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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 471

Jan 2, 2020

New Way to Make Hydrogen Energy Out of Water Much More Cheaply

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Australian Research opens up new possibilities for hydrogen fuelled future.


Scientists show how using only water, iron, nickel and electricity can create hydrogen energy much more cheaply than before.

Hydrogen-powered cars may soon become more than just a novelty after a UNSW-led team of scientists demonstrated a much cheaper and sustainable way to create the hydrogen required to power them.

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Dec 31, 2019

The War on Sensemaking, Daniel Schmachtenberger

Posted by in categories: evolution, sustainability

Let’s be clear.


What can we trust? Why is the ‘information ecology’ so damaged, and what would it take to make it healthy?

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Dec 31, 2019

AI enables design of spray-on coating that can generate solar energy

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, solar power, sustainability

A new system enables optimization of perovskite materials for the production of technology that could make solar energy ubiquitous.

Dec 31, 2019

Tesla batteries help power new solar water desalination plant in Africa

Posted by in category: sustainability

GivePower has deployed a new water desalination plant in Africa using Tesla batteries and solar power that is now providing clean water to thousands of people.

The system has been deployed in Kiunga, a rural village in Kenya where the lack of clean water had people sometimes rely on saltwater wells or even contaminated water.

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Dec 30, 2019

Secretary-General Says United Nations Must Embrace Blockchain

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, sustainability

In September 2018, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres gave a speech on the global lack of trust, or what he called a “trust deficit disorder.” He just gave a similar speech, this time discussing blockchain specifically. The organization isn’t just motivated to build a more sustainable world or reducing waste from their supply chain, but as American support has waned, donors are demanding assurance their donations are being spent for the purpose they were intended.


United Nations secretary-general António Guterres says the intergovernmental giant needs to embrace blockchain. In a statement provided to Forbes by the secretary-general’s office, Guterres touted the technology first made popular by bitcoin as a crucial component of the organization that generate’s $50 billion in revenue annually.

Coming at a time when the president of China has touted blockchain as a national priority, and the $6 billion United Nations Children’s Fund has started accepting bitcoin and ethereum donations for some of its projects, the statement from Guterres shows that cryptocurrency and the underlying blockchain technology is being seriously explored at the highest levels of the largest organizations in the world.

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Dec 29, 2019

How Ford Makes Car Parts From Used McDonald’s Coffee Beans

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

Would be cool to see Tesla use more recycled components.


McDonald’s used to send 62 million pounds of coffee chaff to landfills. But the company partnered with Ford Motor Company with hopes to eliminate their waste to landfills. The research team at Ford has already been using agave, wheat, and even denim byproducts to make car parts. They discovered that chaff can be used as well. Here’s an inside look of the process.

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Dec 26, 2019

Longevity escape velocity

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, Ray Kurzweil, sustainability

In the life extension movement, longevity escape velocity (sometimes referred to as Actuarial escape velocity[1]) is a hypothetical situation in which life expectancy is extended longer than the time that is passing. For example, in a given year in which longevity escape velocity would be maintained, technological advances would increase life expectancy more than the year that just went by.

Life expectancy increases slightly every year as treatment strategies and technologies improve. At present, more than one year of research is required for each additional year of expected life. Longevity escape velocity occurs when this ratio reverses, so that life expectancy increases faster than one year per one year of research, as long as that rate of advance is sustainable.[2][3][4]

The concept was first publicly proposed by David Gobel, co-founder of the Methuselah Foundation (MF). The idea has been championed by biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey[5] (the other co-founder of the MF), and futurist Ray Kurzweil,[6] who named one of his books, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, after the concept. These two claim that by putting further pressure on science and medicine to focus research on increasing limits of aging, rather than continuing along at its current pace, more lives will be saved in the future, even if the benefit is not immediately apparent.[2].

Dec 26, 2019

Study reveals the Great Pyramid of Giza can focus electromagnetic energy

Posted by in categories: existential risks, nanotechnology, physics, solar power, sustainability

An international research group has applied methods of theoretical physics to investigate the electromagnetic response of the Great Pyramid to radio waves. Scientists predicted that under resonance conditions, the pyramid can concentrate electromagnetic energy in its internal chambers and under the base. The research group plans to use these theoretical results to design nanoparticles capable of reproducing similar effects in the optical range. Such nanoparticles may be used, for example, to develop sensors and highly efficient solar cells. The study was published in the Journal of Applied Physics.

While Egyptian are surrounded by many myths and legends, researchers have little scientifically reliable information about their physical properties. Physicists recently took an interest in how the Great Pyramid would interact with electromagnetic waves of a resonant length. Calculations showed that in the resonant state, the pyramid can concentrate in the its internal chambers as well as under its base, where the third unfinished chamber is located.

These conclusions were derived on the basis of numerical modeling and analytical methods of physics. The researchers first estimated that resonances in the pyramid can be induced by radio waves with a length ranging from 200 to 600 meters. Then they made a model of the electromagnetic response of the pyramid and calculated the extinction cross section. This value helps to estimate which part of the incident wave energy can be scattered or absorbed by the pyramid under resonant conditions. Finally, for the same conditions, the scientists obtained the electromagnetic field distribution inside the pyramid.

Dec 26, 2019

1,000 Starships, 20 Years Are Needed to Build Sustainable City on Mars, Says Elon Musk

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

Elon Musk shared an update that building a sustainable city on Mars will take at least two more decades, as the planets align only once every two years.

Dec 25, 2019

Free of Heavy Metals, New Battery Design Could Alleviate Environmental Concerns

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Today, IBM Research is building on a long history of materials science innovation to unveil a new battery discovery. This new research could help eliminate the need for heavy metals in battery production and transform the long-term sustainability of many elements of our energy infrastructure.

As battery-powered alternatives for everything from vehicles to smart energy grids are explored, there remain significant concerns around the sustainability of available battery technologies.

Many battery materials, including heavy metals such as nickel and cobalt, pose tremendous environmental and humanitarian risks. Cobalt in particular, which is largely available in central Africa, has come under fire for careless and exploitative extraction practices.1