Concept car or baby rattle?
(Credit:
Core77)
This gravity-driven "car" (top photo) took the prize for "Best Design Exploration" at the Unlimited Derby car race, an event sponsored by IBM at the Industrial Designers Society of America conference in Austin, Texas.
It was designed by ID-One, a creative services company of engineers, industrial designers and graphic artists. (We wonder if they had been flipping through the Tiffany's catalog at the time--see the sterling silver baby rattle below.)
The race is akin to the Boy Scouts' Pinewood Derby in that entries must be gravity driven and fit specific size parameters. Unlike the Pinewood Derby, however, you don't have to start with wood. ID-One's winning car is mundanely dubbed the Quick-Silver, though I don't imagine Kevin Bacon will be riding in it anytime soon.
(Credit:
Tiffany & Co.)
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
