Lifeboat Foundation

A team of scientists has developed a computational model that uses artificial intelligence to find sites for hydropower dams in order to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Hydropower dams can provide large quantities of energy with carbon footprints as low as sources like solar and wind. But because of how they’re formed, some dams emit dangerously high levels of greenhouse gases, threatening sustainability goals.

With hundreds of hydropower dams currently proposed for the Amazon basin—an ecologically sensitive area covering more than a third of South America—predicting their greenhouse emissions in advance could be critical for the region, and the planet.

Daimler has just announced that it is halting all future development of gasoline engines. The automaker will solely focus on electric cars from here on out. This implies that Mercedes-Benz is taking the same approach.

The future is electric. We all know that and so too does Daimler now with this move to electric-drive only for future vehicles.

What might it take to feed a million people on Mars? Lab-grown meat, tunnel-grown crops and cricket farms, a new study finds.

When it comes to plans for crewed missions to Mars, NASA typically assumes round trips with only brief stopovers on the Red Planet. However, commercial space companies have emerged with the goal of colonizing outer space, with SpaceX specifically aiming to develop a civilization on Mars.

Tesla owners who travel with kids can breathe an extra sigh of relief with the electric car maker’s V10 Update, as the company has introduced a new feature known as “Joe Mode.” The new feature will allow drivers to lower the volume of alerts and prompts that will are engaged while the vehicle is in motion.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced some details on V10’s “Joe Mode” earlier this year while replying to numerous followers who speculated about what new features will be coming to be new update. As one follower asked for a mode that would help keep his children asleep during drives, Musk replied with introductory information about the V10 feature.

Hoping to get “Joe Mode” into V10. The default, of course, is normal volume, but selecting “Joe Mode” would lower the volume of strident beeps & chimes by half.

PARIS — The European Union’s equivalent of a foreign ministry is starting a new effort to promote the need for sustainable space operations, but that effort will not initially include any new regulation of European satellite operators.

Carine Claeys, special envoy for space and head of the Space Task Force for the European External Action Service, said in a Sept. 13 panel discussion at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week that the Safety, Security and Sustainability of Outer Space (3SOS) public diplomacy initiative will promote “ethical conduct” in space amid concerns about orbital debris.

The acronym, she noted, has a second meaning. “It is also three times SOS,” she said, “to create the case and a sense of urgency.”

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The Hyperloop may still be a decade from becoming a reality, but already people are trying to improve upon the concept. Chinese architecture firm MAD is developing an eco-friendly version of the futuristic transportation system, one that would utilize solar and wind energies to operate.

Earlier this week, MAD announced that it was working with US-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies on a new sustainable design with the aim of creating “enhanced connectivity between cities and people,” according to CNN. The proposed Hyperloop draws its power from a system of solar panels and wind turbine forests.

“DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.” Bill Gates wrote this in 1995, long before synthetic biology – a scientific discipline focused on reading, writing, and editing DNA – was being harnessed to program living cells. Today, the cost to order a custom DNA sequence has fallen faster than Moore’s law; perhaps that’s why the Microsoft founder is turning a significant part of his attention, and wallet, towards this exciting field.

Bill Gates is not the only tech founder billionaire that sees a parallel between bits and biology, either. Many other tech founders – the same people that made their money programming 1s and 0s – are now investing in biotech founders poised to make their own fortunes by programming A’s, T’s, G’s and C’s.

The industry has raised more than $12.3B in the last 10 years and last year, 98 synthetic biology companies collectively raised $3.8 billion, compared to just under $400 million total invested less than a decade ago. Synthetic biology companies are disrupting nearly every industry, from agriculture to medicine to cell-based meats. Engineered microorganisms are even being used to produce more sustainable fabrics and manufacture biofuels from recycled carbon emissions.

Since July, Toyota has been working on a brand-new design. It features special, much higher efficiency solar panels that are mounted on the hood, roof and even hatchback of the car, charging the car’s batteries even when it’s moving.

Panel Van

The new solar system could allow the Prius to cover 50 kilometers, four days a week, on solar alone, Bloomberg reports.

Put together the best solar panels money can buy, super-efficient batteries and decades of car-making know-how and, theoretically, a vehicle might run forever.

That’s the audacious motivation behind a project by Toyota Motor Corp., Sharp Corp. and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan, or NEDO, to test a Prius that could revolutionize transportation.