Scientists Develop a Technology That Reverses Hearing Loss

Founded by MIT scientists, the clinical-stage biotech company Frequency Therapeutics discovered a way to reverse hearing loss without hearing aids or implants. Focusing on progenitor cells (which reside in the inner ear and turn into hair cells when humans are in utero, before going dormant) the company injects small molecules into the cochlea, which transform these cells into hair cells that help us hear. During …

Architect Oscar Niemeyer’s Final Building Opens

Designed two years before Pritzker Prize-winning Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer’s death (at the age of 104) in 2010, a curving pavilion at French vineyard Château La Coste is now open to guests. Two architectural attributes (a cylindrical auditorium and a glass-walled gallery space) as well as an outdoor reflecting pool contribute to the structure’s organic form—which aligns with the curving landscape and surrounding vines. Château …

Stephen Henrich’s Infinity Bike Moves Without Wheels

Reimagining the concept of a bike, Stuttgart, Germany-based designer, robotics engineer and architect Stephen Henrich unveiled the Infinity Bike, an award-winning creation that replaces wheels with a large, caterpillar-like chain element that can fluidly switch between functions and is propelled by a central pinched structure, a crank over a short chain and an eight-speed gearbox. Henrich tells Mashable, “It’s a bicycle with a frame and …