Can Early-Stage Design Flaws Be Fixed Before They Kill Profits?Sponsored ContentSave this picture!Courtesy of SnaptrudeOften admired for its simplicity and ability to clearly communicate via scribbles on an espresso martini-stained napkin, the napkin sketch is perhaps one of the most recognized forms of creative leadership in the industry. Not only is it iconic, but this type of early-stage, iterative sketch helps to set project direction in a fast, easy, and effective way. However, the work that follows to translate that sketch into design (and ultimately win work) often robs firms of a profitable early-stage design phase.In fact, this trend is so prevalent that the AIA reports nearly 15% of all work a firm does is done for free, causing design pursuits to become loss leaders for many prospective projects. Further compounding this issue is the fact that when asked, firms say that increasing profitability is the top concern.Save this picture!Save this picture!The Biggest Risk to ProfitImagine this for a secondthe process of ideating a beautiful building often costs firms money. Now, we could easily spiral into a tangent about the value of good design, but that's not the point here. Instead, it's about evaluating the work that happens immediately following the napkin sketch in the very early stages of design.Save this picture!Inherently, this phase carries the most risk. Firms pursuing work with new clients inevitably want to put their best foot forward, which results in high-effort deliverables with low fees. Factor in the sunk cost of lost pursuits, and suddenly, the early stages of design spin up the perfect storm for unprofitable conditions. So why is this phase so prone to inefficiency and financial risk? The answer lies in the tools architects rely onoutdated, fragmented, and fundamentally ill-suited to the speed and collaboration modern projects demand. These tools typically fall into two camps.The first group consists of tools that excel at 3D modeling but are industry-agnostic, often lacking the specific data required for AEC teams to make key design decisions. While the second group includes tools that are rich in AEC-specific data but lack advanced design modeling and form-finding capabilities.Save this picture!Bridging the Gap from Sketch to DesignThe solution to this challenge isn't simply telling teams to work fasterit's about giving them tools to help move seamlessly from idea to execution. Enabling transformation of those early sketches into validated, data-driven designs without adding friction to the creative process.Modern tools should enable architects to refine and iterate on their initial ideas effortlessly. Instead of forcing teams to jump between disconnected modeling and documentation software, the right tool should provide a direct pathway from concept to proposalallowing teams to ideate, analyze, and adjust their early-stage designs without losing momentum.Save this picture!This is where new tools like Snaptrude become invaluable. Being built off first principles, Snaptrude has never attempted to be anything other than a design tool specifically for AEC. With an intuitive 3D modeling environment, built-in area and solar analysis, and browser-based collaboration features, Snaptrude allows teams to iterate multiple design options easier, and make informed design decisions faster than ever beforeall without sacrificing creativity or precision.Ultimately, early-stage profitability is a multi-faceted challenge, but with modern AEC tools like Snaptrude that enable faster, more informed early-stage conceptualization and iteration, that challenge becomes much more manageableand frankly, more enjoyable. After all, designers should have tools that empower their workflows, enabling them to spend more time on design and less time wrestling with tools, rushing deadlines, and micromanaging budgets.Image gallerySee allShow lessCite: "Can Early-Stage Design Flaws Be Fixed Before They Kill Profits?" 28 Feb 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1027024/can-early-stage-design-flaws-be-fixed-before-they-kill-profits&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

