Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: sustainability – Page 144

Ocean Eye will illuminate the hidden realms of marine biodiversity and pave the way for unprecedented insights into the ocean using lidar technology and advanced sensors.

In a groundbreaking initiative, researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Aarhus University spearhead the Ocean Eye project. This revolutionary undertaking aims to transform our understanding of marine biodiversity using cutting-edge optical technologies, according to a university press release.

The project utilizes a combination of hyperspectral cameras, lasers, and artificial intelligence on an autonomous vessel to gather comprehensive data on coastal waters, surpassing the limitations of traditional methods.

Challenging the uncharted depths

Despite 71 percent of Earth’s surface being covered by water, a staggering 91 percent of marine species remain unidentified, creating a substantial blind spot in our knowledge of marine biodiversity. Traditional methods employing divers and drones have proven challenging and expensive, leading DTU to pioneer the Ocean Eye project.

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The robot can help the construction industry overcome its challenges and reduce its environmental impact.

Michael Lyrenmann via Science Robotics.

A team of researchers has developed a 12-ton (approximately 2,000 pounds) autonomous robot that can construct stone walls from natural and recycled materials using advanced technologies. This could help the construction industry overcome its challenges of low productivity, high waste, and labor shortages while reducing its environmental impact and improving its sustainability.

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Upon completion of Mission 1, Astrolab’s FLEX will become the largest and most capable rover to ever travel the Moon, claims the company.

Venturi Astrolab.

One such firm is Monacco-based lunar technology startup Venturi Astrolab which initiated its electric lunar rover programme in 2019. The Venturi group has leveraged its experience of designing and manufacturing high-performance electric vehicles since 2000 to develop its maiden rover called the Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX), which is scheduled to land on the Moon in 2026.

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Tesla has open-sourced all of the design and engineering of the original Roadster, CEO Elon Musk announced today, and plenty of people are wondering if the timing of the release has anything to do with the next-gen Roadster that is now several years behind schedule.

Tesla has opened everything from Owner’s Manuals to Circuits and Connectors for the original Roadster, which was the automaker’s first project fifteen years ago in 2008.

The vehicle was essentially a fundraising campaign for Tesla as it fought to keep its doors open and transform the passenger vehicle industry. It almost bankrupted the company, but now, everything that was developed for Tesla’s initial EV project is available for anyone to take a look at.

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For the first time, researchers have succeeded in selectively exciting a molecule using a combination of two extreme-ultraviolet light sources and causing the molecule to dissociate while tracking it over time. This is another step towards specific quantum mechanical control of chemical reactions, which could enable new, previously unknown reaction channels.

The interaction of light with matter, especially with molecules, plays an important role in many areas of nature, for example in such as photosynthesis. Technologies such as use this process as well.

On the Earth’s surface, mainly light in the visible, ultraviolet or infrared regime plays a role here. Extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) light—radiation with significantly more energy than —is absorbed by the atmosphere and therefore does not reach the Earth’s surface. However, this XUV radiation can be produced and used in the laboratory to enable a selective excitation of electrons in molecules.

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Tesla has started discounting new inventory Model Y and Model 3 vehicles again in an apparent new end-of-quarter delivery push.

While Tesla has historically often used price reductions as a way to create demand, but until recently, the automaker has refrained from straight discounts on vehicles.

That changed when Tesla started discounting new inventory vehicles earlier this year.

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Ford said Tuesday it is cutting production capacity by roughly 43% to 20 gigawatt hours per year and reducing expected employment from 2,500 jobs to 1,700 jobs. The company declined to disclose how much less it would invest in the plant. Based on the reduced capacity, it would still be about a $2 billion investment.

The decision adds to a recent retreat from EVs by automakers globally. Demand for the vehicles is lower than expected due to higher costs and challenges with supply chains and battery technologies, among other issues.

Reductions at the Marshall, Michigan, plant are part of Ford’s plans announced last month to cut or delay about $12 billion in previously announced EV investments. The company will also postpone construction of another electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky.

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Humankind on the verge of evolutionary traps, a new study: …For the first time, scientists have used the concept of evolutionary traps on human societies at large.

For the first time, scientists have used the concept of evolutionary traps on human societies at large. They find that humankind risks getting stuck in 14 evolutionary dead ends, ranging from global climate tipping points to misaligned artificial intelligence, chemical pollution, and accelerating infectious diseases.

The evolution of humankind has been an extraordinary success story. But the Anthropocene—the proposed geological epoch shaped by us humans—is showing more and more cracks. Multiple global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, , , financial crises, and conflicts have started to occur simultaneously in something which scientists refer to as a polycrisis.

Humans are incredibly creative as a species. We are able to innovate and adapt to many circumstances and can cooperate on surprisingly large scales. But these capabilities turn out to have unintentional consequences. Simply speaking, you could say that the human species has been too successful and, in some ways, too smart for its own future good, says Peter Søgaard Jørgensen, researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University and at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere program and Anthropocene laboratory.

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The Tesla Cybertruck was spotted on the beach, driving through ocean water in the Gulf of Mexico just a week from deliveries.

Tesla claimed a while ago that the Cybertruck would be able to float. Although the truck did not completely enter the water in this instance, we have no idea if the automaker has prepared the pickup to travel through bodies of water.

Beach driving is popular, and all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive vehicles are suitable for this kind of travel. Drivers also need to air down their tires in order to prevent their car or truck from digging into the sand, but a vehicle cannot be too heavy, either, as it will sink into the beach. The highest gross vehicle weight on most drive-on beaches is 10,000 pounds.

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