German carmaker BMW has demonstrated the use of electrophoretic technology, enabling a vehicle’s surface to rapidly change colour. The futuristic concept has potential for a number of interior and exterior applications.
Category: futurism – Page 882
U.K.’s Wind Capacity Set for Big Boost After Record Auction
Scotland awarded rights for a massive offshore wind development more than twice the size of the U.K.’s current capacity, in a move that surprised the market for its scale and was welcomed by environmentalists.
The list of winning projects in the tender adds up to nearly 25 gigawatts, far bigger than the 10 gigawatts that Scottish authorities had anticipated ultimately being built.
Sou Fujimoto Architects designs walkable rooftop for rural Japanese university
An accessible rooftop that curves to meet the ground will distinguish the Hida Takayama University, which Japanese studio Sou Fujimoto Architects is designing in Hida City, Japan.
The private university, which is expected to open in April 2024, is set to be built on a rural site in the town that is located in the mountainous Gifu Prefecture.
Sou Fujimoto Architects’ design comprises two curved buildings that will be separated by a courtyard. The larger of the two structures will be topped by the giant accessible rooftop described by the studio as “an open hill”.
Earth’s interior is cooling faster than expected
Researchers have demonstrated in the lab how well a mineral common at the boundary between the Earth’s core and mantle conducts heat. This leads them to suspect that the Earth’s heat may dissipate sooner than previously thought.
How Could the Big Bang Arise From Nothing?
READER QUESTION: My understanding is that nothing comes from nothing. For something to exist, there must be material or a component available, and for them to be available, there must be something else available. Now my question: Where did the material come from that created the Big Bang, and what happened in the first instance to create that material? Peter, 80, Australia.
“The last star will slowly cool and fade away. With its passing, the universe will become once more a void, without light or life or meaning.” So warned the physicist Brian Cox in the recent BBC series Universe. The fading of that last star will only be the beginning of an infinitely long, dark epoch. All matter will eventually be consumed by monstrous black holes, which in their turn will evaporate away into the dimmest glimmers of light. Space will expand ever outwards until even that dim light becomes too spread out to interact. Activity will cease.
Or will it? Strangely enough, some cosmologists believe a previous, cold dark empty universe like the one which lies in our far future could have been the source of our very own Big Bang.