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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 235

Nov 19, 2021

What’s in a flame? The surprising mystery of how soot forms

Posted by in categories: biological, climatology, health, particle physics, solar power, sustainability

Soot is one of the world’s worst contributors to climate change. Its impact is similar to global methane emissions and is second only to carbon dioxide in its destructive potential. This is because soot particles absorb solar radiation, which heats the surrounding atmosphere, resulting in warmer global temperatures. Soot also causes several other environmental and health problems including making us more susceptible to respiratory viruses.

Soot only persists in the atmosphere for a few weeks, suggesting that if these emissions could be stopped then the air could rapidly clear. This has recently been demonstrated during recent lockdowns, with some major cities reporting clear skies after industrial emissions stopped.

But is also part of our future. Soot can be converted into the useful carbon black product through thermal treatment to remove any harmful components. Carbon blacks are critical ingredients in batteries, tires and paint. If these carbons are made small enough they can even be made to fluoresce and have been used for tagging , in catalysts and even in solar cells.

Nov 18, 2021

SpaceX details plan to build Mars Base Alpha with reusable Starship rockets

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel, sustainability

For the first time, SpaceX has teamed up with researchers from NASA and several other US institutions to publicly discuss how it plans to use Starship to build Mars Base Alpha.

Save for a handful of comments spread around the periphery of SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk’s main focus, Starship itself, the company and its executives have almost never specifically discussed how the next-generation fully-reusable rocket will be used to create a permanent human presence on Mars. For the most part, that clear focus on near-term hurdles is hard to fault. Half a century of mostly theoretical analysis has made it abundantly clear that a permanent and sustainable extraterrestrial human outpost is impossible without a radical reduction in the cost of access to space. For decades, NASA has studied and studied and studied slight variations of a plan that would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to send a few astronauts to Mars for a few months at a time.

Put simply, without a revolution in space transport, even a temporary presence on Mars where inhabitants are mostly dependent on imported goods is infeasible unless Mars exploration is made a national or international priority on the order of tens of billions of dollars per year. Over the 80–90 years that spaceflight has been seriously pondered, dozens of groups and papers and studies and space agencies have imagined what that revolution might look like and SpaceX is not unique for proposing a solution to that longstanding problem. However, SpaceX is the first of that long list of contenders to propose a solution and both invest significant resources and put hammer to metal in an attempt to make that vision real.

Nov 18, 2021

You can now buy a flying car for $92,000

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

On October 21, Sweden’s Jetson Aero launched the Jetson One, a single-seat flying car with 20-minute flight times and a top speed of about 63 mph. It has already sold all 12 of the electric vehicles in its first production run (to be delivered in fall 2022), and it’s now taking orders for 2023.

The vehicles will be delivered about 50% assembled, and customers must finish putting them together themselves.

Continue reading “You can now buy a flying car for $92,000” »

Nov 17, 2021

This Colorado ‘solar garden’ is literally a farm under solar panels

Posted by in categories: food, solar power, sustainability

The newly passed infrastructure bill could lead to a boom in solar production requiring a lot more land, including farmland. But research is showing solar panels might actually help grow some crops.

Nov 17, 2021

Elon Musk wants to kill iPhone

Posted by in categories: cryptocurrencies, Elon Musk, mobile phones, space, sustainability

Rumors that Tesla is indeed making a smartphone were bolstered after the world-famous design studio ADR released concept images (in a video). This made people wonder: Is Tesla going to go after the iPhone — or simply create an entirely new market segment, such as a true-to-form satellite phone that works where traditional WiFi or 5G services are absent, and able to mine cryptocurrencies anywhere, including on the planet Mars?While speculations abound, there are numerous unanswered questions, such as: how much would it retail for? Does it have a sim card? What’s the monthly charge for using Starlink? Can I buy one, without first buying a Tesla EV? Its release date is a closely-guarded secret. A Starlink antenna is being taken out of the box. Tech publications have leaked images of the new device supposedly out of the EV maker, including some details of what it can do.

Nov 17, 2021

This light-powered catalyst mimics photosynthesis

Posted by in categories: chemistry, sustainability

The new type of catalyst, known as a biohybrid photocatalyst, contains a light-harvesting protein that absorbs light and transfers the energy to a metal-containing catalyst. This catalyst then uses the energy to perform reactions that could be useful for synthesizing pharmaceuticals or converting waste products into biofuels or other useful compounds.

“By replacing harmful conditions and reagents with light, photocatalysis can make pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and fuel synthesis more efficient and environmentally compatible,” says Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, an associate professor of chemistry at MIT and the senior author of the new study.

Nov 16, 2021

Could Solar Gardens Boost Traditional Farming with Renewable Energy?

Posted by in categories: food, solar power, sustainability

This solar farm in Colorado thinks so.

The farming industry is using way too much energy both for its own and the Earth’s sake. To put it in numbers, agriculture uses approximately 21 percent of food production energy, which equals 2.2 quadrillions of kilojoules of energy each year. What’s more, about 60 percent of the energy used in agriculture goes toward gasoline, diesel, electricity, and natural gas.

That’s where agrivoltaics come in. A system where solar panels are in… See more.

Nov 16, 2021

How Designers Use Nature To Solve Problems | Answers With Joe

Posted by in categories: habitats, sustainability

A lot of our great technological achievements were copied from nature. And we are still copying.


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Humans have been designing and innovating for 100,000 years, but nature has been doing so for 4.5 billion years. Turns out we still have a lot to learn from nature, and biomimicry is the science of using nature to inform innovative design. Here are some great examples of this new and maybe world-changing design philosophy.

Continue reading “How Designers Use Nature To Solve Problems | Answers With Joe” »

Nov 15, 2021

Ford and Purdue University Created a Cable That Fully Charges an EV in 5 Minutes

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

The new cable would be able to output four times more current than today’s best option.

Nov 15, 2021

Electricity and chemistry could give biofuels a big boost

Posted by in categories: chemistry, sustainability

Scientists found an easier way to produce a chemical reaction important in making biofuels, possibly lowering the cost of biofuel production.