Lifeboat Foundation

The Australian Energy Market Operator has reported a significant increase in the capacity of new wind, solar and storage projects seeking a grid connection, with the total now exceeding 45 gigawatts for the first time.

AEMO’s latest connection scorecard and its Quarterly Energy Dynamics report for the September quarter says that the capacity of projects going through the connection process – from application to commissioning – has jumped by more than one third to 45.6 GW.

The biggest jump came in battery storage, which nearly doubled from the same period a year earlier to 14.7 GW, confirming that it remains the strongest part of Australia’s sometimes faltering green energy transition (the storage number for batteries varies from project to project and in some early development cases is not settled).

A gene called COLD6 contributes to cold tolerance in rice, potentially offering a pathway to use molecular design to breed a rice variety with higher resistance to cold stress. This work appears October 30 in Molecular Cell.

Twenty Starlink satellites were launched into space early Wednesday morning when a SpaceX rocket launched from the Santa Barbara County coast.

The rocket soared over the Southern California coast after the 5:07 a.m. launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base northwest of Santa Barbara.

Asteroids that regularly fly between Earth, Venus and Mars could provide radiation shielding for human missions to explore neighbouring planets.

By Jonathan O’Callaghan

Researchers have discovered the most distant Milky-Way-like galaxy yet observed. Dubbed REBELS-25, this disc galaxy seems as orderly as present-day galaxies, but we see it as it was when the Universe was only 700 million years old. This is surprising since, according to our current understanding of galaxy formation, such early galaxies are expected to appear more chaotic. The rotation and structure of REBELS-25 were revealed using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner.

The galaxies we see today have come a long way from their chaotic, clumpy counterparts that astronomers typically observe in the early Universe. “According to our understanding of galaxy formation, we expect most early galaxies to be small and messy looking,” says Jacqueline Hodge, an astronomer at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and co-author of the study.

These messy, early galaxies merge with each other and then evolve into smoother shapes at an incredibly slow pace. Current theories suggest that, for a galaxy to be as orderly as our own Milky Way – a rotating disc with tidy structures like spiral arms – billions of years of evolution must have elapsed. The detection of REBELS-25, however, challenges that timescale.

Researchers have developed a novel method using facet-selective, ultrafine cocatalysts to efficiently split water to create hydrogen – a clean source of fuel. Scientists are urgently searching for clean fuel sources – such as hydrogen – to move towards carbon neutrality. A breakthrough for improving the efficiency of the photocatalytic reaction that splits water into hydrogen has been made by a team of researchers from Tohoku University, Tokyo University of Science and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation.

“Water-splitting photocatalysts can produce hydrogen (H2) from only sunlight and water,” explains Professor Yuichi Negishi, the lead researcher of this project (Tohoku University), “However, the process hasn’t been optimized sufficiently for practical applications. If we can improve the activity, hydrogen can be harnessed for the realization of a next-generation energy society.”

The research team established a novel method that uses ultrafine rhodium (Rh)-chromium (Cr) mixed-oxide (Rh2-xCrxO3) cocatalysts (the actual reaction site and a key component to stop H2 reforming with oxygen to make water again) with a particle size of about 1 nm. Then, they are loaded crystal facet-selectively onto a photocatalyst (uses sunlight and water to speed up reactions). Previous studies have not been able to accomplish these two feats in a single reaction: a tiny cocatalyst that can also be placed on specific regions of the photocatalyst.

Reuters reports an updated hardware strategy to run ChatGPT and OpenAI’s other projects involves using AMD chips via Microsoft Azure in addition to Nvidia.

Daniel C. Dennett is one of the most influential philosophers of our time, perhaps best known in cognitive science for his multiple drafts (or “fame in the brain”) model of human consciousness, and to the secular community for his 2006 book Breaking the Spell. Author and co-author of two-dozen books, he’s the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, where he taught our very own Point of Inquiry host Lindsay Beyerstein.

Beyerstein and Dennett catch up to discuss Dennett’s newest book, From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds. It’s a fresh look at Dennett’s earlier work on the subject of consciousness, taken in new directions as he seeks a “bottom-up view of creation.” Join Dennett and Beyerstein as they discuss the how’s and why’s of consciousness, not just from an evolutionary and neurological standpoint, but also through the lenses of computer science and human culture.

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New research reveals insights into the neural signals underlying the internal emotional states of anger and arousal.