Designed for research into climate change this high-precision gas sensor is good to 133 parts per trillion CO and 65 parts per trillion N₂O.
Category: sustainability – Page 405
Habitability in the Solar System
Moderator: Michael Wall.
Panelists: Kennda Lynch, Abigail Fraeman, Morgan Cable.
Part of the Earth at the Crossroads conference held on Nov. 18, 2021.
Tantalizing new discoveries suggest that we are probably not alone in the universe. And yet, as Enrico Fermi first put in 1950: where is everybody? Are habitable worlds rare, unlikely, and therefore cosmically precious? Or is life easily overwhelmed by changing planetary conditions? Do technological societies in particular face an inevitable “Great Filter” that causes their extinction? These questions link the search for extraterrestrial life to the urgent environmental challenges facing our own civilization, from deadly pandemics to human-caused climate change. On November 18th, Georgetown University and the SETI Institute will unite scholars, journalists, artists and activists in conversations that explore what the search for alien life may reveal about the future of life on Earth. These conversations will be open to Georgetown students and will be broadcast to the public. They will culminate in a roundtable debate intended to draft a proclamation on the state of Earth’s environment and its future potential in a cosmic context.
If you like science, support the SETI Institute! We’re a non-profit research institution whose focus is understanding the nature and origins of life in the universe. Donate here: https://seti.org/donate.
Learn more about the SETI Institute and stay up-to-date on awesome science:
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/SETIInstitute/
Graphene: The Wonder Material of the Future
There is a new wonder material in town, and its name is graphene. Since it was first successfully isolated in 2004, graphene, with its honeycomb-like 2D structure and its wide gamut of interesting properties, has been keenly studied by material scientists.
This naturally transparent 1 millimeter thick lattice of carbon atoms has multiple applications and could even one day potentially solve the world’s water crisis.
The faith in the material is so strong that, according to numbers projected by Fortune Business Insights, its market value will be $2.8 billion in 2027.
A New Flexible Solar Panel Material Is 15 Times Thinner Than Paper
And it could work in wearables and light aircraft.
Researchers at Stanford University are developing an efficient new solar panel material that is fifteen times thinner than paper, a press statement reveals.
Made using transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), the materials have the potential to absorb a higher level of sunlight than other solar materials at the same time as providing an incredibly lightweight alternative to silicon-based solar panels.
Searching for silicon alternatives The researchers are part of a concerted effort within the scientific community to find alternative solar panel materials to silicon. Silicon is by far the most common material used for solar panels, but it’s heavy and rigid, meaning it isn’t particularly well suited to lightweight applications required for aircraft, spacecraft, electric vehicles, or even wearables.
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Hydrogen Airships Promise Zero Emissions at Quarter the Price of Plane Cargo
They could be “critical in the fight against climate change.”
A California-based startup called H2 Clipper wants to resurrect the hydrogen-filled airship as a form of mass transport. The key difference is that it won’t be transporting people, it will be transporting cargo, a press statement reveals.
The company aims to kickstart a green global cargo network by leveraging the world’s renewed willingness to try alternative forms of transport following the IPCC’s dire climate change report for 2021.
H2 Clipper claims its cargo airships can carry 8–10 times the payload of the best cargo plane over 6,000 miles (9,656 km), and it can do so at a quarter of the price. They will have a payload capacity of approximately 340,000 lb (150,000 kg) sitting in up to 265,000 cubic feet (7,530 cubic meters) of cargo space.
As for speed, the H2 Clipper would travel at a cruising speed of 175 mph (282 km/h), meaning it would move close to ten times faster than a cargo ship — though it would obviously lag behind a cargo plane in that department. The main advantage over today’s cargo planes is that the H2 Clipper produces zero carbon emissions.
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Make Your Voice Heard. Ten Points To Tell Politicians & Businesses To Accept & Action
Climate Emergency Basics.
Most people now accept that things are out of balance, and it is only those with warped agendas or a lack of understanding that are left behind.
Use these ten facts as starting points with which to move forward.
Use your vote, where you have one, in politics, the boardroom or a shareholders meeting to push for change in the right direction.
Use your money to buy goods and services from those making the right decisions to make the future cleaner, renewable and sustainable.
Finally, USE YOUR VOICE. Talk to everyone and share these thoughts, and challenge misinformation when you hear it being spread.
We can create a better future.
We waste billions subsidising fossil fuels when we could be scaling renewables and developing alternatives faster.
The more people vote for those with net zero policies and buy from those with net zero aims and ambitions, the sooner the balance will tip and momentum will do the rest.
If you want to see some ideas for how we move forward to solve these issues then watch this video next smile Can we save our planet?
https://youtu.be/qxY0p1MqjJs.
Idea based upon content from the book.
There is no planet B by Mike Berners-Lee.
Elon Musk Says SpaceX Is Going to Start Sucking CO2 Out of the Air and Turning It Into Rocket Fuel
SpaceX is embarking on a bold new adventure: making rocket fuel out of thin air.
“SpaceX is starting a program to take CO2 out of atmosphere & turn it into rocket fuel,” CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Monday. “Please join if interested.”
The news comes after Musk announced a $100 million prize to come up with carbon removal technologies earlier this year. The goal is to pull 1,000 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere annually — and eventually scaling up the operation dramatically.
“I think this is one of those things that is going to take a while to figure out what the right solution is,” Musk explained back in April. “And especially to figure out what the best economics are for CO2 removal.”
“Right now we’ve only got one planet,” Musk said at the time. “Even a 0.1 percent chance of disaster — why run that risk? That’s crazy!”
Why will it take China’s Yutu 2 moon rover so long to reach lunar ‘mystery hut’?
Complex terrain and Yutu 2’s reliance on solar power limit driving speed.
China’s Yutu 2 lunar rover recently spotted something intriguing on the far side of the moon, but it’ll take the vehicle a few months to reach the object for a closer look.
Yutu 2 photographed a strangely cube-shaped rock last month, during the robot’s 36th lunar day of activities. The rover drive team estimates that the object, which has been dubbed the “mystery hut,” to be around 260 feet (80 meters) away. That doesn’t sound far, but it’ll take careful planning and effort by the Yutu 2 team to cover that distance safely.
Artificial intelligence that can discover hidden physical laws in data
Researchers at Kobe University and Osaka University have successfully developed artificial intelligence technology that can extract hidden equations of motion from regular observational data and create a model that is faithful to the laws of physics.
This technology could enable researchers to discover the hidden equations of motion behind phenomena for which the laws were considered unexplainable. For example, it may be possible to use physics-based knowledge and simulations to examine ecosystem sustainability.
The research group consisted of Associate Professor YAGUCHI Takaharu and Ph.D. student CHEN Yuhan (Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University), and Associate Professor MATSUBARA Takashi (Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University).
Musk Wants SpaceX to Turn CO2 From Atmosphere Into Rocket Fuel
Billionaire Elon Musk is pushing ahead with an attempt to utilize emissions contributing to climate change, tweeting that his rocket company will launch a program to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to power spacecraft.
The chairman and chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Musk announced the project on Dec. 13, shortly after being named Person of the Year by Time magazine.