A team of scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, in Saudi Arabia, says they already have a solution in the works: before land-based lithium runs out, shift lithium mining to the ocean. The team claims they’ve created an affordable method for extracting lithium from the seawater, potentially unlocking a practically infinite supply of lithium.

The challenge: Land-based lithium mining is incredibly damaging to the environment, and it wastes huge amounts of water — up to 500,000 gallons of water per ton of lithium extracted.

Seawater contains 5,000 times the amount of lithium found on land, but only in very low concentrations, which has made previous attempts to extract lithium from the ocean ineffective.

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Kardashev Civilizations are beyond immense, with even the first tier of them making any modern nation look miniscule, and there are many barriers to becoming one.

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Credits:
Barriers To Becoming A Kardashev Civilization.
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur.
Episode 360, September 15, 2022
Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur.

Written by:
Isaac Arthur.

Editors:

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that water in a one-molecule layer acts like neither a liquid nor a solid, and that it becomes highly conductive at high pressures.

The S2x turbine will be able to generate one megawatt of electricity and will have a total height of 442 feet.

This nebula is about 100 times wider than the Sun is to its nearest star. It is 5,500 light years away and is an active star-forming region.

A new model can accurately predict the height of waves created when a cliff collapses into water, allowing for a better evaluation of the threat the incident may pose to local people.