The world installs 500,000 solar panels a day; China two wind turbines per hour
This is how fast it goes, according to new data of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in a new report on renewable energy. Many future energy scenarios include dark forecasts about the increase of pollution in China through more and more coal-fired power plants. But all that coal may never get Read More...
Forget stairs and elevators; this is how you can ‘swing’ from floor to floor
More Dutch innovation in this edition of The Optimist Daily. Humans are said to have evolved from an ancestor that once swung through the trees to get about, free to move through the environment in almost any direction. But today, that flexibility is gone in a world of stairs and elevators. Enter: Read More...
Uber’s self-driving truck makes its first delivery: 50,000 Budweisers
Walt Martin is kneeling, legs folded behind him, butt resting on his heels. “I’ve got to practice my yoga,” he says, clearly joking. Never mind that we’re in the cab of an 18-wheeler cruising through Colorado at 55 mph and Martin was, until a moment ago, the Read More...
South Sudan artists paint for peace in Juba
After nearly three years of devastating civil conflict, South Sudanese artists have come together to try and get the country thinking and talking about peace, by launching a public art project in the capital Juba. Having spread its message over many of the walls in Juba, the team now plans to Read More...
Turning CO2 to stone
Earth has limits to the amount of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere before the environment as we know it starts to change. Too much CO2 absorbed by the oceans makes the water more acidic. Too much in the atmosphere warms the planet. With emissions from our carbon-based economies rising, scientists Read More...
Crowdfunding: the new buzzword for academics needing research money
When Professor Dave Goulson decided to study the impact of pesticides on bees, he didn’t rate his chances of getting funding from one of the big research councils. The University of Sussex biologist turned to the public, raising almost £8,000 through crowdfunding for the screening for Read More...
Hydrogen entrepreneurs at the forefront of the clean car revolution
Hydrogen is regarded by many as the fuel of the future. Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are emissions free, can match the performance of regular cars and are set to become increasingly available to consumers. Nonetheless, they have their critics. There’s still division on whether Read More...
Inspired by nature: the thrilling new science that could transform medicine
In the summer of 2005, Jeffrey Karp, a bioengineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was working late one night when he spotted a journal article on a colleague’s desk. What caught his eye was not the text itself, but the full-page colour illustration of Spider-Man that Read More...
Capital One is trying to bring the blockchain to health care
Capital One is going to test out blockchain for health care claims and analytics, the company announced Monday. The banking giant is teaming up with mix of partners including blockchain startup Gem, the health care API platform firm PokitDok, and analytics companies Viewpost and ClearGraph, in Read More...
Iceland is working on making volcanic magma a renewable energy source
Iceland has begun an initiative that will drill a 5km deep hole into the molten magma that flows through volcanoes. The goal is to use this magma to generate supercritical steam that experts say could generate up 10 times more energy than traditional geothermal wells. The hope is that by doing Read More...