This week in Studio 360's Design for the Real World: Sam Kean explains how the 19th century Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev invented the the Periodic Table and why the table's orderly design endures today. Kean is the author of "The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements."

For years, Bollywood's sappy, over-the-top, romantic musicals drew audiences with colorful hand-painted murals on the old movie theaters. But digital printing presses have put many of the painters who created these murals out of work. In Delhi, one craftsman found new patrons for his movie-mural artistry: American ex-pats in love. Produced by Linda Blake.

Natural historian Janine Benyus believes that imitating nature's best ideas can provide solutions to human problems. Could we store electricity like an electric eel to build a nontoxic battery? Benyus told Studio 360's Sarah Lilley how copying nature's design is the key to our own sustainability.

At the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, instructors Tisha Johnson and Blair Taylor explain why car design has changed so little in the last 20 years. Kurt talks with students Ben Messmer and Lili Melikian about the prototypes they're working on. And Jim Heimann weighs in on the future of car design.

Design for the Real World: Frankfurt Kitchen Kitchen designer Lyn Peterson says that everything we take for granted can be traced back to the Frankfurt Kitchen, created by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in the late 1920s. It's the mother of all modern kitchens, and an original version was recently acquired by New York's MoMA. Produced by Britta Conroy-Randall.

On America's earliest highways, road signs were hand-painted on wood. When interstate highways became standardized, so did the typeface. But in all sorts of conditions it still looks fuzzy. Graphic designer Don Meeker helped bring highway signage back into focus. Produced by Derek John.

Tea historian Jane Pettigrew explains why the world has never recovered from an American innovation. Produced by Deanna Kashani.

Big Brother is now just a mouse click away. Whether we know it or not, our online activity is being watched and then sold to the highest bidder. It's all thanks to a little line of programming code called a "cookie." Its inventor, Lou Montulli, says that without cookies, the web would be even creepier. Produced by Studio 360's Derek John.

Before the invention of the dialysis machine, kidney failure was basically a death sentence. In this week's Design for the Real World, a registered nurse named Janice Breen walks us through how the design of dialysis machines has evolved since she first started working with them back in 1973. Produced by Gretta Cohen.

Neon signage has been around for exactly a century, but today the glowing lights face competition from cheaper LED technology. Syracuse University physics professor Eric Schiff and Jeff Friedman of New York's Let There Be Neon Studio explain what's behind neon's everlasting glow. Produced by Jordan Sayle.