Lifeboat Foundation

Consumers discard or possess disused electronic goods containing raw materials critical for the green energy transition and worth almost $10 billion every year, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Toys, cables, electronic cigarettes, tools, electric toothbrushes, shavers, headphones and other domestic gadgets contain metals like lithium, gold, silver and copper.

Demand is expected to soar for these materials due to their crucial role in rapidly growing green industries such as electric vehicle battery production.

Google built an AI that monitors the amount of idling at intersections to help city planners cut congestion and reduce air pollution. Now it’s working in 70 intersections.

Although climate change and global warming affect countries all over the world, Iraq has been hit especially hard. Temperatures are rising twice as fast and annual rainfall is decreasing, leaving the country struggling with many severe droughts. However, the lower water levels of the Euphrates River during these droughts allowed the secrets of a forgotten civilization to emerge. Join us as we embark on an extraordinary journey to discover the ancient ruins found under the Euphrates River!

In 2018, a terrible drought in Iraq left the water levels of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers dangerously low. In an effort to help the country, the Mosul Dam Reservoir in the Kurdistan region was drained, providing much-needed water to dying crops. But, as the reservoir’s water receded, the ruins of an ancient city suddenly emerged!

Racing against time, archaeologists diligently worked to explore and map out the newly-exposed ancient ruins before the water covered them once again. They discovered the ruins of a large palace with 22-foot tall walls, some of which were 6 feet thick! Many of the walls were also adorned with well-preserved wall paintings, shining bright with their blue and red hues. The palace, built in two distinct phases, had been used over a long period of time and may hold many of the secrets of the mighty Mitanni Empire. However, before they could evaluate it further, the palace and the rest of the city resubmerged beneath the Euphrates River, leaving their mysteries unresolved for the next four years.

Mercedes-Maybach has joined forces with Space Perspective, the world’s first carbon-neutral spaceflight experience company, to offer customers an emissions-free luxurious ride into 100,000 feet into space for those wishing for a space experience like no other. Rides to the spaceship are provided by Mercedes-Maybach electric vehicles.

Sustainable, accessible and safe

The firms describe the craft used for these travels called Spaceship Neptune as “the most accessible, most sustainable, and safest spacecraft on or above Planet Earth. It comprises of the SpaceBalloon, Reserve Descent System and Neptune Capsule.”

Caltech researchers have discovered Hubbard excitons, which are excitons bound magnetically, offering new avenues for exciton-based technological applications.

In art, the negative space in a painting can be just as important as the painting itself. Something similar is true in insulating materials, where the empty spaces left behind by missing electrons play a crucial role in determining the material’s properties. When a negatively charged electron is excited by light, it leaves behind a positive hole. Because the hole and the electron are oppositely charged, they are attracted to each other and form a bond. The resulting pair, which is short-lived, is known as an exciton [pronounced exit-tawn].

Excitons are integral to many technologies, such as solar panels, photodetectors, and sensors. They are also a key part of light-emitting diodes found in televisions and digital display screens. In most cases, the exciton pairs are bound by electrical, or electrostatic, forces, also known as Coulomb interactions.

Scientists use bacteria to make cheese from yellow peas, a plant-based and sustainable alternative to dairy cheese.

Department of food science, university of copenhagen.

However, with growing concerns about the environmental impact of dairy production and the effects of climate change, there is a growing need to shift towards more plant-based alternatives in our food system. Scientists are now exploring how to harness the potential of protein-rich plants like peas and beans to create a new generation of non-dairy cheeses that rival traditional dairy cheeses’ sensory properties.

Continue reading “Bacteria help create cheese-like products from yellow peas” »

Wind turbines are a feat of engineering. The massive structures are visually impressive and generate vast amounts of clean energy via a natural and pollution-free source.

Because of that, you’d think they take a long time to install — especially when placed far out at sea.

However, at an offshore wind farm in Zhangpu, China, the state-owned China Three Gorges power company managed to get one up and running in just over a day, Electrek reports.

Researchers at MIT have created a device that may soon be able to turn seawater into drinking water for entire households using nothing but solar energy.

And, to top it off, the water produced by this device could eventually cost less than US tap water, according to a paper published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Joule.

Yang Zhong, a graduate student at MIT and an author of the September 27 paper, said this desalination device is more efficient, longer-lasting, and cheaper than previous desalination devices.

Lightweight materials with super strength and toughness are highly sought after. Spider silk, a sustainable material, meets these requirements but faces challenges in commercialization due to scientific understanding of its spinning mechanism, technical complexities in the process, and engineering hurdles in low-cost mass production. Here, drawing inspiration from nylon and Kevlar, we propose a theory on the nature of toughness and strength, unveiling the basic structure of silk fibers. Using these theories, we successfully produce the first “localized” full-length spider silk fiber via transgenic silkworms, showcasing high tensile strength (1,299 MPa) and exceptional toughness (319 MJ/m3). This breakthrough overcomes scientific, technical, and engineering obstacles, paving the way for spider silk’s commercialization as a sustainable substitute for synthetic fibers. Moreover, our theories provide essential guidance for developing super materials.

Developing sustainable materials with high strength and ultra-toughness is vital for ecological civilization. Using transgenic silkworms, we have successfully produced the first full-length spider silk, overcoming the scientific challenge of understanding the essence of toughness and strength. The resulting bionic spider silk exhibits high strength (1,299 MPa) and ultra-toughness (319 MJ/m3), offering a potentially sustainable substitute for synthetic commercial fibers. This breakthrough provides valuable insights for the development of super materials, including those for a space elevator, driving the advancement of civilization.