Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: climatology

This high energy output could vastly improve the world’s sustainability. With fusion, energy would be near-limitless and thus easily accessible and substantially more affordable. People could enjoy lower utility bills and consistent, reliable energy.

Watch now: How bad is a gas stove for your home’s indoor air quality?

The innovative reactor would help slow down climate change and lead to a cleaner, cooler future, while helping people save money and access clean energy. Reducing energy pollution will benefit every human, reducing the health hazards of breathing polluted air or drinking contaminated water.

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Seasonality shapes much of life on Earth. Most species, including humans, have synchronized their own rhythms with those of the Earth’s seasons.

Plant growth cycles, the migration of billions of animals, and even aspects of human culture—from harvest rituals to Japanese cherry blossom viewings—are dictated by these dominant rhythms.

However, climate change and many other human impacts are altering Earth’s cycles. While humans can adapt their behavior by shifting the timing of crop harvests or Indigenous fire-burning practices, species are less able to adapt through evolution or range shifts.

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Unlike fish, jellyfish lack bones and possess a sole rudimentary nerve net, yet they can travel considerable distances with minimal energy expenditure. A jellyfish’s seemingly effortless glide through the water is thanks to a ring of muscle within its soft belly, which creates a simple jet that propels it forward. Scientists refer to this intrinsic capability as “embodied intelligence,” which suggests that the organism’s physical structure plays a role in problem-solving.

When harnessed, this locomotion provides an efficient means to monitor , track , and observe climate trends. “Jellyfish cyborgs” require minimal power and operate without engines, limiting the environmental impact associated with current methods of studying the vast expanse of the ocean.

In a new study, a research team, led by Dai Owaki, an associate professor in the Department of Robotics at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Engineering, successfully modulated the swimming behavior of using gentle electric pulses. Moreover, they utilized a lightweight artificial intelligence (AI) model to predict the swimming speed of each jellyfish.

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Munich, 4 June 2024 – According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the pulp and paper industry is one of the largest industrial sectors in the world and has an enormous influence on global forests. This sector accounts for 13–15% of total wood consumption and uses between 33–40% of all industrial wood traded globally. In search of more sustainable solutions for paper production, 23-year-old Ukrainian inventor Valentyn Frechka developed a method for recycling leaf litter into paper. Frechka is a finalist for the Young Inventors Prize of the European Inventor Award 2024, in recognition of his promising work towards a circular economy and addressing one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He was selected from over 550 candidates for this year’s edition.

Using new technology to recycle fallen leaves into paper

The global loss of trees is known to significantly exacerbate climate change, increasing air pollution levels, causing the loss of biodiversity, and disrupting the water cycle. Global warming also leads to issues such as soil erosion and reduced freshwater availability. It also increases costs for managing environmental problems such as flooding.

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Microsoft has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that beats current forecasting methods in tracking air quality, weather patterns, and climate-addled tropical storms, according to findings published Wednesday.

Dubbed Aurora, the new system—which has not been commercialized—generated 10-day weather forecasts and predicted hurricane trajectories more accurately and faster than traditional forecasting, and at lower costs, researchers reported in the journal Nature.

“For the first time, an AI system can outperform all operational centers for hurricane forecasting,” said senior author Paris Perdikaris, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Much of the world’s lithium occurs in salty waters with fundamentally different chemistry than other naturally saline waters like the ocean, according to a study published on May 23 in Science Advances. The finding has implications for lithium mining technologies and wastewater assessment and management.

Lithium is a critical mineral in the renewable energy sector. About 40% of global lithium production comes from large pans, called salars, in the central Andes Mountains in South America and the Tibetan Plateau in Asia. In these arid, high-altitude regions, lithium exists below surface salt deposits, dissolved in extremely saline water called .

“We discovered that the pH of brines in these regions is almost entirely driven by boron, unlike seawater and other common saline waters. This is a totally different geochemical landscape, like studying an extraterrestrial planet,” said Avner Vengosh, distinguished professor of environmental quality and Chair of the Division of Earth and Climate Sciences at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, who oversaw the research.

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Charging electric-vehicle batteries in Ithaca’s frigid winter can be tough, and freezing temperatures also decrease the driving range. Hot weather can be just as challenging, leading to decomposition of battery materials and, possibly, catastrophic failure.

For (EVs) to be widely accepted, safe and fast-charging lithium-ion batteries need to be able to operate in extreme temperatures. But to achieve this, scientists need to understand how materials used in EVs change during temperature-related chemical reactions, a so-far elusive goal.

Now, Cornell chemists led by Yao Yang, Ph.D. ‘21, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, have developed a way to diagnose the mechanisms behind battery failure in extreme climates using electron microscopy. Their first-of-its-kind operando (“operating”) electrochemical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) enables them to watch chemistry in action and collect real-time movies showing what happens to energy materials during temperature changes.

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