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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 420

Oct 10, 2020

Kubota taps Nvidia tech for smart-farming autonomous tractors

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI, sustainability

Autonomous tractors for farming.


OSAKA — Kubota has partnered with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia to develop highly sophisticated self-driving farm tractors, the Japanese machinery maker said Tuesday.

The tractors will be equipped with Nvidia graphics processing units and artificial intelligence, coupled with cameras to instantly process collected data.

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Oct 9, 2020

Japan’s Cute Army

Posted by in categories: military, solar power, sustainability

The unlikely association of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces with adorable anime characters could reflect a deep-seated discomfort with the nation’s military history.

Oct 9, 2020

A New Factory in France Will Mass-Produce Bugs as Food

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI, space, sustainability

It looks like our food for the future will be bugs. A factory in France will grow bugs as a food source.


Enter the insects. Or, more appropriately in this case, enter Ÿnsect, the French company with big ambitions to help change the way the world eats. Ÿnsect raised $125 million in Series C funding in early 2019, and at the time already had $70 million worth of aggregated orders to fill. Now they’re building a bug-farming plant to churn out tiny critters in record numbers.

You’ve probably heard of vertical farms in the context of plants; most existing vertical farms use LED lights and a precise mixture of nutrients and water to grow leafy greens or other produce indoors. They maximize the surface area used for growing by stacking several layers of plants on top of one another; the method may not make for as much space as outdoor fields have, but can yield a lot more than you might think.

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Oct 9, 2020

This Analyst Thinks Tesla Stock Is Headed to $578

Posted by in categories: business, energy, sustainability, transportation

The electric-car maker could benefit from improving profitability on vehicle sales and huge growth in its nascent energy business.

Oct 9, 2020

SpaceX’s Starman and Elon Musk’s Tesla just made their 1st Mars flyby

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

Starman got less than 5 million miles from the Red Planet.


The spacesuit-clad mannequin Starman and his Tesla Roadster just drove by Mars for the first time.

Oct 9, 2020

World’s biggest wind and solar producer now worth more than ExxonMobil

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Renewable energy is now richer than the Oil industry.


In yet another sign of the pace of the global energy transition – and the massive switch taking place in the investment community – the market value of company that describes itself as the world’s biggest producer of wind and solar power, US utility NextEra, has overtaken that of what used to be the world’s most valuable company, oil major ExxonMobil.

The flip occurred last last week, when NextEra overtook ExxonMobil to become the largest energy company in the US by market value. As Forbes reported, an investment in NextEra a decade ago would have delivered to return of 600 per cent, while an investment in ExxonMobil would have returned minus 25 per cent.

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Oct 8, 2020

Aerodynamicists reveal link between fish scales and aircraft drag

Posted by in categories: biological, engineering, sustainability, transportation

The team’s findings have been published in Nature: Scientific Reports: “Transition delay using biomimetic fish scale arrays,” and in the Journal of Experimental Biology: “Streak formation in flow over biomimetic fish scale arrays.”

Reducing drag means faster aircraft speeds and less fuel consumption—an important area of study for aerodynamicists such as Professor Bruecker, City’s Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Nature-Inspired Sensing and Flow Control for Sustainable Transport, and City’s Sir Richard Oliver BAE Systems Chair for Aeronautical Engineering.

Through their biomimetic study, Professor Bruecker’s team has discovered that the fish-scale array produces a zig-zag motion of fluid in overlapping regions of the surface of the fish, which in turn causes periodic velocity modulation and a streaky flow that can eliminate Tollmien-Schlichting wave induced transition to reduce by more than 25 percent.

Oct 8, 2020

SpaceX’s Starman cruising space in a Tesla makes a close approach to Mars

Posted by in categories: alien life, Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Yes, it is True! A Tesla car is cruising space! The founder of SpaceX Elon Musk wanted to launch a ‘silly’ payload for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket debut flight because a rocket’s first flight has potential to fail. Typically, aerospace companies launch massive concrete blocks as mass simulators during risky rocket flights. As the dreamer that Musk is, he opted to launch something that would inspire the public to dream big and look at the stars — his flashy midnight cherry Tesla Roadster. The electric vehicle became the crazy payload for the rocket’s launch.

On February 6, 2018, SpaceX conducted Falcon Heavy’s debut flight; It lifted-off from historic launch Pad 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The successful test turned Falcon Heavy into the most powerful rocket in operation, it produced about five million pounds of thrust (22MN). During the mission, SpaceX shared Live footage as the Tesla Roadster was placed into orbit. It was a very inspiring to watch an actual car orbiting around Earth with, a mannequin dressed as an astronaut, positioned in the Tesla driver’s seat; while the radio played “Life on Mars” by David Bowie (video below). After the awe-inspiring launch, Musk wholeheartedly said — “Life cannot just be about solving one sad problem after another. There need to be things that inspire you, that make you glad to wake up in the morning and be part of humanity. That is why we did it. We did for you.”

Oct 7, 2020

UK Pledges to Get 100% of Residential Power From Wind Turbines

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Ramping Up

Johnson announced that the U.K. would invest about £160 million ($207 million) that will go toward factories that would develop new turbines as well as floating offshore turbines themselves. In order to power every home in the U.K., those turbines would need to generate about 40 GW of power, Engadget reports. That’s four times the nation’s current wind energy output.

“Your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle, the whole lot of them will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands,” Johnson announced at the U.K. Conservative party conference.

Oct 7, 2020

Is “Peecycling” the Next Wave in Sustainable Living?

Posted by in category: sustainability

Circa 2014


Human waste can be converted into valuable fertilizer, if people can get past the “ick” factor.