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.
Google self-driving cars head to Arizona to test desert road conditions
Google continues to tap new testing locations for its self-driving cars, with the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona picked as the next spot, reports Reuters. Jennifer Haroon, head of business operations for Google's autonomous vehicles said that Arizona was attractive not just as a Read More...
How collective energy is helping communities go 100% renewable
The dynamic between utilities and customers is changing. Instead of residents reaching individual agreements with utilities, they’re now ganging together into buying groups where customer purchase power together from utilities that promise 100 percent renewable energy. Six states in the U.S. Read More...
A fleet of trucks just drove themselves across Europe
While self-driving cars from Google or Ford get most of the credit for capturing the public imagination, commercial uses for autonomous or nearly autonomous vehicles have quietly been putting the concept to work in a business setting. This week, about a dozen trucks from major manufacturers like Read More...
Hyundai leads way in hydrogen fuel-cell cars
Korean carmaker Hyundai is about to leap from budget option to one of the car industry’s technical powerhouses in the space of two generations. While the German premium brands continue to develop, tease and promise hydrogen fuel-cell cars, Hyundai is already promising to deliver its Read More...
A renewable energy boom in developing countries as solar beats coals
Some world leaders have long said it’s hard to reduce the emissions that are warming the planet because they need to use cheap, dirty coal to keep energy affordable. That argument is quickly losing its salience as the cost of renewable energy sources like wind and solar continue to fall. Last Read More...
Rapid decline of coal use leads to drop in UK emissions
Coal in the UK is burning at its lowest level in at least 150 years, and its led to a significant 4 percent drop in Britain’s annual carbon dioxide emissions. With the rapid rise in renewable energy, the Drax power plant switching to biomass and the closing of old polluting coal-power stations, Read More...
China to halt coal development in 15 regions
While most of the world was diverting from coal last year, 155 planned coal plants in China were approved by the government in 2015 alone. Now it seems China is having some doubts about those plans. In response to growing fears that the country’s coal power sector is suffering from worsening Read More...
China pushes for mandatory integration of renewable power
Power transmission companies in China have been ordered by the government to provide grid connectivity for all renewable power generation sources to end a bottleneck that has left a large amount of clean power idle. China has become the world’s biggest wind and solar power user, but a large Read More...
India is planning to be a 100 percent electric car nation by 2030
Clean energy initiatives mostly come from rich countries. Developing nations—for understandable reasons—are first focused on bringing energy, any kind of energy, to their rapidly increasing populations. From that perspective, it is especially promising for the international efforts to fight Read More...
Silicon valley looks to artificial intelligence for the next big thing
SAN FRANCISCO — As the oracles of Silicon Valley debate whether the latest tech boom is sliding toward bust, there is already talk about what will drive the industry’s next growth spurt. The way we use computing is changing, toward a boom (and, if history is any guide, a bubble) in collecting Read More...