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TerraPower, founded by billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 2008, is opening a new nuclear power plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The plant will be the first of its kind, with the company hoping to revolutionize the nuclear energy industry in the U.S. to help fight climate change and support American energy independence.

“Nuclear energy, if we do it right, will help us solve our climate goals,” Gates told ABC News. “That is, get rid of the greenhouse gas emissions without making the electricity system far more expensive or less reliable.”

Gates met with ABC News’ chief business, economics, and technology correspondent Rebecca Jarvis in Kemmerer to talk about the project.

This is really for the general public — and for people new to fusion. I gave a 20 minute talk** to a local group in Pittsburgh. We decided to record the audio, and put it out on the web for other people to enjoy. The top Ten things you should know about fusion are:

10. We have Been Doing It For Years.
9. We Know How To Make It Work.
8. You Can Do Fusion At Home.
7. The US Really Funded Fusion For about 15 year.
6. There Is More Than One Method.
5. Fusion Startups Are Real.
4. We Need A Pipeline.
3. China Is Taking An Interest.
2. Superconductors Are Game Changers.
1. Climate Change Is Not Waiting.

** Edits:
1. When I say 8, I meant 9
2. To clarify: ENN is investing ~10 million to built a duplicate of Dr. Cohens’ machine over in China. They’ve staffed up over there.

Volcanoes are enigmatic and formidable forces of nature, with unbelievable power that can shatter the very foundation of the Earth.

These colossal mountains of molten rock and ash have the ability to unleash devastation on a scale that is beyond human comprehension. While most of us don’t have to see the deadly effects of volcanic eruptions everyday, it doesn’t mean that they don’t happen.

A lot of the time though, these eruptions are fairly small, but sometimes, they show their full force to make sure we know just how powerful they are… and well, NASA just announced a 50 mile eruption has cracked open the Earth, and it’s about to take everything down with it.

The first deliveries of the Tesla Cybertruck are expected to take place later this year, and there are still a handful of unknowns about the futuristic truck. In recent weeks, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared some details about the vehicle, alongside some included in the automaker’s latest Master Plan.

In its Master Plan 3 unveiled on April 5, Tesla stated that the Cybertruck will have a 100 kWh battery pack. However, it’s not clear if this refers to a base model or another specific variant, as reported by The Street. The battery pack size is the same as those of the Model S and X, Tesla’s premium-level sedan and SUV, despite the truck being a wider and heavier vehicle than these.

Cybertruck rivals in the electric pickup sector include the Rivian R1T and the Ford F-150 Lightning, which feature 135 kWh and 131 kWh battery packs, respectively. The Cybertruck will also include a 3,500-pound payload capacity, adjustable air suspension, and lockable exterior storage measuring about 100 cubic feet.

Copied from :- https://www.facebook.com/francesca.rossi.

Are you a PhD student working on AI ethics? The 6th AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (AIES) invites PhD students to apply for the AIES student track, which offers targeted programming, mentorship, and funding to attend AIES in Montreal from August 8–10, 2023. We welcome all disciplines, methods, and backgrounds and strongly encourage applications from underrepresented and/or minoritized students.

Deadline: May 12, 2023


The AIES student track is a competitive program that provides PhD students with targeted programming, mentorship, and financial support to attend AIES. In addition to attending the conference, accepted students present their research in a lightning talk and poster session, participate in breakout groups with peers, and receive mentoring from senior scholars.

All PhD students with research interests relevant to the conference are welcome to apply, whether or not they have already submitted a paper to the main track of AIES. (See the main track CFP for the full list of research topics.) Students with papers already accepted by the main track must make a separate application if they wish to be considered for the student program.

Today is Earth Day.

That said, Americans don’t fully trust the reliability of renewable sources and 67% of the population favors a mix of renewables and fossil fuels, with only about 31% in favor of completely phasing out fossil fuels altogether.


This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.

Today is Earth Day, when people take time out to reflect on preserving the environment. And according to polling, at least, Americans are committed to improving it. According to a new poll from Pew Research looking at attitudes towards the environment, 69% of the U.S. population favors steps towards a goal of the country being carbon neutral by the year 2050. The same percentage says the country should prioritize developing renewable energy sources to do so.

Most of the households in the world today have refrigerators but need to keep food on lower temperatures is not new. People harvested ice and snow as early as 1,000 BC and there are written evidence that ancient Chinese, Jews, Greeks and Romans used to do this. But what people that lived in deserts did? Some of them, like Persians, built an advanced mechanism for this particular purpose.

By 400 BC, Persian engineers had mastered the technique of storing ice in the middle of summer in the desert. The ice was brought in during the winters from nearby mountains in bulk amounts, and stored in their own freezers called Yakhchal, or ice-pit.

These ancient refrigerators were used primarily to store ice for use in the summer, as well as for food storage, in the hot, dry desert climate of Iran. The ice was also used to chill treats for royalty during hot summer days and to make faloodeh, the traditional Persian frozen dessert.

A lightning bolt that struck a tree on Florida’s west coast has produced a fascinating type of phosphorus material we haven’t seen on Earth before: one that could represent a whole new mineral group, bridging the gap between space minerals and minerals found on Earth.

The material, which is a close match for calcium phosphite (CaHPO3), was found trapped inside a fulgurite – a “metal glob” formed by the reaction of the ultra-hot lightning bolt with the sand around the roots of its target.

These ‘fossilized lightning’ fulgurites often occur when lightning strikes certain types of sand, silica, and rock. What’s much less common is to find something so unique hidden inside one of these structures.