Paula Scher: Serious Play April 25, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in ideo, innovation, paula scher, play, serious play.add a comment
Why are kids more creative than adults? Are they predisposed to be this way? Is it the fact that they have fewer responsibilities? Evidence is increasingly pointing towards play as being the major distinguishing factor.
After a certain age, for whatever reason, play becomes less socially acceptable. “Grow up!” someone might say, or “act your age!”
But play is the way we engage with the world, the way we see how it works, how it breaks, and when it hurts.
I think we all know this, but few of us allow ourselves the chance to play, especially in our work lives. However, there are two notable exceptions who’ve spoken out in favour of play. Firstly there’s IDEO, the California based design consultancy, where play is essential to what they do. The ‘IDEO way’ emphasises play, and free experimentation, and this is a key contributor to its position as one of the most innovative companies in the world.
Another proponent of play is Paula Scher, the legendary graphic designer. She appeared at the TED conference, and spoke on the the issue of ’serious play’, and it is one of the most articulate and well crafted arguments that I’ve ever encountered.
Muji Design Award April 25, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in competition, design, jasper morrison, muji, naoto fukasawa, straw straw, supernormal.add a comment
I was browsing the website for the upcoming Objectified film, and came across a link to the Muji Design Award 03. This year’s theme was Found, “from nature; knowledge from those that came before us; from one’s own unique culture.” I’ve never seen a design competition where the entrants respond so well to the brief, by making products that display the correct qualities, whilst maintaining the purity of the Muji design aesthetic.
The winner was the “straw straw”, literally a drinking straw made out of straw. It seems so blatantly obvious, but this is part of its charm. Straw is the perfect material in many ways, particularly from an environmental standpoint, but in an age of mass production where plastics are convenient and abundant, this traditional material has been neglected.
Two of the judges were Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison, who are proponents of ‘Supernormal‘ design, where a product doesn’t rely on aesthetic flourishes to justify it’s design credentials, but rather it is the synthesis of materials, human needs and simplicity which determines its value. On all of these counts, the straw straw is a triumph.
Fast Charging Lithium Batteries April 14, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in Electric, MIT, batteries, car, engineering, fast discharge, lithium ion, vehicle.add a comment
It isn’t common for a piece of research to show such immediate promise, but a recent paper published in Nature has certainly bucked the trend. An MIT Materials Professor and his graduate research assistant have discovered a way to charge and discharge lithium phosphate batteries at unprecedented rates.
Lithium phosphate cells use a liquid electrolyte, which should permit the fast transport of lithium ions from the anode to the cathode under charging conditions (according to computer models). However, the rates seen in real cells are considerably slower. What accounts for this is the behaviour of the lithium ions as they approach the cathode surface. If a lithium ion is immediately next to a channel in the cathode material, then it moves immediately into the vacancy. However, if no such channel is near by, the lithium ion takes a considerable amount of time to move to one.
The MIT researchers applied a lithium phosphate glass to the cathode which allows lithium ions to be quickly conducted across the cathode surface and into a vacancy. This has a drastic effect on charging and discharge rates, with a test cell taking between 10 and 20 seconds to completely charge or discharge, compared to six minutes for existing cells of the same chemistry.
This means that electric vehicles could potentially be charged in a matter of minutes, if the grid could supply such high currents. Furthermore, the power density of the cells is increased drastically. This has been a problem with lithium cells in the past; although they have high energy density, their ability to rapidly change to load requirements has been lacking. This is why most hybrids, including the Toyota Prius, use Nickel Metal Hydride cells (NiMH). It can be envisaged that cars with these new cells would have acceleration comparable to modern day super-cars.
And the final thing which makes this discovery so exciting: it uses a battery chemistry which is already reaching pre-eminence in electric vehicle applications. The reason lithium phosphate is so popular is that it’s inherently safe when compared to other lithium chemistries such as lithium cobalt oxide, which can deteriorate to form oxygen gas, which is of course highly explosive. Furthermore, it displays almost 100% depth of discharge, without irrevocably damaging the cells.
This is certainly disruptive technology, because it dismantles one of the main arguments put forward by pro-oil lobbyists: namely, that petrol and diesel cars are superior because they can be refilled so easily. But now it seems as if electric cars could be recharged in just a few minutes, which makes their adoption look more and more inevitable.
