University of Göttingen

A huge chunk of energy usage goes towards heating and cooling homes and buildings, so it’s important to find new ways to regulate temperature passively. A new wood-based foam could drastically cool buildings to a degree that can be easily tuned.

By taking advantage of recent advances in smartphone technology and the infinite possibilities of Lego, scientists in Germany have built a cheap and easy high-resolution microscope that is part educational tool and part toy.