Via TED: David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut — and it may just change the way we see …
Via TED: Tan Le‘s astonishing new computer interface reads its user’s brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-reaching applications.
Via TED: Ellen Dunham-Jones fires the starting shot for the next 50 years’ big sustainable design project: retrofitting suburbia. To come: Dying malls rehabilitated, dead “big box” stores re-inhabited, parking lots transformed into thriving wetlands.
Via TED: In graphic design, Marian Bantjes says, throwing your individuality into a project is heresy. She explains how she built her career doing just that, bringing her signature delicate illustrations to storefronts, valentines and even genetic diagrams.
Gravity-like theories give insight into the strong force (PhysOrg) A new computation of the constant that describes the strength of the force between the quarks in a proton may help theorists tackle one of the most challenging problems of physics: analytically solving the theory of QCD and determining its coupling …
Crocs and fish key to human evolution (PhysOrg) Almost two million years ago, early humans began eating food such as crocodiles, turtles and fish — a diet that could have played an important role in the evolution of human brains and our footsteps out of Africa, according to new research. …
Via TED (15m 23s): Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler demos g-speak — the real-life version of the film’s eye-popping, tai chi-meets-cyberspace computer interface. Is this how tomorrow’s computers will be controlled?
Two interviews from The Commonwealth Club with Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman: In conversation with Kevin Kelly, Founding Executive Editor, Wired. Are elephants truly scared of mice? Can trousers really spontaneously combust? Is it movie magic, or can a person actually hold on to the hood of a speeding …