Fanzines were the key pre-digital mode for sharing knowledge and love about sci-fi across space and time, and now the University of Iowa Libraries is beginning to make thousands of them digital.

Their plan is to start with the James L. “Rusty” Hevelin Collection, which contains thousands of volumes, spans decades and features elaborately hand-illustrated titles and hand-drawn artwork.

The library acquired the collection after the author and artist passed. His work covers sci-fi culture dating back to 1941 and the first ever science fiction convention. These zines not only helped fans, but they also assisted aspiring authors.

From Hyperallergic: “Fanzines like the Futurian War Digest from the 1940s made in Leeds, England, and The Phantagraph published in the 1930s and 40s in New York were DIY materials imagined for a growing sci-fi community and often distributed by hand.”

“They also provided an accessible platform for writers including Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clark who would go from fanzines to the icons of the genre.” In many cases, the earliest work of these greats rests only in zines, not in books, and would be lost if only their novels and published short story collections remained.

The post Library Project to Digitize Over 10,000 Science Fiction Zines first appeared on Gajitz.

Nature manages to create spectacular things in graceful ways, so why not draw on nature to create the things we use every day? Mercedes Benz submitted this rather off-the-wall design to the Los Angeles Design Challenge 2010, proposing that future generations of cars could actually be grown – rather like plants – in laboratories. The Mercedes Benz BIOME concept car is fantastical, impossible and more than a little weird – but it sure does look cool.

The idea is that the car’s DNA would be contained in the star logos at the front and rear of the cars. Specific preferences (interior color, body shape, etc.) The parts would spring forth from these stars, growing and developing until the car is mature enough to drive. The fuel used by the vehicle would be completely clean, leaving behind only oxygen. At the end of the car’s useful life, it would be 100% biodegradable.

Is there a chance this design will ever become reality? If so, it’s a very small, very remote chance. But there is no denying that it’s fun to think about driving around in a luxury car that has been grown specifically for you in a lab full of test tube automobiles.

The post Test Tube Transport: Grow Your Next Customized Car first appeared on Gajitz.