Alt-week 4.20.13: NASA's Space Shop, nature's needles and 30 years of cellphone bills

Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days. The natural world offers up some ingenious biology that is only possible through many, many years of evolution. Other ideas, well, they come about through good old-fashioned brain power. We've got examples of both in this edition. Naturally. This is alt-week.