The world's drowning in dark news of political unrest, climate change, environmental disaster, and poverty. But we can still take heart that right now, designers have fixed themselves on the day's problems with a vigor that the world has never seen before. Can design save the world?

Maybe so. Tomorrow, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum unwraps, the National Design Triennial, an omnibus exhibition that occurs only once every three years. And this time, it's titled "Why Design Now," and packed with 134 projects that aim to fix the worlds problems. Instead of prettified gewgaws and ironic flights of fancy, there's everything from carbon-neutral buildings to baby incubators made of scrap parts. Here's a preview of the exhibition.

Here, a hearing aid designed by Stuart Karten Design for Starkey. The design brings an unprecedented level of ergonomic thinking to hearing aids, whose design has been often overlooked. Check out our story on the device here.

The Haptica Braille watch, by David Chavez. Watches for the blind usually employ loud audio or hard-to-read exposed faces, but this watch presents time in your standard military format.

The Learning Landscape, by Project H Design. The grid of tires is meant to be a huge game board that teaches kids about math while getting them outdoors and active. The playgrounds have already been built in Uganda and the Dominican Republic.

AdSpecs by Joshua Silver. Over a half a billion people in the world can't afford prescription eyewear. AdSpecs attempts to solve that with a self-adjustable design: The wearer can fill their own prescription simply by injecting silicone oil into the lenses. (The syringes, seen here, then detach.) Currently, the glasses cost $19 a pair.

Neonurture car-parts incubator by Design that Matters (Timothy Prestero, Tom Weis, and Emily Rothschild). Four million babies die each year in developing countries, and many of those could be prevented using neonatal incubators. So the designers created an incubator which can be fashioned from spare car parts used in aid-worker vehicles.

One of the more conceptual pieces in the show, the Artificial Biological Clock by Revital Cohen. According to Cohen, modern life distorts a woman's sense of her own reproductive signals. The clock would take in information about a woman's health and "awake" when a woman is fertile.

The Solvatten solar-safe water purifier by Petra Wadstrom. Wadstrom is a micro-biologist turned designer, and her invention uses solar energy, in the form of UV rays and heat, to purify contaminated water.

A millet thresher designed by Aaron Wieler, Donna Cohn, and the MIT International Design Development Summit. Throughout Africa and Asia, pearl millet is a vital food source. But it also takes women up to four hours at a time to thresh the grain. So the designers created a thresher made of spare bike parts; the device means that crops can yield more food that can be stored longer and generate extra income.

The Global Innovation Heat Map by McKinsey & Company, EMC consulting, SAS, and ESRI. Commissioned by the World Economic Forum, the map shows "innovation clusters" in 2000 cities, as measured by myriad factors including business environment and local demand. The map was created to help understand all the factors that underlie economic growth.

Medellin, Colombia has recently seen a resurgence fostered by smart urban planning. At the behest of the city's former mayor, Sergio Fajardo, massive public amenities were created in the city's highest crime neighborhoods--thus attracting more foot traffic and investment, which helped lower crime. Here, a picture of Parque Explora, an interactive science and tech park designed by Alejandro Echeverri. Read more about that in our previous coverage.

BioWave ocean-wave energy system by Timothy Finnegan. The units, when mounted on the seabed, sway with the waves like seaweed, generating electricity. When the waves are too intense, the system lies flat on the ocean floor.

The Hope Solar Tower by EnviroMission, an Australian startup. The solar tower capitalizes on the natural law that heat rises. Air flows into the base, and then rises out through the chimney--an ancient cooling technology used in the Middle East. But inside, there are turbines that produce electricity. The designers believe that a 2,500-foot tower could power 500 households.

The Power Aware cord, by Magnus Gyllensward and Anton Gustafsson. The cord visualizes how much power is being drawn: For example, getting more intense when you turn up your stereo.

Along those lines, the Energy Aware click by Loove Broms and Karin Ehrnberger. The clock would chart electricity use in real time and let you track your energy consumption over time.

Solar-rechargeable lanterns by Sunlabob Renewable Energy (Nishan Disanayake, Simon Henschel, and Egbert Gerber). The lamps offer a sustainable alternative to the kerosene lamps used by millions of villagers around the world. The lamps can be rented from solar-recharging stations.

The Z-10 Concentrated solar-power system by Ezri Tarazi. The mirrors focus light onto a small generator--meaning that the system is far more efficient than standard PV arrays. In addition, the generator is cooled by water--and the hot water can then be used as well. Together, those two functions make the system 70% efficient--more efficient than any other solar-array in the world, according to the designer.

4:Secs Condom by Dot Dot Dot Ex Why Zed. In Africa, where HIV/AIDS is rampant, condoms carry a stigma of being impossible to put on--and no wonder, because few people know how to properly put one on...

...so the designers created a condom applicator which allows them to be put on correctly, with minimal attention--and fast.