The car is dead, long live the car, thanks to Tesla
Two interesting things happened last week. One was Tesla’s delivery of the first batch of its Model 3, the company’s first “affordable” car. (If you think $35,000, about £26,500 – is affordable, that is.) The second was a “diesel summit” held in Read More...
How two New York City parks helped change America
After exploring ten of the most important homes in American history, PBS's ongoing series 10 That Changed America continues with a survey of the ten parks that proved hugely influential on urban planning in the United States. And, unsurprisingly, two New York City parks have ended up on the list: Read More...
Wind energy is setting records in the U.S. and around the world
Wind power had a big year in 2016 — but it risks an unpredictable future in the face of uncertain policy in the United States and in Europe. In the United States, wind power achieved its second strongest quarter ever, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), Read More...
The humble squid’s extraordinary service to neuroscience
I first saw them by night, or rather by flashlight aimed beside the dinghy as we fished a mile beyond Brighton’s pier. A whole shoal of them appeared beneath the boat, waving their arms, their button eyes glistening. We were not fishing for squid – too foreign a taste for England in Read More...
Berlin joins the growing list of cities that will not invest in fossil fuels
On Thursday, as the U.K. was taking its big Brexit vote, German legislators in Berlin voted on a very different kind of exit. The city became the latest in Europe to decide to divest its resources from the fossil fuel industry. Berlin’s $825 million pension fund will no longer invest in coal, Read More...
Largest U.S. organization of doctors urges hospitals to offer plant-based foods
The ancient Greeks already knew that food = medicine. That’s why it is so strange that the food that patients receive in hospitals—when they need the best—is often mediocre. But that may change. The largest organization of doctors in the U.S., the American Medical Association (AMA), is urging Read More...
Maybe we should not fight forest fires and let nature take its course
Biologists insist that wildfires have a necessary place in the evolution of nature. They argue that the century-old practice of suppressing wildfires has been nothing less than a calamity and are calling for a new approach that basically involves letting backcountry fires burn across millions of Read More...
Renewable energy progress in 3 numbers: 7, 43 and 50
The renewable energy revolution is in full swing. Here are three key numbers that illustrate the progress of wind and solar energy and the U.S. states that are making it happen: 7, 43 and Read More...
France leads the world in providing nutrition and handling food waste
France leads the countries of the G20, which maintain the largest economies and contain two-thirds of the global population, when it comes to food waste and nutrition, according to the The Food Sustainability Index. French supermarkets are required to donate excess food and tax incentives are in Read More...
Your brain shows that being generous makes you happy
Research has shown that people who spend money on others are happier. Now scientists have discovered why that is the case. A new study reveals the neural mechanism for why these generosity and happiness are Read More...