into some birds worth mentioning (remember the amazing copy-paste bird , rubber duck …
://nextnature.net The expanding research culture of synthetic biology demystified in this TV item on the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition . Via Posthuman …
In 1961, the name of Marshall McLuhan was unknown to everyone but his English students at the University of Toronto – and a coterie of academic admirers who followed his abstruse …
I remember the smoke the most. That pungent smell permeating the camps of tribal people. Everything they touch is infused with the lingering perfume of smoke – their food, …
The Triceracopter is half Triceratops, half helicopter. If dinosaurs and technology evolved at the same time, this is what the helicopter might have look like? Built as a …
Have you heard the buzz on virtual money in online games? Some years ago the first virtual millionaire was announced, yet there have also been reports on people being practically …
No, the image above does not some show some collection of freshly genetically designed hypercarrots in various colors of the rainbow. This is the spectrum of colors carrots used to have.
The Discovery series 'Ways to save the planet' the episode 'Wrapping Greenland ' shows how Dr. Jason Box uses reflective blankets to cover glaciers in Greenland. Due to global …
This translation of the essay ' Real Nature is not Green ' is a special treat from and for our fellow Next Nature explorers in China. We thank the people of the Microwave …
So you thought the Razorius Gilletus essay was farsighted? Interestingly enough, Samsung is advertising its latest TV-set as a whole new species . Despite the obvious …
Mushroom based plastics? Designer Eben Bayer must have eaten too much of the wondrous chanterelles perhaps? No seriously, the man is turning his vision into a reality with an …
Sind wir noch zu retten? That was the slogan of this year’s Ars Electronica festival in Linz (Austria). Titled ‘REPAIR’, the media art festival urged to leave our scepticism and …
Techno-artists love insects. Especially their unpredictable behaviour. Eindhoven (NL) based design studio Ehdv used tracking software and connected some camera’to a bunch of wood …
No, this is not some solar system far, far away. Closer than you think, this is is a visualization of a botnet storm . For all you know this malicious virus, or one of its …
Alright, we were mistaken. Money isn't virtual after all. A recent TV commercial of a Greek bank shed light on the issue. Your money lives, is anthropomorphic and inhabits an …
Earlier we have discussed the ECO currency , now here is an explanation video. The ECO currency is an alternative currency to express environmental value. People who conduct labor …
Researchers have designed bacteria that can produce a special glue to knit together cracks in concrete structures. Technews Daily reports the genetically modified microbes have …
Scientists have developed a mosquito that spreads vaccine instead of disease. The researchers, led by molecular geneticist Shigeto Yoshida of Jichi Medical University in Tochigi …
Alright the title "Making Perfect Life" ' may sound a bit 20th-century-modernistic-techno-optimistic-naive, but for the rest we are confident this conference is going to be pretty …
Bacteria are traditionally perceived as infectious and unhealthy, but that is about to change. This week designer Jan van der Asdonk graduated from the Next Nature Lab at the TU/e …
Nature demanded that we make a choice between immortality and sex, but the Next Nature of the 21st century may not. For help, we can look back to the 20th Century, which had many …
Now here is an example of the fusion between the made and the born , most kids would crave for. Much better than the robotic dino toy. Designed by evolution! Hopefully this …
Meet the next species. Director David Lea's wondrous fantasy of remixed biodiversity after nuclear meltdown. Made for Greenpeace.
My name is Jason Silva. I've spent the last 5 years hosting and producing a tv show on Al Gore's Emmy-winning Current TV network and I'm a fellow at the Hybrid Realities …
By analyzing billions of phone calls, researchers at Scandinavian telecom company Telenor , mapped how social connections between people – measured partly by how often they called …
At ISEA 2010 , the International Symposium on Electronic Arts, media artists and media researchers from all over the world present their work in Dortmund (Germany). This year, …
Superman already knew it: Steered growth is the future of architecture. The lower picture was taken at the Industrias Peñoles nano-chrystal architecture lab in Chihuahuan, Mexico …
Dusting furniture and floors should be history in forty years time, as special bacteria in a yet to develop cleaning product will be eating the dirt. The speculative cleaning …
This project - the Next Nature Network - is about Nature's brand image. One might surmise that "Nature," being 100 percent all-natural, can't have any brand image. The facts …
The Quest for Fire (1981) shows the Next Nature of 80.000 BC. Set in a world without highways, supermarkets, airports, Internet, television, farming, money or written language, …
As we are nearing the end of the year, and anticipate you might have some time to watch a film, we discus our top 10 Next Nature movies. Idiocracy (2006) is not a great film, …
Look around you and try to find the most natural thing in the room you are in now. It is you. Now, you wouldn’t be so sure in the apocalyptic Los Angeles of 2019 depicted in Blade …
Nomadic Plants are a species assembled from a group of robotic-electronic-biological organisms living in symbiosis in order to survive in habitats affected by human activity. The …
If you haven't read the recently posted essay " Razorius Gilletus – On the Origin of a Next Species ?", you probably won't understand much of the following. Anyhow, I'd want to …
Is the evolution of the single bladed razor into an exorbitant five–bladed vibrating gizmo the outcome of human needs, or is there another force in play? Say hello to Razorius …
Recycled island is a research project on the potential of realizing a habitable floating island in the Pacific Ocean made from all the plastic waste that is momentarily floating …
When searching for Next Nature in the world around us, one does not necessarily have to look at the present. The science fiction novel Jurassic Park, written in 1990 by the …
The Robosaurus is the only airplane eating, fire breathing robot on the planet. Pity the thing is merely build for entertainment purposes. Perhaps this thing could finally solve …
Really? I never knew. Biomimicmarketing strategies are getting crazier by the day.
