The US government will pay you up to $500,000 to design a less annoying face mask

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Over a year into the pandemic, we've seen a wide variety of masks, from totally unsafe fashion pieces, to RGB nightmares, not to mention a bunch of other stylish options. But if you think you might have an idea for a better mask that more people might want to wear, the US government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has announced a competition to design "the next generation of masks" -- with a potential $500,000 total prize w...