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You might think of Bit.ly simply as a service that shortens links for your Twitter feed. But to Hilary Mason, the company’s chief scientist, Bit.ly is building a fresh new way to know what’s going on in the world.

Check out this video to learn more about Bit.ly’s mission and what inspires Mason to keep innovating.

Read more about how Bit.ly reveals the web and the world.

See more from our Who’s Next series for more profiles of big thinkers.

And now for today’s awesome science update: Arthur Olson’s Molecular Graphics Lab uses 3-D printers to spit out physical models of drugs and enzymes, and attaches augmented-reality tags to them so that computer vision can help researchers find the optimal fit. Think of it like playing with a Rubik’s cube, except the solution may help cure HIV.

Read More: How 3-D Printing & Augmented Reality Can Help Design Better Drugs

Awesome science thing of the day: Scientists are working on a way to unlock the secrets of nature’s best camouflage artists, such as octopuses and squid. These creatures actually change patterns on their skin to fit in instantaneously with their undersea environment. New research can help create sheets of high-tech materials that could be used to camouflage submarines and tanks, creating a new generation of stealth. See how in this video. And check out more science, engineering, and design inspired by nature right here.

These surprisingly artful images of the Interxion Data Center in The Netherlands reveal the machinery that undergirds the data we all store in “The Cloud.” As you can see, “The Cloud” is actually a heavy, heavy thing. See more.

These surprisingly artful images of the Interxion Data Center in The Netherlands reveal the machinery that undergirds the data we all store in “The Cloud.” As you can see, “The Cloud” is actually a heavy, heavy thing. See more.

What happens when  the futuristic world of the Jetsons meets Mother Theresa? You get the Matternet, a flying electric autonomous vehicle that transports supplies and people from place to place. Where Matternet is going, it doesn’t need roads. But the people there  need food and medicine. And these drones can bring it to them. Read more about the project here.

What happens when the futuristic world of the Jetsons meets Mother Theresa? You get the Matternet, a flying electric autonomous vehicle that transports supplies and people from place to place. Where Matternet is going, it doesn’t need roads. But the people there need food and medicine. And these drones can bring it to them. Read more about the project here.