Glad to announce that performance artist Stelarc – who already for some decades incorporates themes of cyborgization and other human-machine interfaces in his (very bodily) work – …
As it is Sunday today, lets indulge in a scientific spiritual music video. Created by John Boswell . Thanks Finnigans Riverrun.
In Next Nature, not only old nature is being idealized. Because of the rapidness of new emerging technologies, we have a tendency to dwell on earlier prototypes. To recall …
Designer Bob de Graaf takes pleasure in collecting and combining objects from old nature & next nature in search for similarities. Surely a traditional biologist would not …
We usually just click 'Ok' on every update request, but perhaps the one proposed in this religiously uncanny video by Doctor AlexXross needs a bit more contemplation?
"Until now, the major obstacle that has prevented people from thinking critically about stray shopping carts has been that we have not had any formalized language to differentiate …
Technologist, environmentalist and nextnature thinker avant la lettre Kevin Kelly , muses on what technology means in our lives – from its impact at the personal level to its …
Technology is evolving us, says cyborg anthropologist Amber Case in her 8 minutes of TED . We become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens, relying on …
When techno–optimist and fellow at the Hybrid Reality Institute , Jason Silva, meets with Richard Doyle, author of Darwin's Pharmacy: Sex, Plants and the Evolution of the …
Our peculiar image of the week presents us the lustrous uncannyness of a Beetle car in its embryonic stage. Rest assure: this is fiction, however, metaphorically the sculpture by …
Until now, most people have likely regarded bird-feeders as merely a pleasant addition to their gardens. But scientists have now discovered that bird-feeders in the UK are …
Recent work of artist Jalila Essaïdi exemplifies of how science and art can meet and create meaningful inventions for society. Jalila Essaïdi used the spider silk produced by …
In March, Mazda recalled 65,000 cars, not because of any structural faults in the vehicle, but because the engineers had inadvertently created the perfect habitat for a tiny …
Renegade architect and futurist Rachel Armstrong has proposed that our cities, currently constructed of dead trees, baked mud, and refined ore, need to be coated in a layer of …
Back in 2009 Rob Spence, a cyborg film maker, worked together with a team of ocularists, inventors, engineering specialists on a prosthetic eye which can capture and stream video. …
Our historical snippet of the moment is a Canadian television fragment from 1968 featuring a debate between Norman Mailer and Marshall McLuhan on the implications of media …
In a previous post we have reported on spider silk, it's applications and the way it is produced. Adding the gene responsible for the production of the spider silk protein to …
What are the differences between Earth 1.0 and Earth 2.0 technologies? Rachel Armstrong explains.
Artist Dolf Veenvliet ( Macouno ) is creating future fossil trilobites that have yet to exist. Using generative computer models, his Entoforms are not the result of millions of …
We normally think of polluted water as the source of disease, not the cure for it. The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, affectionately known as the Super Fun Superfund , is one of the …
Japanese artist Tokujin Yoshioka does not sculpt his work, but grows it. His Venus chair was created by immersing a plastic mesh substrate into a tank filled with a chemical …
Interview witth TEDx on how people are technological by nature, yet how we also need humane technology to remain human, or become even more human than we are today.
