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Category: sustainability

Robotics Company Builds Straight-Up Terminator

“I am kind of blown away that they can get motors to work in such an elegant way. I assumed it was soft body mechanics,” wrote another. “Wow.”

Iron made its first debut on Wednesday, when XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng introduced the unit as the “most human-like” bot on the market to date. Per Humanoids Daily, the robot features “dexterous hands” with 22 degrees of flexibility, a “human-like spine,” gender options, and a digital face.

According to He, the bot also contains the “first all-solid-state battery in the industry,” as opposed to the liquid electrolyte typically found in lithium-ion batteries. Solid-state batteries are considered the “holy grail” for electric vehicle development, a design choice He says will make the robots safer for home use.

New recharge-to-recycle reactor turns battery waste into new lithium feedstock

As global electric vehicle adoption accelerates, end-of-life battery packs are quickly becoming a major waste stream. Lithium is costly to mine and refine, and most current recycling methods are energy- and chemical-intensive, often producing lithium carbonate that must be further processed into lithium hydroxide for reuse.

Harnessing intricate, self-organized plasma patterns to destroy PFAS

Increasing the surface area when plasma and water interact could help scale up a technology that destroys contaminants such as PFAS, detergents and microbial contaminants in drinking water, new research from the University of Michigan shows.

Under certain conditions, when comes in contact with water, it can self-organize, forming intricate patterns resembling stars, wagon wheels or gears that expand the . While the physics of plasma self organization remains elusive, a better understanding can help harness it for more efficient water decontamination.

The U-M research team captured the first images of the water surface below the self-organizing plasma, revealing that the plasma exerts an electrical force on the water that distorts the surface and also generates surface waves.

Research drives commercialization of energy-efficient solar cell technology toward 40% efficiency milestone

Third-generation solar cell technology is advancing rapidly. An engineering research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has achieved a breakthrough in the field of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells (TSCs), focusing on addressing challenges that include improving efficiency, stability and scalability.

The team has conducted a comprehensive analysis of TSC performance and provided strategic recommendations, which aim to raise the energy conversion efficiency of this new type of solar cell from the current maximum of approximately 34% to about 40%.

The team hopes to accelerate the commercialization of /silicon TSCs through industry-academia-research collaboration, while aligning with the nation’s strategic plan of carbon peaking and neutrality and promoting the development of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence through .

The Age of Sustainable Abundance Is Here!

Advancements in AI, robotics, and space exploration are driving us towards a future of sustainable abundance, enabled by innovations such as space-based solar power, humanoid robots, and scalable AI infrastructure. ## ## Questions to inspire discussion.

Terafabs and AI Chips.

🛠️ Q: What are Elon Musk’s plans for terafabs?

A: Musk plans to build terafabs with 10 lines, each producing 100k wafers/month, costing **$10–20 billion/line.

🔋 Q: What challenges do AI chips face for scaling?

A: Scaling AI faces bottlenecks in AI chips and energy, with Musk’s terafabs and solar power as key solutions.

Continue reading “The Age of Sustainable Abundance Is Here!” | >

How plastics grip metals at the atomic scale: Molecular insights pave way for better transportation materials

What makes some plastics stick to metal without any glue? Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have peered into the invisible adhesive zone that forms between certain plastics and metals—one atom at a time—to uncover how chemistry and molecular structure determine whether such bonds bend or break.

Their insights clarify metal–plastic bonding mechanisms and offer guidelines for designing durable, lightweight, and more sustainable hybrid materials for use in transportation.

Combining the strength of metal with the lightness and flexibility of plastic, polymer–metal hybrid structures are emerging as key elements for building lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles. The technology relies on bonding metals with plastics directly, without adhesives. The success of these hybrids, however, hinges on how well the two materials stick together.

SpaceX reveals simpler lander to speed up Moon return

With its metaphorical feet held over the allegorical fire by NASA, SpaceX has released a new, simplified plan to build a lander to put US astronauts back on the Moon now that the competition for the spacecraft has been reopened due to delays.

NASA’s Artemis program to establish a permanent US human presence on the Moon is ambitious beyond any doubt. However, like previous American efforts, it’s been fraught with cost overruns, delays and technical problems. One of the most aggravating of these bottlenecks has been building the lunar lander because if you don’t have a way to actually put astronauts on the actual Moon, you’re pretty much wasting your time.

SpaceX’s original plan was to build a lander based on its still-experimental Starship rocket – more than just based on it, the craft would essentially be a complete, baseline Starship complete with airfoils and heat shields. The goal was to land up to 100 tonnes of supplies on the Moon or enough to establish a complete, sustainable base.

Rainfall’s origin reveals a hidden driver behind drought risks for farmers

A new University of California San Diego study uncovers a hidden driver of global crop vulnerability: the origin of rainfall itself.

The paper, “Crop water origins and hydroclimate vulnerability of global croplands,” was published in Nature Sustainability.

The research traces back to its source—whether it evaporated from the ocean or from land surfaces such as soil, lakes and forests. When the sun heats these surfaces, water turns into vapor, rises into the atmosphere, and later falls again as rain.

Long-term stability for perovskite solar cells achieved with fluorinated barrier compound

Perovskite solar cells are inexpensive to produce and generate a high amount of electric power per surface area. However, they are not yet stable enough, losing efficiency more rapidly than the silicon market standard. Now, an international team led by Prof. Dr. Antonio Abate has dramatically increased their stability by applying a novel coating to the interface between the surface of the perovskite and the top contact layer. This has even boosted efficiency to almost 27%, which represents the state-of-the-art.

After 1,200 hours of continuous operation under standard illumination, no decrease in efficiency was observed. The study involved research teams from China, Italy, Switzerland and Germany and has been published in Nature Photonics.

“We used a fluorinated compound that can slide between the perovskite and the buckyball (C60) contact layer, forming an almost compact monomolecular film,” explains Abate. These Teflon-like molecular layer chemically isolate the perovskite layer from the contact layer, resulting in fewer defects and losses. Additionally, the intermediate layer increases the structural stability of both adjacent layers, particularly the C60 layer, making it more uniform and compact.

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