Toggle light / dark theme

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a force for good that could play a huge part in solving problems such as climate change. Left unchecked, however, it could undermine democracy, lead to massive social problems and be harnessed for chilling military or terrorist attacks.

That’s the view of Martin Ford, futurist and author of Rule of the Robots, his follow-up to Rise of the Robots, the 2015 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year, which focused on how AI would destroy jobs.

In the new book, Ford, a sci-fi fan, presents two broad movie-based scenarios.

ORF Genetics in Iceland is growing 100,000 genetically engineered barley plants in a greenhouse measuring over 22 square feet (2 sq m) to create lab-grown meat.

This cutting-edge approach has the potential to lower prices, eliminate reliance on live animals in the lab-grown meat sector, and speed up the scaling-up process, according to BBC. And, with the fact that meat accounts for nearly 60 percent of all greenhouse gases from food production in mind, such a development could have far-reaching implications in the fight against climate change.

Axiom Space, a venture-backed unicorn building the next generation International Space Station, is teaming up with Discovery Channel to give away a trip to the space station onboard SpaceX to the winner of a series of rigorous challenges meant to simulate astronaut training. The series is expected to air in 2022 and for those wanting to go up, casting is underway at discovery.com/astronaut. What this means is that the commercialization of space is happening in a very real way. No longer the realm of science fiction, private startups are joining forces with Fortune 500 companies to build industrial complexes in low Earth orbit for a multitude of commercial purposes including research, development, manufacturing, climate sensing, and even hospitality, with space hotels being planned to serve as WeWorks for those seeking off-planet retreats and remote work offices. you ever gazed up at the stars and wondered what it would feel like to be looking back down at Earth? Are you a space enthusiast who would give anything to travel to space, but never thought you’d have an opportunity? Welcome to WHO WANTS TO BE AN ASTRONAUT — the ultimate chance of a lifetime. Compete for a seat on a flight to the International Space Station where the winner will be able to do something only a handful of humans have ever done…travel into space.

We’re not looking for rocket scientists — this is an opportunity for regular people to have the chance to travel to space and share that journey with the world. (Ok, ok, if you’re a rocket scientist you’re welcome to apply too!)

If this sounds like a mission you want to be part of, now is your chance. Fill out the application below and submit a short video (30−60 seconds) telling us about yourself, why you deserve a chance to travel to space, what it would mean to you, and why you want to participate. We can’t wait to hear from you.

A simple cooling system driven by the capture of passive solar energy could provide low-cost food refrigeration and living space cooling for impoverished communities with no access to the electricity grid. The system, which has no electrical components, exploits the powerful cooling effect that occurs when certain salts are dissolved in water. After each cooling cycle, the system uses solar energy to evaporate the water and regenerate the salt, ready for reuse.

“Hot regions have high levels of solar energy, so it would be very attractive to use that solar energy for cooling,” says Wenbin Wang, a postdoc in Peng Wang’s lab. In many parts of the world, there is a greater need for cooling because of climate change, but not every community can access electricity for air conditioning and refrigeration. “We conceptualized an off-grid solar-energy conversion and storage design for green and inexpensive cooling,” Professor Wang says.

Professor Hasselmann developed a method for satellite ocean wave measurements.


This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Klaus Hasselmann helped to shape a ground-breaking Earth-observation mission that paved the way for the modern study of our planet’s environment.

The German oceanographer and climate modeler was awarded the coveted prize for his contribution to the physical modeling of Earth’s climate that has enabled scientists to quantify the climate’s natural variability and better predict climate change. Hasselman won half of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physics last week, with the other half shared by scientists Syukuro Manabe and Giorgio Parisi for their own research on disorder and fluctuations in physical systems.

Vertical Farming has come a long way since the original series was posted 3 years ago, and there have been many developments that are shaping the future of the industry. Whether it’s large scale plant factories, community urban farms, or even new types of farm, the size of vending machines, and even vertical farms at home, the way we grow is changing.

But it’s not just the way we grow, what we grow is also changing. Vertical Farms are adding new crop types like tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries and many other types of fruits and vegetables, and this change has happened sooner than the original series projected.

But to really have a significant impact on the global challenges of climate change, food security and water security, we will have to grow energy intensive crops like wheat and rice in vertical farms.

Are we on track to meet this challenge, or is vertical farming struggling to improve its energy efficiency? Is vertical farming closer to changing the world?

Previous video in series: The Future Of Vertical Farming.
https://youtu.be/ESuzrY2abAw.

Is Solar Power The Future Of Energy?

Advanced Nuclear Power Advocacy For Humanity — Eric G. Meyer, Founder & Director, Generation Atomic


Eric G. Meyer is the Founder and Director of Generation Atomic (https://generationatomic.org/), a nuclear advocacy non-profit which he founded after hearing about the promise of advanced nuclear reactors, and he decided to devote his life to saving and expanding the use of atomic energy.

Eric worked as an organizer on several political, union, and issue campaigns while in graduate school for applied public policy, taking time off to attend the climate talks in Paris and sing opera about atomic energy.

Eric began his full time nuclear work in May of 2016 with Environmental Progress by organizing marches, rallies, and trainings in California, New York, and Illinois, before leaving to found Generation Atomic in late 2016.

In only a short period of time, Generation Atomic has made significant progress in the world of nuclear advocacy. Over the last year they’ve held several advocacy trainings at conferences, Marched for Science, talked to over tens of thousands voters, and carried the banner for nuclear energy at the climate talks in Morocco, Germany, and Poland.

Editor’s note, 6/28/21, 3:35 PM: The article was updated to clarify that Natrium features a sodium‐cooled fast reactor and not a type of molten salt reactor, as previously reported.

A nuclear power startup founded by Bill Gates has announced plans to build a new kind of nuclear reactor at a retiring coal plant in Wyoming.

This reactor will be the first real-world demonstration of the startup’s technology, which could help power the world — without warming the climate.