Science
From mathematics and AI to medicine and psychology, The Optimist Daily features the latest news on discoveries, technological advances, and breakthroughs in the world of science. Our Science section is here to engage and enlighten you.
Energy storage: the power of cold air
Highview Power Storage is using tried and tested technology to store energy in an innovative way. It cools air down to around minus 200 Celsius, where it becomes liquid. When power is required, the process begins to release that stored Read More...
Diu becomes India's first city to run entirely on solar energy
In the last few years, India has been prioritizing the growth of solar energy throughout the country. Now it looks as though these efforts are paying off as the city of Diu has become India’s first municipality to receive 100 percent of its energy needs from solar power. The switch to solar has Read More...
The science of intuition can help you understand how to use it
In the age of big data, relying on intuition—what others call gut, instinct, a sixth sense or a hunch—can seem like a cop-out or an inferior system. But according to a survey of top executives, the majority of leaders leverage feelings and experience when making handling crises. And despite Read More...
Charging an electric vehicle is far cleaner than driving on gasoline
Driving an electric vehicle (EV) has obvious climate benefits: zero tailpipe emissions. But because EVs are charged by power grids that burn fossil fuels, they aren’t necessarily zero-carbon. An EV’s carbon footprint depends on whether its power comes from renewables or fossil, and Read More...
This "air taxi" takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane
What if instead of calling an Uber when you need a lift, you simply call for an “air taxi”. That may become a reality sooner than you think after Google co-founder Larry Page and his Kitty Hawk company unveiled Cora, an electric aircraft that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane. Read More...
Why developing countries could soon see a boom in solar projects
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was formed during the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015 in order to help sunshine-rich countries harness solar energy at an affordable cost. At the ISA’s first meeting in New Delhi, French President Emmanuel Macron announced France would commit an Read More...
China’s battery repurposing business is great for the environment
The quirky thing about lithium-ion batteries is that they remain useful long after the device they power is retired. Letting them go to waste is, well, wasteful, and only spurs more lithium mining, which is terrible for the environment. That’s why repurposing—putting old batteries to use in new Read More...
What’s a proton battery? Three things you need to know.
Most of your everyday electronics run off of lithium batteries — you know, the ones that you can never seem to find in your drawer when the remote is dead? Yet the days of the double-A may be ending. Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia have created a prototype of an alternative Read More...
MIT scientists aim to bring nuclear fusion energy to the grid within 15 years
The promise of harnessing safe, zero-carbon energy from nuclear fusion may soon become a reality thanks to a newly available superconducting material. The problem thus far with fusion energy is that it only produces net energy at temperatures too hot for any solid material to withstand. With this Read More...
Immunotherapy is becoming more powerful thanks to new cancer-killing hydrogel
Researchers have developed a new hydrogel that can be injected directly to the site of a tumor, where it stays to slowly release its payload of immunotherapy drugs for longer. By doing this, the immunotherapy drugs can gradually and precisely target cancer cells until the job is done. In studies so Read More...