Tracks are designed to favor some athletes over others—but not in the way you think

Middle lanes FTW? Not exactly. As a short-distance track and field runner in high school and college, I often found myself wondering which of the eight or sometimes nine lanes on the track was the fastest. It was conventional wisdom that the middle lanes— lanes three through six—were the best.Read Full Story

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Prince Charles and Jony Ive launch a new design lab backed by Amazon

The new lab was built to catalyze environmentally minded designs. Saving the environment is one of the most pressing design challenges of our time. And with just 100 days before the UN’s COP26 climate conference—where the world will convene to discuss action on climate change—the most prominent designer of our time has made a big announcement.Read...

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How Chez Panisse redesigned fine dining—and changed how America eats

Thank Alice Waters and her Berkeley, California, restaurant Chez Panisse—celebrating its 50th anniversary this year—for the farm-to-table movement that changed how America eats. When a small restaurant called Chez Panisse opened its doors 50 years ago in Berkeley, California, it wasn’t obvious that it would change how Americans thought about eating....

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How high school students are using cutting-edge tech to preserve ancient Armenian history

The students did a 3D scan of a 5th century monastery right before a war broke out. In late 2020, long-simmering tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over a disputed territory escalated into war. Over six weeks, missiles, drone attacks, and heavy artillery fire erupted throughout the region, known as Nagorno-Karabakh. In the end, a ceasefire was...

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The Olympics may be mired in controversy, but for U.S. advertisers, it’s business as usual

Brands are still banking on the selling power of the five rings. Sprinters line up to run the women’s 100-meter final. Screaming fans cheer them on amid a packed stadium. At the same time, fans squeeze into another packed arena to watch Paralympic basketball.Read Full Story

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Opening Ceremony creative director is the latest Olympic official to be fired

The creative director was fired when video surface of him making a joke about the Holocaust. The Tokyo Olympics is not off to a good start. The creative director of the opening ceremony was fired on Thursday, the day before the big event is to take place.Read Full Story

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How the Olympics ruin cities

The Olympics are no longer compatible with modern, sustainable development. Even the IOC recognizes this. In the run up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the favela community of Vila Autódromo was virtually destroyed. It sat on prime real estate at the water’s edge, in the up and coming West Zone neighborhood. Dwellings were demolished, and hundreds of...

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What if our home electronics were made from fruit, not plastic?

Italian designers have made a lamp from discarded orange peels. It even smells like citrus. If you glance around your home, you’ll see plastic everywhere, from your air-conditioner to your phone charger to your lamp. When you’re done with these products, they’ll likely end up in a landfill where they’ll sit for hundreds of years, breaking into minuscule...

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These wild shoes are designed to weather floods and extreme heat

Climate change is already here. Will the shoes of the future help us get through floods and extreme heat? Heat waves. Wildfires. Floods. Climate change is no longer a threat looming in the future; it’s our reality today.Read Full Story

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This company is building a carbon calculator for every product in the world

Carbonfact is impossibly ambitious. But impossible ambition is just what the environment needs right now. Look at your feet. (I’m going to assume you’re wearing shoes.) Do you have any idea how good or bad those shoes are for the environment? Or did you pick them for their color, comfort, or style?Read Full Story

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