The moon reaches totality during a lunar eclipse on November 8, 2022. The moon is set in the stars of Aries, with the planet Uranus nearby, visible as the greenish star. Alan Dyer/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesShareMarch 1A Celestial Smiley FaceMarch 5The Moon and Jupiter RendezvousMarch 13Blood Moon Lunar EclipseMarch 14Full Worm MoonMarch 20Vernal (Spring) EquinoxMarch 22Venus Becomes the Morning Star AgainWhile Februarys grand planetary parade might be behind us, March will still afford good opportunities to see many of the parades participantsespecially Mercury. The solar systems smallest planet will be relatively easy to spot during the first half of the month. Theres also a full lunar eclipse to look forward to, and one of Venus periodic transitions from evening star to morning star.March 1 A Celestial Smiley FaceVenus, in particular, will be strutting her stuff across the sky in early March. The planet will be blazing brightly enough to be easily visible with the naked eye. By contrast, Mercurys relatively small size and proximity to the sun typically makes it difficult to identify in the night sky. However, during the first two weeks of March, observers will have two excellent opportunities to see it.During this time, Mercury will be surprisingly brightthe fourth brightest object in the sky.Its brilliance will only fall behind the planets Venus and Jupiter and the star Sirius. The catch is that it sets only 90 minutes after sunset, so youll need to dash outside as soon as the sun goes down.While Mercury will be visible throughout early March, there will be two nights that provide especially good opportunities to see it: March 1 and March 7. On March 1, the position of the crescent moon will aid in spotting Mercury, according to Space.com.The easiest way to find Mercury will be to find Venus firstwhich should be easy, as itll be the single brightest object in the sky. Once youve found Venus, look down and slightly to the left. Mercury will be hovering just above the horizonand a little further to the left, roughly between the two planets. The crescent moon will complete a celestial smiley face for the ages. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.March 5 The Moon and Jupiter RendezvousAfter March 1, the moons trajectory in the sky will take it away from Mercury and Venus, towards another of the brightest objects in the sky: Jupiter. On March 5, the crescent will appear at its closest to Jupiter, making the planetary behemoth of our solar system easy to spot. The ever-essential Farmers Almanac advises looking for both moon and planet an hour after sunset, and keeping an eye out for the orange star Aldabaran, which will be just below them.March 13- Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse!Its quite a month for the moon: as well as the aforementioned emoji-related hijinks, March brings the only full lunar eclipse of 2025. The event will fully last from 11:57 p.m.on March 13 to 6 a.m. EDT on March 14. Totality will occur between 2:26 and 03:31 a.m. EDT.Full lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes entirely into the Earths shadow, and while theyre not as spectacular as full solar eclipseswhich involve the Earth passing completely into the moons shadowtheyre still events worth seeing![ Related: How the blood moon gets its ghoulish hue. ]You may also see this event referred to as a blood moon, a name derived from the color the moon takes on during the eclipse. While a solar eclipse plunges the Earth into fleeting darkness, this doesnt happen for the moon: some light is refracted through our atmosphere onto the moons surface. The light that reaches the moon is largely toward the low-wavelength, red end of the visible spectrum, because higher-wavelength light tends to be scattered by the atmosphere.March 14- Full Worm MoonOnce its reassuringly visible again in the night sky, the moon will reach its peak illumination on March 14 at 2:55 a.m. EST. Marchs full moon is called the Worm Moon, a name thats believed to reference the earthworms that begin to emerge from hibernation as spring starts to warm the earth again. Additional Native American names for Marchs full moon include the Hard Crust on the Snow Moon (Anishinaabemowin), the moon of the Strawberry/First Leaves month (Cherokee) and the delightful The Day is Cut in Two Moon (Oneida.)March 20 Vernal (Spring) EquinoxWhile it might have seemed like the Northern Hemispheres winter was never going to end, the season will officially come to a close on March 20, with the vernalor springequinox. This equinox (and its counterpart, the autumnal equinox, which heralds the start of fall) are the two days on which the Northern and Southern Hemispheres receive essentially the same amount of sunlight, because neither is tilted in relation to the sun.[ Related: Why 60 degrees in fall feels different than in the spring. ]March 22- Venus Becomes the Morning Star AgainHistorically, Venus was sometimes called the morning star. However, sharp-eyed readers will have noticed that earlier this month, the planet was decidedly uninterested in the morning, preferring to show herself off in the night sky. This occurs because Venuss position in the sky actually oscillates between morning and night, depending on how the planet is positioned in relation to both the Earth and the sun.March 22 marks one such transition. Venus will pass briefly between the Earth and the Sun, forming an alignment known as an inferior conjunction. By comparison, a superior conjunction happens when Venus aligns with the Earth and the Sun, but is on the other side of the latter. After March 22, Venus will remain in the morning sky for the rest of 2025.Whatever cosmic wonders you plan to spy in March, remember that youll have the best results if you get away from the lights of your city or town, and as far as possible from any other sources of light pollution.Once youre at your destination, set up your telescope (if youre lucky enough to have one!), or otherwise just find a nice spot to sit and gaze at the sky. Review our stargazing tips, give your eyes half an hour to get used to the darkness, then look aloft and immerse yourself in the beauty of the cosmos.Until next month!