Principle number five: Humane technology doesn't outsource people, but instead empowers them. How healthy or humane is it to have an escalator to the gym? Humane technology should …
Indulge in its cuteness. The Labradoodle brings us the finest blend between the labrador and the poodle. Combining sociability with beauty, they are the perfect human companion. …
In this commercial, the sheep knows that the Peugeot has been made dirty by the splashing mud. Then it proceeds by cleaning it. Slogan: Nature will remember. We know that this …
No, the peculiar image above was not created by an in vitro fertilized child from the combined DNA of Escher, Mondrian and Pollock, but rather by 21th century designer Remco van …
Sexuality and sensuality are phenomena which have been a nature for us as long as we humans exist. Not only humans experience these phenomena; also animals experience sexuality …
We tend to think of plastic as a cheap, inferior and ugly material used to make children’s toys, garden furniture and throwaway bottles. But as an experiment, imagine for a moment …
Someday robots may lead fish to safety. At least, that's the hope of Dr. Maurizio Porfiri, an Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and expert …
While some of us might have heard of the humorous but fictional ' spider pig ,' spidergoats are the real deal. Although you might expect to see them lounging in giant webs or …
What animal is so naive to come into this world as a naked and crying infant, completely vulnerable, helpless, and an easy prey for any predator? Newborn lamb or giraffe’s babies …
Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick at Wired Magazine talks about the nature of technology and propose to define technology as the 7th Kingdom of Life.
" The Institute for Digital Biology researches next steps in the evolution of the internet, where websites and services develop into living creatures ." This scenario lives in the …
In the film Plastic Bag , the title character spends a lifetime (or more) on a quest for a creator not even aware of his existence. A stunning short by Ramin Bahrani, director of …
Blue is a beautiful color, but its sound is simply irresistible. It is the song of the unhappy and the depressed. It is a sound that touches people. It was also the sound of a …
The sublime is an aesthetic concept of 'the exalted,' of beauty that is grand and dangerous. Through 17th and 18th century European intellectual tradition, the sublime became …
Some people like berries, some like tomato's. So what do you get when you get when the two mate? Indeed, the latest hyperfruit spotted on the selves is the Tomberry . This …
It's been known for a while that birds increase their singing volume to make themselves heard in the big city, but recent studies show that the city birds might even be evolving …
Researchers learned that city birds have larger brains relative to their body size. No, they are not getting big-headed from their exposure to big-city sophistication, but rather …
Over the last few decades, the public has been – and still is – creating awareness on the values of organically produced foods. For many foodies an important value of organic …
Certain types of bacteria can navigate using magnetic nanoparticles as tiny compasses. Researchers at the University of Leeds have extracted the protein that controls this process …
While evidence indicates that humans domesticated themselves , we're not the only primates capable of self-domestication. Bonobos and baboons have shown they are just as capable …
The standard story of the cowboy hat goes something like this: In 1865, J.B. Stetson went out west during the California gold rush. He observed that bowlers, raccoon hats, and …
Why turn to implants when the female body can do it by itself? Dutch designer Femke Mosch came up with the idea of making edible implants that stimulate breast growth from within.
Surely, some day smart phones want to find out where they come from too, no? Nextnatural comic on the origins of a next species by Dave Coverly .
...thus it walks into a lot of dead alleys. Peculiar image of the week.
Improving on photosynthesis has long been a dream for scientists. The so-called artificial leaf – which wouldn't necessarily look like one – would run on only solar energy and …
58:10 minute interview with polymath & nextnature thinker avant la lettre Buckminister Fuller.
Have you heard of Elephantiasis? It is a disease caused by microscopic parasitic worms that cause a thickening of the skin and underlying tissues. The disease typically occurs in …
Designer and former fashion model Barbara de Vries was cleaning plastic litter off her favorite beach in the Bahamas, when she noticed the plastic fragments were all uniquely …
As advances in nanotechnology bring us increasingly energy efficient products, plant life such as algae could become attractive sources for tapping energy. The Latro lamp by …
No, those aren't plastic trinkets or beads from a craft store. They're diatoms, a group of single-celled algae, and unlike almost all of our current technologies, they can rapidly …
The Namib desert gets less than a half an inch of rain per year, yet the stenocara beetle manages to survive in these punishing conditions. The beetle's secret lies in an array of …
More hypernatural designer-fruit. What do you get when you cross a strawberry and a pineapple? A pineberry, of course. Some seven years ago the pineberry was taken from its native …
In his (fictional!) documentary, designer and artist Tobias Revell sketches the city of New Mumbai powered by giant mushrooms. These genetically-engineered fungal organisms …
Imagine how much easier the job of window cleaners would be if they could simply scale walls like Spider-Man instead of using elevators, ladders and other gear. Ever since the …
Montreal filmmakers Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks’ documentary feature, Surviving Progress presents the story of human advancement and reveals the risk of running the 21st …
On the shortlist for the year's strangest book title , Jonathan Olivares' A Taxonomy of Office Chairs charts the "evolution" of chairs from the 1840s to the present day. The …
Computer-controlled players in video games can usually be spotted for their repetitive, illogical or unemotional behavior. Unlike humans, non-player characters (NPCs) don't get …
Can you do it? Do finish your lunch before clicking the link – or you might vaporise. The video was made by Jason Silva for the ongoing TEDGlobal 2012 which has Radical Openness …
At the Next Nature Power Show 2011 our master of ceremony, Koert van Mensvoort gave a mini lecture on our changing notion of Nature.
