Maria Popova
Creator and Author, "Brain Pickings"
Maria Popova is a reader and a writer, and writes about what she reads on Brain Pickings (brainpickings.org), which is included in the Library of Congress archive of culturally valuable materials. She has also written for The New York Times, Wired UK, and The Atlantic, among others, and is an MIT Fellow. She is on Twitter @brainpicker.
Pest control is typically associated with toxic chemicals and considered an antithesis to organic farming. But South Korean company Eco Solatec may be able to change that. Their Solar Trap […]
After fuseproject’s sleek WattStation electric vehicle charging stations for GE, Nissan enters the designer charging station market with Solar Tree – a futuristic solar-powered vehicle charging station. The 40-foot concept […]
Disability is one of the areas where design can make the most meaningful difference in quality of life. This was certainly true of Amanda Boxtel, who has been confined to […]
Over the past few months, we’ve been covering somenoteworthycontenders for the prestigious James Dyson Award for student design innovation. This week, the global winner was finally announced – the LONGREACH […]
Solar panels for the home and alternative fuel for transportation are two of the most widespread threads of innovation in sustainability, but they are rarely if ever discussed in parallel. […]
Last month, design and innovation firm fuseproject introduced WattStation — a revolutionary electric vehicle charging station for public spaces, developed in partnership with GE. Leveraging the technology and its critical […]
Since its invention in 1859, the escalator has been the most widely used mode of non-vehicle urban transpiration, ubiquitous everywhere from airports to shopping malls to subways. It is estimated […]
After spotlighting the Lunartic bike concept, here is another noteworthy finalist in designboom and Seoul Design Foundation’s Seoul Cycle Design Competition. Bikoff by Argentinian industrial design student Marcos Madia takes […]
Design and innovation powerhouse IDEO is known for using design thinking and keen behavioral insight to reinvent object, products and systems that touch our daily lives. Most recently, they envisioned […]
The bicycle has come a long way since the kernel of its invention in 1817. One of the most interesting innovations in cycling over the past few years has been […]
More than 3 billion pizzas are sold in the US each year, with the majority coming from takeout and delivery. Unfortunately, most pizza boxes are made from standard cardboard. Add […]
The Feast Conference is a social innovation summit gathering some of the world’s most compelling thinkers and doers from a cross-disciplinary spectrum of innovation, inspiration and empowerment. Last year, The […]
When looking at design as a utilitarian problem-solving tool, the smartest solutions are often the simplest ones. That’s certainly the case with Tube Grip – a compact inflatable grip-assistant designed […]
Random acts of kindness have been shown to increase everything from self-esteem to happiness level. At the same time, the paradox of choice is known to increase our cognitive load […]
The past few years have yielded a promising array of designs inspired by biomimicry, radically diverse in domain and application but unified by a common tangent of brilliant simplicity and […]
As urban biking continues togrow, cyclist safety becomes a legitimate concern in today’s traffic-infested cities. Now, South Korean designer Lee Myung Su has a solution with SEIL Bag – a compact […]
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are a fantastic energy-efficient alternative to standard incandescent ones, but let’s face it – they’re rather unfortunate-looking. Until now. From British human-centric gadget company Hulger and designer […]
The latest product from fuseproject brings a whole new meaning to the “design for good” conversation. FORM3 is a waterproof rechargeable designer vibrator made out of medical-grade silicone and designed […]
How can space impact and improve the happiness of a community?
Some time ago, we looked at how designers are rethinking packaging to make it less ecologically demanding and more user-friendly. Now, eBay joins the movement with “simple green shipping” – […]
Sustainable underwear line PACT, from designer Yves Behar of One Laptop Per Child fame, has just introduced Creative Growth – a limited-edition collection in partnership with Creative Growth Art Center, […]
The benefits of keeping plants in living spaces have long been documented, both in science and in popular wisdom. But plants were not designed to handle, let alone counter, many […]
The Montessori method is easily the best-known system of self-directed learning in formal education. Now, Montessorium is putting the 100-year-old educational tradition at the fingertips of today’s children with two […]
In the age of reuse-is-better-than-recycle, Italian designer Antonello Fusè has come up with an ingenious, elegant twist on used furniture: Abitudini, a line of unique, asymmetrical coat hangers made from […]
At the age of 14, amidst poverty and famine, a Malawian boy by the name of William Kamkwamba built a windmill from scrap to power his family’s home. Living on […]
It’s often said that children are the designers of humanity’s future. International research consultancy Latitude and ReadWriteWeb decided to take the adage literally, asking children to envision the future of […]
There’s hardly anything more symbolic of an outdoor party or picnic than the red disposable plastic cup. But neither the aesthetic appearance nor the environmental impact of such disposable tableware […]
The perils of plastic are nothing new to most of us. A lesser-known fact, however, is that plastic has a higher energy value than just about any other type of […]
Wind turbines are more likely to prompt an association with the Northern California hills, where wind farms grace the vast landscape with their unseemly efficiency, than with the hustle-and-bustle of […]
Apple carved its way as a formidable innovator in everything from UI design to the app economy. Now, they’re taking the lead on materials innovation. The company recently acquired an […]