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Category: sustainability – Page 165

Times of 0–60 mph simply aren’t enough when you get into the peak-performance, hypercar segment of electric vehicles. The Rimac Nevera has already done an excellent job demonstrating that it’s one of the highest-performing vehicles on the planet, but any doubt should now be dissolved as the electric hypercar smashed through 23 performance records – in just a single day, a record in it of itself.

Since its founding in Croatia in 2009, Rimac Automobili has been developing some of the most exciting and technologically advanced electric hypercars. Rimac’s first EV, the Concept_One, was introduced in 2016 and is considered one of the world’s fastest production vehicles at the time, although its production consisted of a mere eight vehicles.

Rimac’s Concept_Two debuted in 2018 and eventually evolved into its production form, renamed the Nevera. As EV enthusiasts, the Nevera represents much of the potential of electric hypercars, which can significantly outperform ICE counterparts without any emissions.

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CATL, a Chinese battery manufacturer, has created a condensed battery that it says could help power electric aircraft while meeting the required safety and energy standards.

The company claims the battery’s energy density is 500 watt-hours per kilogram, making it much more robust than it looks. This means that the battery can push out more power from a lighter component than the current options.

The belief is that condensed batteries will open the door to improved power systems for both electric cars and even the aviation field. Finding more efficient ways to handle power generation while also remaining lightweight is essential for both these fields, especially as electric cars try to offer longer ranges.

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Imagine having a building made of stacks of bricks connected by adaptable bridges. You pull a knob that modifies the bridges and the building changes functionality. Wouldn’t it be great?

A team of researchers led by Prof. Aitor Mugarza, from the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and ICREA, together with Prof. Diego Peña from the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials of the University of Santiago de Campostela (CiQUS-USC), Dr. Cesar Moreno, formerly a member of ICN2’s team and currently a researcher at the University of Cantabria, and Dr. Aran Garcia-Lekue, from the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and Ikerbasque Foundation, has done something analogous, but at the single-atom scale, with the aim of synthesizing new carbon-based materials with tunable properties.

As explained in a paper just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) and featured on the cover of the issue, this research is a significant breakthrough in the precise engineering of atomic-thin materials —called “2D materials” due to their reduced dimensionality. The proposed fabrication technique opens exciting new possibilities for , and, in particular, for application in advanced electronics and future solutions for sustainable energy.

Continue reading “Engineering graphene-based quantum circuits with atomic precision” | >

The relentless hype surrounding generative AI in the past few months has been accompanied by equally loud anguish over the supposed perils — just look at the open letter calling for a pause in AI experiments. This tumult risks blinding us to more immediate risks — think sustainability and bias — and clouds our ability to appreciate the real value of these systems: not as generalist chatbots, but instead as a class of tools that can be applied to niche domains and offer novel ways of finding and exploring highly specific information.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The news that a dozen companies have developed ChatGPT plugins is a clear demonstration of the likely direction of travel. A “generalized” chatbot won’t do everything for you, but if you’re, say, Expedia, being able to offer customers a simple way to organize their travel plans is undeniably going to give you an edge in a marketplace where information discovery is so important.

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OTTAWA, May 15 (Reuters) — Automaker Stellantis (STLAM.MI) has stopped all construction at a more-than C$5 billion ($3.74 billion) electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Windsor, Canada, over a disagreement with the federal government about subsidies, a spokesperson for the company said on Monday.

“Effective immediately, all construction related to the battery module production on the Windsor site has stopped,” the spokesperson said.

Canada’s industry ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Rumor has it that NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino is lined up to take the role.

Elon Musk is finally ready to let go of the CEO role at Twitter as he announced the appointment of a new CEO at the company. Musk will take on the role of the CTO and oversee product, software, and sysops, he said in a tweet.

Musk, who is also the CEO of other companies such as Tesla and SpaceX, has been under pressure to dedicate more time to these companies. The Tesla stock price dropped significantly after Musk took over Twitter in a $44 billion purchase last year.

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