New Atlas

Science Audio available

Teenage psychotic experiences more common in urban areas with high air pollution

Rich Haridy March 27, 2019

A fascinating and robust new study has for the first time examined the association between teenage psychotic experiences and exposure to air pollution. The study strikingly found higher rates of adolescent psychotic experiences significantly correlated with increased levels of urban air pollution.

Without offering a causal conclusion, a new study suggests a strong observational association between air pollution ...

Drones

Gallery: Architectural abstractions – the seductive geometry of buildings from above

Rich Haridy March 9, 2019

Architects have long embedded geometrical patterns into their designs that lay hidden from the view of us ground-dwelling humans. In this gallery we feature some of the most spectacular secret symmetries uncovered through modern drone photography.

Volume 3 of an ongoing series called Aerial Facades from Camilo Monzón Navas in Colombia (Credit: ...

Urban Transport

Science Fiction Cities: How our future visions influence the cities we build

Rich Haridy July 28, 2018

As we look forward to a 21st century filled with massive mega-cities, and extraordinary technological innovation, we must ask how are our science fiction visions influencing the cities we build, and what can we learn from some of these prescient fictional texts?

Architecture

The ambitious plan to build a city of floating pyramids

Adam Williams April 27, 2018

Italian designer Pierpaolo Lazzarini has conceived a futuristic community named Wayaland made up of floating pyramid structures. It's still very much in the concept stage, though Lazzarini is hoping to raise the funds to build it with a crowdfunding campaign.

Wayaland would include houses, hotels, retail areas, and cinemas

Good Thinking

Introducing Neom, the 500 billion-dollar, ultra-high tech future megacity of Saudi Arabia

Loz Blain October 24, 2017

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is looking past the oil era to a new age of global commerce, and he's building a half-trillion dollar, futuristic paradise of a megacity as its centrepiece. Neom is Dubai 2.0, a lavish international hub based on next-level tech and a new, progressive Saudi politics.

The building site for Neom: a futuristic city where the desert meets the Red Sea, with ...

Architecture

China's Forest City to fight pollution with the power of a million plants

Nick Lavars June 26, 2017

The vision of Italian architect Stefano Boeri is starting to take shape around the world. Now the Chinese region of Liuzhou will also play home to some of his handiwork, with construction underway on a so-called Forest City that is hoped to soak up some of the country's infamous air pollution.

Construction is currently underway on the Liuzhou Forest City in southern China

Electronics

New LED array builds a better street light

Michael Irving February 9, 2017

Considering taxpayers are footing the bill, it pays to improve the efficiency of the more than 300 million streetlights around the globe. A team in Germany has now developed an array of low-power LEDs that are more efficient, safer, cooler, and easier on the eyes.

A new LED array is designed to allow individual diodes to burn out without interrupting the ...

Automotive

Electra Meccanica three-wheeler lets efficient motorists fly Solo

Scott Collie June 10, 2016

Everyone from Renault to VW, with a few Russians in between, has taken a crack at repackaging the city car. For some reason though, most of these "reinventions" still have four wheels. Canadian company Electra Meccanica has joined Elio Motors in asking why, with its three-wheeled Solo.

Electra Meccanica wants to make city motoring more efficient

Automotive

Russian city car leaves convention behind

Scott Collie May 12, 2016

Most city cars are smaller and smarter than your average car, but they're limited by design and manufacturing conventions handed down from larger cars. What happens when you abandon these conventions? Well, Russian company Mirrow has tried to find out, and created the Provocator in the process.

The Mirrow Provocator is a unique take on the modern city car

Good Thinking

In-road LEDs providing lightbulb moments for distracted smartphone users

Stu Robarts April 29, 2016

For those who are forever glued to their smartphones, navigating a city can be hazardous. Dodging street lights and other pedestrians without looking up is tricky, and crossing roads is downright dangerous. That's why Augsburg in Germany is trialling in-road pedestrian lights.

The lights comprise strips of LEDs integrated into the surface of the road just off the ...