Ever dreamed of a house on the beach, perhaps one in the mountains, or in the city?

How about all three?

As summer ends and leaves slowly turn from green to varying hues of yellow, orange and red, we celebrate the warm and earthy colours of fall with photos of some of the most stunningly pigmented places on earth.

Here are ten of the best places on earth to view nature in all of her seasonal glory.

A robot that moves, swims, pushes and carries objects might not sound like something so novel. For many, that's what robots should do.

But take that robot and trim it down to the size of a thumbnail, that's something.

And not having to make the robot, but have it fold itself into its miniature robotic form would be even better.

And just for good measure, how about if after completing its mission that the robot dissolved and disappeared?  

Presenting the latest invention from MIT: the origami robot.

On September 24, 2011, Borgloon, a small town in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium, added a new attraction: a see-through church. Churches are an integral part of any European landscape, however this church isn't for praying to a higher being; it's a work of art conveying it's own message.

A staple of science-fiction films is the mad scientist searching to perpetrate evil by controlling peoples' minds. 

However, back in the real world, there is a “mad” Brazilian scientist who has discovered a way to use brains to control robots. And for a good cause, one that helps people walk again.

Time to sit back, relax and admire the amazing macro photography of Singapore-based snapper Nicky Bay.

Cicadae Parasite Beetle

Stanford University design teacher John Edmark has created these cool 3D-printed sculptures called blooms that, when spun, create a zoetrope-style illusion of motion.

The placement of the blooms’ appendages is inspired by the same method Mother Nature has used to make pine cones and sunflowers.

Easter Sunday falls this weekend and with this religious festival comes the Christian custom of the Easter egg.

Engraved ostrich egg from the ‘Africa’ series by Eggdoodler

A glowing orb in what appears to be an azure sky floods a sparsely decorated room with seemingly natural sunlight… These images might look like still life paintings by Edward Hopper, but they are actually undoctored photographs demonstrating the brilliance of a brand new kind of skylight: CoeLux.

In Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka takes a wide-eyed Charlie Bucket on a ride in his “great glass lift”.

“This isn't just an ordinary up-and-down lift!” declares Wonka proudly. “This lift can go sideways and longways and slantways and any other way you can think of!”

It turns out Wonka’s lift – dubbed the Wonkavator in the first movie adaptation – wasn't just the fruits of Dahl’s fertile imagination.

German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp have unveiled plans for their own omnidirectional lift – or elevator – called MULTI.

With bright white painted façades standing out against azure skies, you would think it would be difficult to brighten up the Tunisian village of Erriadh any more.

However, Tunisian-French artist Mehdi Ben Cheikh managed this feat in July and August last year when his ‘Djerbahood’ street art project got off the ground.

Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde has designed this fabulous glow-in-the-dark cycle path near Eindhoven, the Netherlands, to commemorate the life and work of Vincent van Gogh.

Inspired by the swirly brushstrokes and bright flashes that feature in the renowned painter’s oil-on-canvas classic The Starry Night, the one-kilometre bicycle path boasts 50,000 solar-powered, luminous stones embedded in the ground.

For his exhibit entitled Fiction of the Fabricated Image, Korean artist Seon Ghi Bahk has cleverly repurposed small pieces of charcoal into remarkable suspended installations that explore the often-complicated yet interdependent relationship between natural and man-made environments.

While the hundreds of palm-sized pieces of burnt wood in Bahk’s artwork are of the natural world, the shapes that they form – after he suspends them from the venue ceiling using nylon thread – smack of a human-made environment: pillars, columns, stairs, arches and pagodas.

Moscow-based photographer Alexey Kljatov has garnered a well-justified reputation for his superb macro-photography of snowflakes. 

Kljatov’s photographic work reveals amazing, subtle details in the tiny flakes of crystalline ice that we rarely get to appreciate.

You might think that such cool shots – pun intended – involve an ultra-sophisticated, expensive set-up – but you would be surprised at the relative simplicity and low cost of Kljatov’s camera kit.

Here’s something I bet many of you would like to find under your tree this Christmas: Anki DRIVE.

Described as “part toy, part video game, all out battle-racing action,” Anki DRIVE is an extreme car race that has taken the virtual gaming world and brought it to real life. Well, almost. This Scalextric set on steroids contains artificially intelligent muscle cars that not only steer themselves around a large, oval racetrack, but have built-in weapons capabilities to throw enemies off-course. And it can all play out on your living room floor.