Top 12 threats to human civilization
Researchers at the Global Challenges Foundation released earlier this month a thorough and unsettling look at what threatens human civilization. The bad news is this is a long list. I’ve broken down...
View ArticleNew air-filter design may help Beijing and L.A. breathe easier
Smog in Beijing Yi Cui of Stanford and his students have used a material commonly used in surgical gloves into a low-cost, highly efficient air filter that could be used to improve facemasks, window...
View ArticleWhere are all the Hurricanes?
The hurricane season passed off relatively quietly last year. Category 2 hurricane Gonzalo hit Bermuda in October 2014, briefly making the world’s headlines, but it did relatively little damage, apart...
View ArticleThe leapfrogging continent
In the dusty khaki scrubland of South Africa’s inhospitable Northern Cape province, brightly polished mirrors flash light across the landscape as they rotate slowly to follow the sun, producing...
View ArticleStanford engineers’ plan for converting U.S. to 100% clean, renewable energy...
Engineers from Stanford have developed a state-by-state plan to convert U.S. to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2050. Mark Z. Jacobson and colleagues show that it’s technically possible for each...
View ArticlePower Sources Based on High Efficiency Thermopower Wave Devices
Engineers from MIT have developed an alternative system for generating electricity that harnesses heat and uses no metals or toxic materials. The batteries that power the devices of modern life, from...
View ArticleNorway might become the first to ban gas-powered cars
The US is only now warming up to the idea of electric cars and other eco-friendly modes of transportation, however Norway is whole-heartedly embracing them. It might become the first country to...
View ArticleElectric cars could eclipse fossil fuels by 2027
Electric power could be the dominant form of propulsion for all new cars sold in the UK as early as 2027, with more than 1.3 million electric cars registered each year, according to forecast analysis...
View ArticleChinese Electric Car Sales Up 162% So Far This Year
The spectacular growth of the New Energy Vehicle (NEV) market in China continues; state media reports that sales were up a massive 162% to 170,000 units in the first half of the year. NEVs include...
View ArticleIntroducing the World’s First Large-Scale Tidal Power Farm
Scotland unveiled the first turbine for the MeyGen tidal stream project, the world’s first large-scale tidal energy farm. The project will initially install four turbines, but will eventually have 269...
View ArticleNo more pointless idling with Pittsburgh’s new artificially intelligent...
Traffic lights are finally getting smarter in Pittsburgh. Thanks to a new pilot program from the tech startup Rapid Flow Technologies, Steel City now boasts 50 intersections whose stoplights are...
View ArticleJapan’s massive new borehole project to reach Earth’s mantle
Not since the drilling of the Russia’s Kola Borehole have scientists ventured this deep. Japanese scientists have announced a plan to drill through the Earth’s crust and reach the mantle. The major...
View ArticleVinod Khosla predicts AI will replace human oncologists
While much of the conversation around AI and jobs is focused on widespread job losses in sectors like trucking, venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems cofounder Vinod Khosla thinks that there’s a...
View ArticleStephen Hawking’s incredible predictions in 2017
Stephen Hawking is known for his groundbreaking achievements in science, but many do not realize that the physicist is also recognized for making predictions about the future of humanity and Earth....
View Article‘LarvalBot’ underwater drone will reseed coral reefs damaged by climate change
Since August 2018, the Great Barrier Reef in the ocean off Australia has had a special protector — an autonomous underwater drone called RangerBot that has monitored the status of the reef and...
View ArticleEarth’s mysterious ‘deep biosphere’ may harbor millions of undiscovered species
Scientists say the underground ecosystems are a “subterranean Galapagos” just waiting to be studied. This unidentified nematode from the Kopanang gold mine in South Africa lives 1.4 kilometers below...
View ArticleScientists have found an easy way to remove CO2 from air & reduce global warming
A number of research teams around the world are currently working towards scrubbing all the excess carbon dioxide from the air. It’s one of the prime reasons we are seeing record breaking rise in...
View ArticleThis cool artificial reef was just deployed in Sydney Harbor
Earth’s oceans have seen better days. They’re inundated with plastic waste, both whole single-use plastics and tons of plastic microparticles that find their way back into our food and drinking water....
View ArticleAcclaimed Israeli astrophysicist suggests the sun drives Earth’s climate, not...
Nir Shaviv is an Israeli astrophysicist and chairman of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University’s physics department. He says that his research, and that of colleagues, suggests that rising CO2 levels play only...
View ArticleEnvisioning and designing a floating future
A prototype deployed in San Francisco Bay may signal what’s to come: floating buildings, or whole communities, built to withstand sea-level rise. ON AN August day that is brutally hot by San...
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