Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: sustainability – Page 348

These Plants Have Been Genetically Modifying Themselves for Decades

Genetically modified crops have a bad rep. How could something so unnatural be good for us?

Well, we finally get to hear from the plants themselves. New evidence shows that plants have been genetically modifying themselves — and the process, called lateral gene transfer, could lead to new plants that are resilient to climate change.

The research: We all know that genes are transferred from parent to offspring. The same is true for all species, including plants. Some bacteria can swap genes with each other, but more complex life (usually) stays in its lane.

Subaru’s New 1,073 HP Electric Race Car Aims to Break Records

The E-RA comes with a 60kWh battery meaning it likely won’t come with a world-beating range. However, Subaru hopes its new all-wheel-drive machine can excel on the race track. The car features GT-style, high-downforce composite bodywork with cutouts in the body to redirect air away from the wheel wells.

The Japanese automaker aims to set a record-breaking Nürburgring lap time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds by 2023. That would put it ahead of Tesla’s Model S Plaid, which completed the Nürburgring course in 7 minutes and 35 seconds. Before going to Nürburgring, Subaru will test the E-RA at Japanese racing circuits later this year.

Subaru also revealed the Solterra STI Concept on the show floor, a sportier version of its new Solterra all-electric SUV, which was revealed in November last year. Though Subaru didn’t reveal much in the way of specifications, the new Solterra concept features a roof spoiler, under spoilers, and “other special parts on the exterior,” the company says.

Protecting EV Charging Stations from Cyberattacks

As the number of electric cars on the road grows, so does the need for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and the Internet-based managing systems within those stations. However, these managing systems face their own issues: cybersecurity attacks.

Elias Bou-Harb, director of the UTSA Cyber Center for Security and Analytics, and his colleagues — Claud Fachkha of the University of Dubai and Tony Nasr, Sadegh Torabi and Chadi Assi of Concordia University in Montreal — are shedding light on the vulnerabilities of these cyber systems. The researchers are also recommending measures that would protect them from harm.

The systems built into electric cars perform critical duties over the Internet, including remote monitoring and customer billing, as do a growing number of internet-enabled EV charging stations.

For BP, car chargers to overtake pumps in profitability race

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) — BP says its fast electric vehicle chargers are on the cusp of becoming more profitable than filling up a petrol car.

The milestone will mark a significant moment for BP which wants to shift away from oil and expand operations in power markets and around electric vehicles (EV).

EV charging has for years been a loss-making business as a whole for BP and rivals as they invest heavily in its expansion. The division is not expected to turn profitable before 2025 but on a margin basis, BP’s fast battery charging points, which can replenish a battery within minutes, are nearing levels they see from filling up with petrol.

Energy Efficient, Transparent Solar Windows: You Really Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

Building integrated solar provides businesses with new bottom line opportunities to leverage their properties to attract a new generation of sustainability-focused consumers, and that leaves little space for fossil energy to maneuver.

More than 20 billion square feet of windows are installed every year, and the leading firm Andersen Corporation apparently plans to make some of those billions into energy efficient, transparent solar energy generators that could kick the pace of global energy decarbonization into high gear. The well-known maker of windows and doors just chipped in for a $30 million Series B funding round that will help push the not-so-well-known transparent solar innovator Ubiquitous Energy out of the startup shadows and into the bright sunshine of the global building industries marketplace.

Ubiquitous Energy Hearts Transparent Solar Windows

The idea of transforming windows into fully transparent, see-through PV powerhouses has allured researchers for years. Conventional solar panels block the sun, so that’s out. Thin film PV technology offers an alternative route, but the problem is squeezing out enough clean kilowatts to make the endeavor worthwhile. Thin film is transparent, but overall the technology is not as efficient as conventional photovoltaic panels.

Next Fiat Panda aims for ‘most affordable EV’ title, will slot below 500e

Next Fiat Panda aims for ‘most affordable EV’ title with customizable, clever crossover that will slot below 500e.

What’s the most affordable EV you can buy? If rumors out of Fiat are to be believed, the answer to that question will soon be “the new Fiat Panda” as Stellantis targets the bottom end of the booming electric car market.

Set to arrive as soon as this spring, the new Fiat Panda will be an EV-only offering from Stellantis’ “entry” Italian brand, and is expected to slot in below the ell-electric Fiat 500e, price-wise, in the company’s lineup. Its main objective, as the brand’s President, Oliver Francois, told AutoExpress UK, is to “awaken the sleeping giant” he believes Fiat to be. “That’s exactly my point of view,” he says, when discussing new models. “We have not even started awakening the giant.”

As a product, the upcoming Fiat Panda is believed to be heavily based on Fiat’s 2019 concept, the award-winning Fiat Centoventi. At the time, the company said it would reduce the car’s build costs by adopting a spartan design with a limited color palette that was at once “minimalist and fully customizable.”

Dimming the Sun Could Spell Doom for Humanity, Experts Warn

Policy experts and scientists are coming together to stop such experimentation.

Back in March of 2021, we brought you news of a study from the Bill Gates-backed Harvard University Solar Geoengineering Research Program which aimed to evaluate the efficacy of blocking sunlight from reaching our planet’s surface in order to delay the effects of climate change.

Now, more than 60 policy experts and scientists have come together to claim that these kinds of geoengineering initiatives are very dangerous for humanity, according to Phys.org.

“Solar geoengineering deployment cannot be governed globally in a fair, inclusive and effective manner,” said the researchers in a letter that was further supported by a commentary in the journal WIREs Climate Change.

“We, therefore, call for immediate political action from governments, the United Nations and other actors to prevent the normalization of solar geoengineering as a climate policy option.”

Turns out geoengineering is not all it’s cracked up to be, and experts say that it could be dangerous to play with it.

Rolls-Royce Says Its Electric Plane Just Smashed the World Record for Speed

The first electric plane took flight in 1973. There was just one person on board and the plane only stayed in the air for 14 minutes, but it was the beginning of an ongoing effort to power aircraft with batteries instead of fuel. Multiple companies are working on building faster, lighter, more efficient electric planes, as well as batteries to power those planes—and last week an aircraft made by Rolls-Royce hit some new milestones in the industry.

Cheerily dubbed the Spirit of Innovation, the plane is part of the company’s Accelerating the Electrification of Flight initiative. The seemingly precocious plane just completed its maiden flight a little over a month ago, and Rolls-Royce subsequently launched “an intense flight testing phase” to collect data on the performance of the aircraft’s power and propulsion system, a 400kW electric powertrain they call “the most power-dense propulsion battery pack ever assembled in aerospace.”

Last week, the company said in a press release, they set three new world records. First, the aircraft reached a top speed of 345.4 mph (555.9 km/h) over 1.8 miles (3 kilometers). That’s 132 mph (213 k/h) faster than the existing record. The Spirit of Innovation got up to an altitude of 9,842.5 feet (3,000 meters) in 202 seconds—60 seconds faster than the existing record. And finally, the plane reached a maximum speed of 387.4 mph (623 km/h) during its flight tests, which Rolls-Royce says makes it the world’s fastest all-electric vehicle. The company is waiting on the Federal Aviation Institute to confirm and certify these claims.