An interview about the history and promises of synthetic biology, and the problem with the word "nature".
Taking a cue from the human brain, a new microchip can rewire itself after damage.
Alveoli in human lungs serve as the inspiration for designing better, stronger ways of storing compressed natural gas.
Will writing software eventually replace journalists?
Dutch NRC features a wonderful article today on our online film project The Rise & Fall of Rayfish Footwear.
There are robots that look like people, and then there are robots, like the Ecobot III, that look nothing like humans but have our same biological needs: they have to eat, digest …
How can we anticipate what happens after the technological singularity?
A Chinese inventor created a $24,500 robot from junkyard scraps.
Hendriks’s activity explores the positive transformative power of creative impulses and the importance of fundamental free scientific research.
One would need a gardening robot, fitted plant species and some kind of dome structure for the plants to grow in.
Some four years ago we wrote about a plan to create bioluminescent trees that would replace streetlights. This dream is getting closer.
Unlock our devices with our fingerprint, this technology for security represents a change in our digital life.
Ironic nature documentary on the new symbiosis in the ocean between trash and wildlife. Created by Studio Smack for Greenpeace .
Volume magazine interviews Next Nature founder Koert van Mensvoort.
Conservation workers ask synthetic biologists to help them save the world's endangered creatures and habitats.
Cockroaches will inherit the world after humans are gone? Maybe not. Seeing plastic as the new moss, or algae, photographer Jeanny Kaethoven makes this beautiful pictures of …
A new strain of purple GM tomatoes last longer on shelves and help out cancer-prone mice.
Body builders rejoice: scientists have synthesized the world's first artificial proteins.
Assuming that true wildlife hàs gone extinct... Who needs the real thing when you can have a Next Safari ? Let's go and hunt for the plastic birds on the beach or watch genuine …
Arguably the most accessible synthetic biology explanation video so far.
The gumboot chiton snail produces the hardest biomineral known on earth - and it may hold the secret to better nanotechnology.
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg discusses the promises and realities of synthetic biology.
Buckle up for a cinematic espresso show from Jason Silva on the various epochs of evolution.
Filter and recover antibiotics from drinking water using only bacteria, water and sunlight.
Buckle up for another cinematic espresso shot from our favorite performance philosopher Jason Silva.
In 100,000 years human beings might look like a manga character: big intense eyes, high forehead, large head, straight nose, more pigmented skin, and perfect symmetry. “There will …
A entomologist gives another explanation for that famous fruit fly with ant-patterned wings: it's not evolution, it's human error.
Buckle up for a 1:11:28 interview with technology philosopher and founding editor of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelly.
British philosopher David Pearce believes we should to stop animals from hunting and killing other animals.
A macaque stole a tourist's iPhone and fiddled around with it like a human would.
Scientists designed artificial cells built from silicon, able to copy basic functions of life.
4th of December Dr Van Mensvoort lectures in New York at the BIOFABRICA summit. Other speakers include Paola Antonelli and Andras Forgac.
Cars increasingly rely on technology designed to make driving easier and safer. But are these improvements creating less-skilled drivers?
The Western Corn Rootworm has evolved to eat genetically engineered corn, designed to kill it.
In glass capsules endangered rainforest flora will be able to survive regardless of what happens to their natural habitat.
In this talk at TEDxGhent, our own Dr. Van Mensvoort shows how technology becomes nature in seven steps and what engineers, inventors, designers and entrepreneurs can learn from that.
So, you are well aware that biotech will drive our evolution , you took the crash course on synthetic genomics , you’ve got your map of the DNA world in your backpack and are now …
Scientists succeeded in implanting non toxic nano-motors into living cells.
In this approaching era, what might be biologically possible for plants?
As technology evolves, what today seems like science fiction may be the job market of tomorrow: 11 professions of the future.
How technology becomes nature in seven steps
Bioengineer Drew Endy shares his idea of biology as a precision manufacturer that could potentially transform civilization as we know it.
Empathy for Robots. May cause feelings of Anthropomorphobia.
US-scientists extended the DNA alphabet with two new created 'foreign' building-blocks.
Will these futuristic signs become part of our near future?
