Africa’s new free trade area could have a massive impact on poverty
Some studies have shown that by creating a pan-African market, intra-Africa trade could increase by about 52 percent by 2022. With that in mind, African leaders have signed a framework to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area, the largest free trade agreement since the creation of the Read More...
Shell has announced a plan to wean the world off fossil fuels
Although it may seem hard to believe, oil giant Shell has laid out a plan for moving away from its own product. The plan would shift people away from oil and towards hydrogen and electric transportation in order to keep global warming under the 2 degree limit that most scientists think is the Read More...
Why Europe just banned two cosmetic ingredients you’ve probably never heard of
The European Chemicals Agency has announced a ban on the use of two chemicals widely found in cosmetics intended to be washed off after use. Although you’ve probably never heard of the chemicals cyclomethicone (D4) and cyclopentasiloxane (D5), they will be banned from use in cosmetics as of 2020 Read More...
Facebook users can take back their privacy with this Firefox browser extension
In response to Facebook’s latest privacy troubles, Mozilla Firefox has created a browser extension that “isolates your Facebook identity from the rest of your web activity.” What this means is that when you’re logged onto Facebook on Firefox, the platform will be separated in a special Read More...
Why being forgetful isn’t necessarily a bad thing
Traditional research on memory has focused on the advantages of remembering everything, but looking through years of recent memory data, researchers found that the neurobiology of forgetting can be just as important to our decision-making as what our minds choose to remember. When you forget, you Read More...
Your first thought is rarely your best thought: Lessons on thinking
The best advice I’ve ever gotten about thinking came from a private-company CEO who has a thirty-year track record that’s up there with Warren Buffett’s. One day he said to me, “Shane, most people don’t actually think. They just take their first thought and Read More...
Fog harps could wrest water from the clouds
Inspired by coastal redwoods, scientists have created a new kind of fog harvesting design that appears to increase the capacity of clean water collection by Read More...
Electric vehicles are now the equivalent of driving an 80 mpg car
There are lots of reasons to buy an electric vehicle these days, starting with their cost. A recent analysis found that running an EV is, on average, 2.3 times cheaper than operating a traditional gas vehicle. There’s always been some concern that, despite the environmental cred not pumping gas Read More...
Campaigners call for plastics-free aisles in giant U.S. grocery chain
U.S. campaigners are calling on the nation’s largest supermarket chain to introduce a plastics-free aisle, giving shoppers the option of buying products without pollution-making Read More...
Glassy polymer is a clear conductor of electricity
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new polymer film that's transparent, looks and feels like glass, and conducts electricity. The material is easy to manufacture on a large scale, should be less expensive than the commonly-used, inorganic indium tin oxide, and is more conductive than Read More...