This week, Apple screwing over DIYers, hacking a pedal-powered snow plow, 12 ways bacteria can take over the world, a sofa made from 8,000 chopsticks, how to get involved with open-source design, and more.
LED Water Bottle Sculptures Illuminate Medieval Cathedral in England
The cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England have been transformed into a maze of 69 towers. Two sides of them are now filled with 15,000 water bottles that change colour in synch with choral music.
Great Do-It-Yourself Pedal-Powered Snow Plow
A customized three-wheel bike is taking care of snowy sidewalks at one Maker’s house.
12 Ways Bacteria Improve Our Lives, From Hard Drives to Highrises
From using bacteria as tiny hard drives for data storage to engineering them to fill in concrete cracks and make our buildings last longer, there’s a lot of ways mighty bacteria is improving our lives.
Tron: Legacy Consultant Creates Robotic Fish That Can Move in Any Direction (Video)
The new robot could be a breakthrough for more nimble underwater vehicles, including those that could monitor coral reefs. Check out a video of the fish in action.
EarthObserver App Puts Earthquakes, Icebergs and More At Your Fingertips
The new EarthObserver App, for the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, features all sorts of fascinating maps on the planet’s natural elements, from tectonic plates to the flow of oceanic and atmospheric currents, to earthquake zones and snow covers.
Coffee Table Doubles As Heliostat, Lighting Room
Danish designer Dag Igland has built Pure Sunlight, a sort of indoor heliostat, that lets the user adjust a mirror built into a coffee table to reflect light up to the ceiling.
Your Little Ideas Make Big Differences With Open IDEO’s Revolutionary Design Model (Video)
Open IDEO is, simply put, a brilliant concept. New challenges are presented on the website and anyone can get involved by providing inspiration ideas. Yep — You get to design a better technology, right from your livingroom.
Transformer Sofa Is Made From 8,000 Chopsticks
Designer yuya ushida built this transformer sofa, that extends from chair width to full three person sofa, out of eight thousand chopsticks, cut into four lengths and fastened with rings and joints. It took him three months.
Have 3D Printing and Mass Customization Reached The Tipping Point?
Are we about to see a major revolution in how things are made?
The Pentalobe Screw, And Apple’s War Against Self-Repair
Apple is switching to a special new screw called by some a Pentalobe, by iFixit an “Evil Proprietary Tamper Proof Five Point Screw” (or the EPTP5PS). It is designed to make it impossible for anyone but Apple to service your iPhone or computer.
TreeHugger’s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.
