Mike Hanlon

Mike grew up thinking he would become a mathematician, accidentally started motorcycle racing while at university, got a job writing road tests for a motorcycle magazine and became a writer. As a traveling photojournalist during his early career, his work was published in a dozen languages across 20+ countries. He went on to edit or manage over 75 print publications, with target audiences ranging from pensioners to plumbers, many different sports, many car and motorcycle magazines, with many more in the fields of communication - narrow subject magazines on topics such as advertising, marketing, visual communications, design, presentation and direct marketing. Then came the internet and Mike managed internet projects for Australia's largest multimedia company (Design Ridge), Telstra.com.au (Australia's largest Telco), Seek.com.au (Australia's largest employment site), top100.com.au, hitwise.com, and a dozen other internet start-ups before founding New Atlas in 2002. Mike remains the majority shareholder and chairman of the company and continues to travel and attend technology events. His focus in 2025/26 will be China and the emerging Asian economies.

Featured

Architecture

The Ombra room-as-an-appliance

It may not be visible to the rest of the world, but there's a revolution going on in China right now that will almost certainly have repercussions for everyone.
Sports

The world's only streaming headset for swimming just got better

We’ve tested 50 different waterproof headsets over the years, and a clear favorite emerged when Zygo launched its headphones. This week a 2nd-gen Zygo was announced, with enhanced audio, longer range, longer battery life, and on-the-go charging.
Urban Transport

The Aerothrust propulsion system: An insanely great idea

It might look dumb, but this little engine catalyzed the American Air Boat industry, and its legacy might yet have several more significant chapters in general transportation. Pusher engines can create very efficient vehicles. Just not like this!
Tents

$8,000 lockable building-in-a-box assembles in 11 minutes, sleeps 8

You could view it as a solid-floored uber-tent or an easily relocatable temporary building – but you could also call it a super-minimal tiny home for US$8,000. This remarkable building-in-a-box was designed for housing refugees, but it's now on sale.
Good Thinking

The ingenious cardboard bed

Humanitaria has created a cardboard bed for the critical first 24 hours of a humanitarian emergency. The beds can be manufactured at 1,000 units per hour for a 10th of the cost, assembled 200 times quicker, and landed where needed 100 times faster.
Manufacturing

$300,000 robotic micro-factories pump out custom-designed homes

Construction is the world’s largest industry, contributing 13% of global GDP. It is also the most inefficient, least digitised and most polluting industry. Now AUAR has begun rolling out an ingenious end-to-end solution based on its micro-factory.
Architecture

Reconfigurable building takes out EU Prize for Architecture

The 2024 winner of the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture is an ingenious rearrangeable multi-story pavilion designed to be quickly extended, moved, or reconfigured into whatever the community needs it to be.
Collectibles

TOP 100 Business Cards of history's most important people - #1-10

There has always been a marketplace for the personal cards of important people, but the humble ceremonial personal card (aka business card, visiting card, calling card, Carte de Visite) has never received much attention at auction, and has often been used as part of a significant lot to highlight provenance and authenticity.
Collectibles

"Bookfind of the century" sells for $2.23 million

In 2007 a Canadian doctor paid $14,250 for a well-used second edition of "De humani corporis fabrica" (1555) covered in latin annotations by an unknown hand. The handwriting turned out to be that of the man who wrote the book - Andreas Vesalius - one of history's most important scientists and teachers.
Around The Home

The fresh vegetable machine: AGWA's AI-supervised farm in a box

This indoor vegetable-growing machine uses artificial intelligence, cameras, climate control and a smartphone app to deliver a constant supply of fresh herbs and vegetables using minimal time, energy and effort.
Transport

Personal aircraft carrier & load-on eVTOL could be Model T of flying cars

Twelve months from now, the modern day equivalent of Ford's moving assembly line will begin producing flying cars in bulk – and the equivalent of the built-for-the-masses Model T Ford is very likely to be the XPeng AeroHT Modular Flying Car.
Aircraft

$190,000 eVTOL deliveries begin July – no license required

Personal flight is currently undergoing a renaissance thanks to the rapid advancement of so many requisite industrial technologies. The next phase is poised to begin and the production version of this aircraft could well mark the occasion in history.