Tim Halbur

Two industrial design students at Lund University noticed that despite a new law requiring bike helmets in Sweden, many people refused to wear them. They've invented a stylish cowl that inflates on impact just like an airbag.

New York has a filthy history, says Robin Nagle, the New York City Department of Sanitation's anthropologist-in-residence. The muck of early Manhattan was much worse than you even suspected.

Charles Landry, like Richard Florida, is focused on the importance of talent in the economic health of cities. But Landry defines the "creative class" much more broadly.

An ambitious new development outside the Chinese city of Ordos lies empty.

Those in the know know that it could be none other than UCLA professor Don Shoup, profiled here in the Los Angeles Times.