Noise-cancelling...Landscape

Grond-Geluid or "Groundsound' is the title of an acoustic landiscape project of Dutch designer Paul de Kort that reduces noise pollution around Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, one of the world's busiest airports. Groundsound and the resulting public park, Buitenschot that resulted from the project offer grand ridges that mimic small sand ripples left by waves on a beach but they go a great distance in addressing the low frequency ground noise created by departing flights at the nearby airport.

More on Grond-Geluid...

• Freriks, K. 2013. Thresholds of Silence. Works That Work.
• Kehe, J. 2014. Clever Landscaping That Bounces Plane Noise Back Into the Sky. Wired.

SeanChron | Building Robot Trust

Great article in the June 2014 Wired Magazine by Emily Anthes on our relationship with robots, artificial intelligence, and machines in general. In Trusting Our Robots, Anthes explores the major challenge of building trust with robots and some of the ways this can be done...primarily by building systems into robots that share information about how and why they might fail in their tasks. Interesting...seems all that scifi was right, hard-wiring human imperfections, such as the ability to express self-doubt, may be a good thing after all.

Kernel of Life

Wired Magazine recently partnered with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to conceptualize several world-Changing healthcare products. Wired then turned to several industrial design firms to help bring the concepts to life.

One of our favorites is the Kernel, developed in partnership with FuseProject. Kernel is a wearable technology that offers embedded medical tests for blood, saliva, urine and breath to address challenges of diagnosing and treating illnesses in healthcare-scarce parts of the world. Once completed, test results and ongoing data can be transmitted through mobile devices to providers who can then communicated pack to patients and local providers.

WIRED: Robots Take Over!

The January 2013 issue of Wired Magazine titled Robots Take Over! features a cover photo of an ornery Jimmy Fallon and several articles on the coming robot era. The feature article explores the many and diverse jobs that robots may be taking over in the not so distant future.

Nano Watch - Glory for Graphene at Last

Readers of Wired Magazine's online Gadget Lab blog are well aware of Wired's crush on graphene, a film of carbon one atom thick that promises to benefit everything from transistors to touchscreens. But graphene was becoming the Susan Lucci of Nobel-worthy physics as it had been beat out by other discoveries and research over the last few years. So we weren't surprised to see Wired gush when University of Manchester theoretical physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov recently won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research on the material. Tim Carmody's post, "Why Graphene Won Scientists the Nobel Prize" sums up the technology - and their love for it - beautifully.

High tech conservation on Kauai

The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii is using high tech technology to help control invasive species like Australian tree ferns and Kahili ginger. From aerial photographs to targeted herbicides, TNC biologists and volunteers are on a mission to protect the Kauai watershed. Read more at WIRED Magazine.


Image: Chad Riley via Wired