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Posts Tagged “

France

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structural engineering

Eiffel Tower's Massive New Observation Deck to be Made of Kevlar Webbing

The Eiffel Tower has remained exactly the same for 120 years, but this year builders will be attaching a temporary, carbon Kevlar observation deck to its uppermost reaches. French architecture firm Serero will help Paris celebrate the 120th birthday of the tower by more than doubling the floor space at its top. We've got a full frontal tower view below. More »

8:20 AM on Wed Mar 19 2008
By LISA KATAYAMA
5,803 views, 37 comments

Latest by simonjp: It's not like the tower's always looked the same; as was pointed out earlier, it's been an advertising hoarding, different colours, etc. I'm not convinced it should be a permanent addition, but it's interesting to see that people can accept more »

architecture

An Alien Biosphere Stadium that Changes Color at Night

This concert hall, just completed in Aurillac, France, holds over 4,000 people and glows in changing rainbow patterns at night. In the daytime, the soaring, curved walls are otherworldly. But at night fluorescent lights that peek out from between concrete blocks create an eerie, alien look that you can see below. More »

7:00 AM on Tue Mar 11 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,786 views, 9 comments

evolution

Plants Rapidly Evolve New Reproductive Systems in Cities

A common French weed known as Crepis sancta underwent a form of superaccelerated evolution to cope with the difficulties of spreading their seeds in cities. Scientists studying C. sancta discovered that over a period of just twelve years, the plants went from mostly producing "dispersing" seeds that spread on the wind, to producing "nondispersing" seeds that fall to the ground nearby. Why would a plant shift its reproductive cycle so radically and quickly? More »

4:58 PM on Mon Mar 3 2008
By Annalee Newitz
2,507 views, 25 comments

art

French Artist Talks To Aliens Using Crazy Font

French artist Tania Mouraud likes to make giant black-and-white installations that look like bar codes but are actually just letters written in a crazy font she invented to communicate with aliens. Apparently, aliens don't like to see spaces in between words (or letters, for that matter), but the more educated ones have learned English. Here, Mouraud asks them: "How can you sleep?" A question any decent host would ask their jet-lagged visitors. Click through for another message to our extraterrestrial visitors. More »

4:30 PM on Mon Feb 11 2008
By LISA KATAYAMA
1,989 views, 20 comments

Latest by Nikongmer: As a child, I was into codes and ciphers. I remember one form of code using font like this that took up the whole page. To read it clearly, you would have to keep the book horizontal while bringing it more »