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Category: sustainability – Page 128

A newly identified process could explain a variety of natural phenomena and enable new approaches to desalination.

Evaporation is happening all around us all the time, from the sweat cooling our bodies to the dew burning off in the morning sun. But science’s understanding of this ubiquitous process may have been missing a piece all this time.

In recent years, some researchers have been puzzled upon finding that water in their experiments, which was held in a sponge-like material known as a hydrogel, was evaporating at a higher rate than could be explained by the amount of heat, or thermal energy, that the water was receiving. And the excess has been significant — a doubling, or even a tripling or more, of the theoretical maximum rate.

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Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, has recently made a groundbreaking announcement in the field of battery technology. The company claims to have developed an all solid-state battery that could revolutionize the way we power our devices. This breakthrough could potentially lead to longer-lasting batteries with faster charging times, addressing one of the biggest pain points for consumers.

Solid-state batteries are a next-generation energy storage technology that replaces the liquid electrolyte found in traditional lithium-ion batteries with a solid material. This innovation offers several advantages, including increased energy density, improved safety, and enhanced lifespan. Samsung’s new solid-state battery reportedly boasts an energy density of up to 900 watt-hours per liter, which is nearly double the capacity of current lithium-ion batteries.

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Batteries are regarded as crucial technologies in the battle against climate change, particularly for electric vehicles and storing energy from renewable sources. Anthro Energy’s novel flexible batteries are presently available to wearable manufacturers and could be employed in a variety of areas, including electric cars and laptops.

The innovative batteries score well in fire safety, thanks to new materials and design features that eliminate internal and external mechanical safety risks like explosions. Many of today’s batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries, contain a flammable liquid as an electrolyte.

Anthro Energy’s David Mackaniac and his team have created a flexible polymer electrolyte that is malleable like rubber. The new technology provides increased design flexibility for use across a range of devices, with adaptable shapes and sizes to suit specific applications.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently had an opportunity to visit the Tesla Giga Berlin-Brandenburg plant in Grünheide near Berlin, Germany. Besides making some pronouncements about interior decor, Musk reportedly let on that the plant is expected to be engaged in making Tesla’s next-generation, affordable electric car model.

According to the Gigafactory Berlin News channel on Twitter/X, which covers plant-related news, Musk announced during his visit that the upcoming €25,000 electric car (known in the U.S. to be a $25,000 electric car) will be produced in Berlin.

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A team of researchers has now been able to show that there is an incredibly high biodiversity of environmentally relevant microorganisms in nature. This diversity is at least 4.5 times greater than previously known. The researchers recently published their findings in the journals Nature Communications and FEMS Microbiology Reviews.

The hidden world of microorganisms is often overlooked, even though many climate-relevant processes are influenced by microorganisms, often associated with an incredible diversity of species within the groups of bacteria and archaea (“primitive bacteria”).

For example, sulfate-reducing microorganisms convert a third of the organic carbon in marine sediments into . This produces toxic hydrogen sulfide. On the positive side, sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms quickly use this as an energy source and render it harmless.

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Plants are not just able to survive in low gravity such as on the Moon, two new papers suggest – they may prefer it, at least based on the only species to sprout.

When Chang’e 4 landed on the Moon in January 2019 it carried with it a payload that could dictate the future of space exploration: seeds of four plant species it sought to grow on the lunar surface. The germination of a single cotton seed attracted plenty of attention at the time, but there’s more to growth than just sprouting. If crops grown on the Moon are less productive or more fragile than those on Earth, it’s going to be a big problem.

It’s taken more than four years, but important results from the experiment have now been released and they suggest that for all the obstacles to establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars, growing food might not be one. Then again, it’s still very early days.

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Contrary to what we all learned in elementary school science class, it turns out that heat may not be necessary to make water evaporate. Scientists at MIT have made the surprising discovery that light alone can evaporate water, and is even more efficient at it than heat. The finding could improve our understanding of natural phenomena or boost desalination systems.

Evaporation occurs when water molecules near the surface of the liquid absorb enough energy to escape into the air above as a gas – water vapor. Generally, heat is the energy source, and in the case of Earth’s water cycle, that heat comes primarily from sunlight.

But in the last few years, different teams of scientists have noticed discrepancies in their experiments concerning water held in hydrogels. Water appeared to be evaporating at much higher rates than should be possible based on the amount of heat it was exposed to, sometimes tripling the theoretical maximum rate.

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