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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 75

Aug 28, 2023

Researcher finds inspiration from spider webs and beetles to harvest fresh water from thin air

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics, sustainability

Nature is the ultimate quantum computer.


A team of researchers is designing novel systems to capture water vapor in the air and turn it into liquid.

Continue reading “Researcher finds inspiration from spider webs and beetles to harvest fresh water from thin air” »

Aug 27, 2023

Solar Orbiter observes rapid, tiny jets on sun that may be the solar wind’s power source

Posted by in category: sustainability

Though these picojets may be small and last no more than 60 seconds, as Chitta pointed out, they are still powerful in their own right.

“The ‘pico’ prefix refers to the energy scale of the jet. The picoflare jets that we discovered are a trillion times energetically weaker compared to large X-class flares,” he said, X-class flares being the sun’s most powerful explosive outflows.

“Still,” he continued, “the energy content of a single picoflare jet that lives for about 1 minute is equal to the average power consumed by about 10,000 households in the UK over an entire year.”

Aug 27, 2023

Musk wants Cybertruck to be made with Lego-like precision

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

The Tesla CEO keeps pushing his employees to achieve more, sometimes even the impossible.

Elon Musk allegedly asked Tesla employees to ensure that Cybertruck production achieves single-digit micron tolerance, much like Lego or even soda cans are made with. This instruction was sent to employees in an email, which was later leaked, Electrek.

The Cybertruck is Tesla’s most awaited electric vehicle, running several years behind schedule and expected to begin deliveries by the end of this quarter. The vehicle’s iconic shape piqued many potential buyers’ interest when unveiled in 2019.

Aug 26, 2023

Transparent solar panels will soon become a window of energy and light in your home

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Transparent solar windows are not only generating news as demonstration projects—many have already been set up. On the list of installations for UE Power are its own offices in Redwood City, California, at the R&D facility of its partner in Northwood, Ohio, a commercial office building in Boulder, Colorado, and in Tokyo, Japan. In addition, it has an installation at Michigan State University. UbiQD also claims to have installations in multiple U.S. states, which include a Holiday Inn hotel, its own headquarters in Los Alamos, and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.

What’s the premium for transparency?

UbiQD’s product isn’t commercially available yet, but McDaniel expects the premium for transparent solar power to be not more than 30 percent over ordinary windows. He said that “Traditional solar cells are not sold at a cost per watt, not based on area, like windows. The additional window cost, per watt, is similar to utility-scale solar. We have a similar payback time to traditional solar [before incentives].”

Aug 26, 2023

World-first software predicts geo-disasters to save lives

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

It’s the first of its kind model and it can suggest countermeasures for dealing with natural disasters.

Global warming is causing more and more natural disasters which often lead to devastating consequences including loss of life. These take the shape of extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, droughts, tsunamis, cyclones, landslides, avalanches, earthquakes and forest fires.

Now, civil engineers at Monash University have conceived of a first-of-its kind software called GeoXPM that can not only predict where a geo-disaster might occur but also assess the event’s impact on its surrounding environment in order to mitigate its consequences. This is because the model can make suggestions of next steps to take to avoid dire loss of life and save as much property as possible.

Aug 25, 2023

US research interests closely tied to microelectronics industrial base

Posted by in categories: climatology, policy, robotics/AI, sustainability

SEATTLE — Undergirding recent budget guidance from the Biden administration to federal research and development organizations is a recognition of a steady and growing demand for microelectronics as a key enabler for advancement in nearly every technology sector, according to a senior White House technology advisor.

The White House on Aug. 17 issued its research and development priorities for the fiscal 2025 budget, offering direction to federal offices as they plan to submit their spending requests to the Office of Management and Budget in early September. The high-level focus areas include strengthening the nation’s critical infrastructure amid climate change, advancing trustworthy AI, improving healthcare and fostering industrial innovation alongside basic and applied research.

According to Steven Welby, deputy director for national security within the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, most of those priorities have some sort of connection to the nation’s goals for boosting the microelectronics industrial base.

Aug 25, 2023

Elon Musk Gives A Tour Of His Desk At Tesla HQ, Reveals Where He Sits At Work

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday spoke about his desk, or lack of it, at the company headquarters in Texas.

What Happened: Previously, Musk said, he would move his desk around the factory to wherever the biggest problem was. However, now, he doesn’t have a desk, the CEO said.

“These days, I don’t have a desk, but the room I use for meetings at HQ overlooks the Model Y end of line,” Musk wrote. He was responding to a fan on X.com who shared an old video of Musk showing his desk in the middle of the factory.

Aug 25, 2023

Is the Tesla Semi Worth It? Here’s Why It Will Replace 87% of Diesel Trucks

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

The Tesla Semi has been a groundbreaking innovation in the transportation industry. With a promised range of 500 miles on a full charge, it represents a significant step towards sustainable freight transportation. This range is not just a theoretical figure, it’s based on real-world testing with the truck fully loaded at 82,000 pounds gross combination weight. The 500-mile range has been a focal point of discussion, sparking interest and curiosity among both enthusiasts and skeptics.

While the Tesla Semi’s range has been applauded by many, it has also been met with skepticism and criticism. The debate centers around the truck’s practicality, particularly in winter conditions where electric vehicles are known to suffer range loss. Critics argue that the range might not be sufficient for long-haul trucking, especially in regions with harsh winters. They point to potential issues like battery efficiency loss in cold temperatures, raising questions about the Semi’s ability to replace traditional diesel trucks.

According to recent studies and real-world testing, the Tesla Semi can be a suitable replacement for approximately 87% of semi-truck loads, even considering winter range loss. This introduction sets the stage for a comprehensive exploration of the Tesla Semi’s 500-mile range, its performance in winter conditions, and its potential to revolutionize the freight transportation industry.

Aug 24, 2023

Israel enlists drones, AI and big data to farm for the future | AFP

Posted by in categories: climatology, drones, robotics/AI, sustainability

As climate change and global population growth pose ever greater challenges for agriculture, Israeli technology offers a wealth of inventions and advanced tools to help farmers adapt.

Interested in licensing this video? Get in touch 👉 http://u.afp.com/wvnD
N.B.: AFP’s services and content are for professional use only.

Aug 24, 2023

New robot searches for solar cell materials 14 times faster

Posted by in categories: chemistry, robotics/AI, solar power, sustainability

Earlier this year, two-layer solar cells broke records with 33 percent efficiency. The cells are made of a combination of silicon and a material called a perovskite. However, these tandem solar cells are still far from the theoretical limit of around 45 percent efficiency, and they degrade quickly under sun exposure, making their usefulness limited.

The process of improving tandem solar cells involves the search for the perfect materials to layer on top of each other, with each capturing some of the sunlight the other is missing. One potential material for this is perovskites, which are defined by their peculiar rhombus-in-a-cube crystal structure. This structure can be adopted by many chemicals in a variety of proportions. To make a good candidate for tandem solar cells, the combination of chemicals needs to have the right bandgap—the property responsible for absorbing the right part of the sun’s spectrum—be stable at normal temperatures, and, most challengingly, not degrade under illumination.

The number of possible perovskite materials is vast, and predicting the properties that a given chemical composition will have is very difficult. Trying all the possibilities out in the lab is prohibitively costly and time-consuming. To accelerate the search for the ideal perovskite, researchers at North Carolina State University decided to enlist the help of robots.

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