Researching the implications of downsizing the human species to better fit the earth.
The Tightwad Gazette, created by Amy Dacyczyn between 1990 and 1996, transformed frugal living from a sign of financial hardship into an empowering, creative alternative lifestyle. Her philosophy reframed extreme resourcefulness not as a restrictive chore, but as an intellectual and creative game where everyday…
Observations of snapping-based prey capture strategies of the Venus flytrap and mantis shrimp have inspired research to design materials with exotic and programmable functions. At AMOLF, researchers expanded this repertoire by demonstrating countersnapping, where a combination of geometrically nonlinear building blocks cooperate to suddenly shrink…
Several species of small animals have evolved bio-mechanical power amplification to overcome the disadvantages of being small in a world dominated by bigness. Power amplification increases power beyond regular muscular levels through an elastic medium (e.g. tendons) able to catch and store large amounts of…