Yay, its tax season! (Said no one.) Did you forget something? Unless you enjoy printing, scanning, and filling out your tax forms the old-fashioned way, youll need a solid PDF editor to speed through the process as fast as possible.It seems like everyones favorite tool is Adobes famous Acrobat Pro, but before you subscribe, know that itll cost you $20 every single month. We found a much cheaper tool, SwifDoo PDF Pro, that only requires you to pay once to edit PDFs for life. With our unbeatable deal, the Windows download is only $27.99(reg. $129) with code PDFLIFE.Its basically Adobe Acrobat, just without the subscription feesDoing your taxes with a PDF editor will be so much quicker than the manual printing-and-scanning process. Start by downloading your Form 1040, W-4, or whatever else you need to complete, then upload it to SwifDoo.Then, you can use simple editing features to fill out your income and withholdings or check the forms boxes. You can also sign the document using your computers trackpad or upload a signature from an image.If youre e-filing, you can compress the files, convert the PDF to any format, and download it before sending it to the government (yippee!). Or, if youre mailing them in, just hit print.Unlike Adobe Acrobat Pro, you wont have to keep paying every month to use SwifDoo next tax season, the year after that, and so onyoull have it on your Windows PC for life.Get a SwifDoo PDF Pro lifetime license for Windows for $27.99 (reg. $129) when you enter code PDFLIFEat checkout. You wont find a better price anywhere else.StackSocial prices subject to change.SwifDoo PDF Pro: Perpetual Lifetime License for Windows $34.99See Deal

In the TV series Doctor Who, treeborgs supply fresh air to spaceship passengers. Part tree, part robot, these devices convert starlight into oxygen. In Nnedi Okorafors fantasy novel Zahrah the Windseeker, children receive their own flora computers made of leaves and vines, grown from CPU seeds and shaped into useful tech. Although these devices are fictional, flower-powered machines are getting real as a new generation of biohybrid technology blooms.Engineers have long strived to make lifelike robots. But re-creating the complex functions of, say, a hand or leaf is impossible with synthetic materials, says Anand Mishra, an engineer at Cornell University. There is a point where technology limits us.Using life-forms to build machines can overcome some of these limits. Living tissue, for example, has evolved all sorts of ways to scope out the environment seeing light, feeling warmth, smelling and tasting food. To make robots that are similarly sensitive to their surroundings, Mishra has turned to fungal tissue.Fungi arent plants, but Mishra is interested in one of fungis most plantlike features, mycelia. These rootlike structures tunnel through soil for nutrients and can detect environmental cues such as light, heat and chemicals.Mishras team grew mycelia directly into electrodes attached to two robots. The fungi communicated with the robots through electrical signals called action potentials. These zaps are similar to those produced by heart and nerve cells.Mycelia produce spontaneous action potentials, which triggered the biobots to walk and roll around. When flashed with ultraviolet light, the mycelia produced stronger zaps, which changed the robots gait and showed that the bots could respond to the environment, Mishras team reported in 2024 in Science Robotics.Using fungi in biohybrid robots is still pretty new, Mishra says. His team now hopes to test how such tech responds to other cues, such as gases. One way their robots sensory superpowers might help in the real world is in agriculture. Future shroom bots could walk through crop fields, testing soil health and other conditions as they go.While fungi may help robots better interact with the world, plant powers could help devices better survive it. Many artificial [technologies] have a shelf life, says materials scientist Fabian Meder of the SantAnna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy. Electronics start to break down in a few years. Yet the oldest trees can stand tall for thousands of years. And while broken electronics require repairs, plants can recover from damage and adapt to new environments.Meder has designed artificial leaves that tap an unlikely energy source: static electricity created by wind.He places artificial leaves on plants. The fake leaves include a layer of rubber a material good at building up static charge. When wind rustles one of these bionic plants, the artificial leaves bump into real leaves. This creates static charges that pass into the inner tissue of the real leaf, producing a current. This energy can be harvested through electrodes placed in the leaf. Meders studies have shown that such devices can light up LEDs.Working with living materials poses design challenges, such as keeping the living parts alive. Like fungi, plants need certain resources to stay healthy. Photosynthesis is a big part of that, Meder says. So engineers might need to use transparent materials to make parts that would otherwise block out sunlight.Meder is excited about this new way to tap a potential energy source: Its always about harvesting [these] crumbs of energy which we otherwise would just lose.Sponsor MessageAlmost like those Doctor Who treeborgs surviving on the light of faraway stars.

Nature, Published online: 28 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00603-4Scientists who dont consistently publish great papers and attract bumper funding are often overlooked, say campaigners for healthier lab environments.

Nature, Published online: 28 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00580-8The standard protective dose is almost 14,000 units, but even 500 units raises antibody levels sufficiently to do the job.

The U.S. is home to 63 national parks, which are areas of land protected by the federal government. How many of these parks can you name in our quiz?

How? submitted by /u/3dgirl777 [link] [comments]

Re @quackarooners perfect, thanks!

Re @quackarooners Hmm, it looks like it works indeed. Mind sharing the file?