To attract a female, male bower birds build structures and adorn these with colorful plastic decoration.
Buckle up for a new video from our favorite performance philosopher Jason Silva: To Be Human Is To Be Transhuman.
Human fitness has decreased so significantly that even the strongest of us would consider ancient men to have a supernatural force.
Digital bits have lives. They work for us, but we totally ignore them. What do bits really want? Here are the life stories of four different bits.
Since Darwin we tend to look at the biological world exclusively in economical terms. The idea that monkey's, frogs, or even ants do more than simply propagate, doesn't find much acceptance among scientists. And yet, even crayfishes at times seem to displace objects just for fun.
Social roboticist Heather Knight explains why we should give robots personalities.
It's more than two years since I have started this exploration of the Anthropocene for Next Nature for you. We have visited many places together, places I have traveled to as a …
Due to human action, 1300 bird species are seriously in decline. Other birds have learned to live with humans and profit from their presence.
With cities covering growing area of land, we humans and our spaces build the new wilderness for animals and plants.
If we are going to mutate the made & the born, let us at least do this creatively.
An inspiring topic about recent developments in biomimicry, Janine Benyus gave a talk on how nature influenced our future.
Scientists think the laws governing the structure of galaxies in outer space are the same laws underlying the growth of cities.
Nowadays humans suffer from diseases that didn't exist in the past, a trend that will probably continue into the future. A wide range of new disorders, especially related to the …
Thanks to the work of researchers at Cornell University (USA), for the first time a litter of puppies was born entirely from in vitro fertilization.
Earlier this year, a group of Chinese scientists published a paper about the modification of the genome of human embryos with the cutting-edge powerful technique called CRISPRs. …
It was announced this week that genetic modification allowed scientists to produce cattle resistant to tuberculosis.
A new biotech startup seeks to hack our cells to use solar energy instead of carbon and oxygen.
An innovative solution to a better way for transportation: a high-speed elevated Personal Rapid Transportation system.
Economy and ecology are two spheres that usually do not cooperate. Thanks to the ECO coin the environmental value can be conceived economically. A currency that can be earned by …
We had the honor of hosting Bruce Sterling in our Next Nature Network headquarters to talk to him about the concept of the convergence of humans and machines.
Conceptual designer Thomas Thwaites is currently investigating and experiencing to live life as a goat.
The speculative 'Plastivore' bird thrives on a diet of fungi and plastics.
Scientists at Harvard University inserted wooly mammoth DNA into the genome of the Asian elephant.
Nowadays the average teenager has more personal pink belongings than an emperor one thousand years ago
The coywolf: an animal that has the DNA of the wolves, coyotes and dogs.
Speculative designer Agi Haines' work focuses on (re)designing the human body, and speculates upon future scenarios.
Garbage dumps may not be very attractive places for us but they sure are for animals. A study published in Science Advances shows how certain groups of storks modified (and …
There's a factory in China that produces mosquitos and their plan is to defeat the Zika virus.
Genetic engineers are developing techniques to kill several types of mosquitoes.
Yearly 90 million metric tonnes of methane are burped and farted into the atmosphere by cattle with effects on climate change. Researchers are looking for ways to change the cow's diet, feeding it oregano, seaweed and super grass.
At a lab in Berkeley, California, there’s a mouse with no legs. Its head, torso, and tail are normal. It just lacks limbs. It didn’t lose those limbs; it just never grew them originally.
A recent study demonstrated how artificial light is a serious threat to plant pollination. It puts plant reproduction in danger, as well as the whole ecosystem.
A study revealed that the sound of motorboat engines disturbs coral reef fish so acutely it changes their behavior, making them bad parents.
Climate change turns rainforest leaves into junk food.
Cigarette butts are littered everywhere. But now, two Dutch designers have come up with a unique solution to the problem: the Crowbar.
GM varieties of petunia are not authorized for cultivation in the EU.
The Pink Chicken Project suggests modifying chickens’ DNA in order to send a message about our Earth health.
The Pyramid of Technology toolkit is a workshop-in-a-box that helps you better understand technology and catalyze innovative processes.
Open-air tests of self-destructing moths mark a new frontier for GMOs.
The Living Light harnesses plant energy to provide light. We spoke to its designer, Ermi van Oers, to find out more about the unique product.
Scientists believe the introduction of a hormone-like system, such as the one found in the human brain, could give AI the ability to reason and make decisions like people do. …
We sat down with Shahar Livne, an Israeli-born designer who graduated from the Design Academy in Eindhoven to talk about her vision on the future of plastics.
Mon dieu! The swirling pile of trash in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an exponential rate. A recent study has estimated that the mass of the garbage island is four to sixteen …