Stairways to Heaven

On the off chance that anyone is spending Sunday afternoon designing their dreamhouse, these photos of innovative staircases should provide some inspiration.

May the Roof Tiles above You Change Color

A bit of technological and design brilliance emanated from a group of MIT grads last week, in the form of color-changing roof tiles. The tiles, made of polymers commonly found in hair gels, turn white when hot (to reflect the sun) and black when cold (to absorb the sun).

So on a scorcher of summer day, when you'd normally have the AC's cranking, the tiles turn white and help a home to stay cool from the outside-in. In the winter, when the air outside is frigid, they change back to black and absorb all the energy and heat they can from the sun's rays.

Mentioning "scorcher of a summer day" above made me think of how blazingly hot the blacktop in beach parking lots get in the summer. What about the roads? They are a mass of reflective gold that does nothing but bake all day in the sun. As usual, science is waaaay ahead of me: the Solar Roadways project.