It’s ironic that some of the most banal materials can also be some of the most resilient. Forest by-products like sawdust and woodchips have the potential to be more fortifyingly superior to Kevlar. The discovery of cellulose nanocrystals that originate from wood pulp extract led the US Forest Service to give $1.7 billion to its Forest Products Laboratory branch.

One of the most abundant materials on the planet, the intricate matrix that is weaved by cellulose has been reinforcing huge natural structures such as sequoias for thousands of years. Pulped and then rinsed of a highly-degradable polymer called lignin, the cellulose fibers are further broken down into fibrils – tiny units one thousand times stronger than the original fibers. Hydrogen bonds eventually connect the nanofibrils, and strong acid is added to bundle the three-dimensional stacks as close as possible.

Produced at the cost of about $10 per kilo, the cellulose nanocrystals are a worthy opponent to carbon nanotubules, a material of similar strength that costs nearly 100 times more to produce. With uses in military defense, engineering, medicine and consumer products, these tiny wonders could create jobs and help the economy.

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Not exactly your simple driver download and installation, an MIT scientist is doing research that could lead to downloadable memories. Dr. Ed Boyden is decoding brain patterns in hope that our memories could one day be copied into information to improve neuron capabilities.

Dr. Boyden has located a protein called channelrhodopsin (ChR). Found in algae extracts, it has the ability to convert light into electricity. When ChR is introduced to certain neural pathways, it causes the brain’s electrical signals to be triggered by light.

Using a computer program, these patterns can then be mapped. The light-sensitive protein allows the ability to convert these patterns to binary code. If the mind’s complex pathways can be coded, then they ostensibly can be converted and stored. Boyden and his team are one step closer to creating a neuron on/off switch, which is a giant step for the fight against degenerative brain disease.

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As gruesome as it seems to us today, public executions used to be a source of entertainment for the whole town. Families would walk to the town square where they would watch a convicted criminal be killed in any number of ways. Not exactly the kind of thing most of us would enjoy today, but back in the 1920s English toymaker Charles Ahrens decided that it would make a delightful penny arcade game.

Surprisingly, at least one working model still exists and is being offered for sale on eBay at the probably-reasonable asking price of $17,499.99. In the demonstration video, the seller shows how, after feeding a coin into the machine, the interior lights up and the doors open. Inside you can see three figures assembled around the condemned man. A few tolls of the bell and the bottom drops out beneath the convict, letting him drop to his supposed death.

The gruesome subject matter of the display doesn’t detract from the excellent workmanship and beauty of the machine itself. The one-of-a-kind cabinet brings the macabre display just up to eye level for a child, perhaps giving them a warning about what happens to people who choose a life of crime. According to the seller, this machine has even been converted from accepting English pennies to taking American quarters.

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As much of a codger Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens is, he was right – the internet is a series of tubes. This was made impressively apparent when Google revealed pictures of its data centers. It looks like what heaven would be for the Blue Man Group.

The images range from networks of massive tinker toy-looking pipes to the artificial twilight glow of rows of servers. Google photographed and released the set themselves. All eight of their data centers are included in the aptly-titled photo exhibit Where the Internet Lives.

These magnificent shots are a documentation of Google’s well-known meticulous organizational traits, as well as a demonstration of the company’s unique design aesthetic. A network of ducts is arranged and represented by the colors in the Google logo.

Long aisles of servers resemble the corridors from the Death Star. A collection of insulated pipes fit the style that would make any steam punk enthusiast drool. These rare images were taken by photographer Connie Zhou.

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Flip phones have gone out of vogue in favor of the sleeker, flatter smartphone, but designer Kristian Ulrich Larsen has a new take on the whole concept of a phone that flips. The Flip Phone is a revolution in the arena of mobile phone design. Instead of the ubiquitous flat rectangle that seems to represent every smartphone these days, the Flip Phone features three separate screens.

The screens can be arranged and used in a variety of different ways, even running different apps on all three at the same time. They can be opened up to create a large display or folded into a triangle to make a traditional-looking clock. They can become a screen and a keypad or a book-like e-reader – and there are seemingly endless other configurations.

The phone was the product of a six-week creative workshop involving Larsen and other designers. Larsen then further developed the idea as part of his MA program. He saw that people are using their mobile phones for far more than just communicating verbally or via text; they’re using them much in the way that we use our laptop computers.

This led him to design a phone that would work more like a computer and allow users to do more – or less, depending on just what they need at the moment. The phone would consist of three flexible AMOLED screens covered in Gorilla Glass, a lightweight aluminum case and steel mesh at the joints to make the phone easy to bend and flip around.

It’s safe to say that the highly unusual design is unlike any mobile phone on the market today. Whether it is ever developed into a real product remains to be seen, but judging from the demo video it’s going to take a lot of fancy software to make this phone capable of everything Larsen wants it to do.

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