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.
Wooden windmills could make wind energy even cheaper
A Swedish startup has designed a wooden tower for wind turbines that can be taken apart into smaller pieces and assembled on site. The company projects its towers are not only stronger than steel towers, but will also cost 30 percent less than conventional steel and concrete versions. Because these Read More...
Solar bitcoin founders launch blockchain project to disrupt energy markets
Last week, the team that launched SolarCoin, billed as the first clean energy digital currency (as in a solar bitcoin), kicked off Greeneum. This blockchain project aims to leverage digital currency in order to boost the generation and consumption of renewables and allow for decentralized energy Read More...
Soon it may be normal and safe for transportation trucks to tailgate each other
Driving with little following distance to the truck in front of you may seem dangerous today, but in the future, it will likely be just the opposite. Thanks to a new wave of technology intended to make trucks safer—such as radar, cameras and reflective light scanning—pairs of trucks will soon Read More...
How African Elephants’ amazing sense of smell could save lives
When the civil war in Angola ended 15 tears ago, elephant populations slowly started to return to their pre-conflict grazing grounds. The only problem was millions of landmines remained undetonated across Angola, killing many elephants as they returned to the region. Data collected from collared Read More...
Amazon wants to charge electric cars with drones
How to recharge an electric vehicle while it is driving is a problem the industry would love to solve. The limited range of electric cars and the lack of a widespread charging infrastructure make charging in transit an incredibly attractive Read More...
Solar power costs expected to keep plummeting as technology improves
The already-plummeting costs of installing solar power could fall an additional 60 percent over the next decade, the head of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said Read More...
The lines that supply internet to your home could predict earthquakes
Predicting earthquakes could be pivotal in saving lives in the future, but rolling out a sensor network to detect seismic activity across earthquake-prone areas is a very expensive process. To make predicting earthquakes more affordable, researchers have developed technology that detects Read More...
Solar grows faster than we can imagine: US projections were 4,813 percent off
Solar energy keeps massively outperforming expectations. Here’s a nice example. Every two years, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), issues scenarios about how much solar, wind and conventional energy the future holds for the US. A new analysis has found that the EIA’s ten-year Read More...
Sweden to get Europe's biggest car battery factory
Start-up company Northvolt said Thursday it had picked its home country Sweden to build Europe's biggest factory for electric car batteries, rivaling Tesla's American "Gigafactory". The company said it had selected Skelleftea, a coastal town in the country's industrial north-east, for the site Read More...
Can humans communicate telepathically with another while they’re dreaming
What if while in the midst of a dream, you encountered a close friend of yours and had a conversation that you both recalled the next day. Dream telepathy suggests that human beings could actually communicate with one another while dreaming. See here what the studies are saying about the Read More...