Archive · November 2026
Biomechanics at level -3: Giger's Alien in Santiago's metro, and the vaults he built
Giger's Alien: El Origen runs free at level -3 of Ñuñoa station in Santiago. Read the Swiss artist as a builder, then array a ribbed vault in Grasshopper.
Talking in the Hiss: Stanford Sends Data by Reflecting Thermal Noise, With No Radio Carrier
Stanford engineers reflect room-temperature thermal noise to send bits, reaching kilobit rates. What passive links mean for sensors in Swiss buildings.
The Shape a Soap Film Already Knows: Minimal Surfaces from Lagrange to Frei Otto
Why a soap film finds the least-area surface: zero mean curvature, Plateau's 120° law, and how Frei Otto carried it to Lausanne 1964 and Munich 1972.