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This week in Science

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Wing Maker

Alexis Noriega is a self-taught costume maker who turned her love of cosplay and fantasy into a full time job making mechanical wings. Her top clients are artists and enthusiasts who pay upwards of $4,000 for her life-sized wings. Creating the lifelike contraptions takes a lot of time and even more patience, but the result is well worth the effort.

NYC stop signs

The New York City Department of Transportation’s in-house sign shop manufactures more than 100,000 signs a year. We visited the shop in Queens to see how the most vandalized sign — the stop sign — is made.

Aerial sand illusions

Earthscape artist Andres Amador from San Francisco uses his knowledge of math and geometry (and a rake) to create aerial sand illusions along shorelines. Seen from above, his massive earthscapes are admired for their transient beauty -- before they’re forever erased by the steadfast tide.