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.
GE wants to use CO2 pollution to make huge solar batteries
For the past decade, environmentalist scientists have been trying to find solutions for two big problems: How to store solar energy for later use, and what to do with CO2 that’s been captured and sequestered from coal plants? Now scientists from General Electric believe they have an innovative Read More...
Solar provides energy independence to Palestinians in Gaza
The 1.95 million people of the Gaza strip get their power from Israel, Egypt and a small power plant. Power is notoriously unreliable with blackouts lasting from eight to twelve hours a day. But, increasingly, solar power is providing a degree of energy independence to the coastal enclave. For the Read More...
BMW marks 100th birthday with autonomous, zero-emission concept
BMW is now a century old. To celebrate, the brand has unveiled a concept car that emits nothing from its tailpipe and can drive itself. The automaker hasn't said just how the Vision Next 100 concept manages to go emission-free, but it did talk a lot about the car's exotic materials and Read More...
Saving energy: Heat people, not buildings
Why would we heat office buildings and make sure that the ceiling of offices maintains a perfect 73 degrees Fahrenheit while nobody is levitating? Heating and cooling offices requires a lot of energy while people are not always there. Better to heat or cool people than whole buildings seems a Read More...
How tech has blurred the lines of employment
Technology has pushed the “gig” worker into the business model spotlight. Thousands of apps allow independent contractors to connect with each other – and with their work. But, these relationships also come with risks, as gig industry leaders Uber and Lyft know. Both companies are dealing Read More...
We might run out of oil, so we should run cars on poop
The world has a poop problem. In the U.S., the challenge is biggest on farms: livestock produces more than a billion tons of solid waste a year, or roughly 87,000 pounds of shit a second. That's more than 130 times greater than the amount of human waste that goes into sewers. Farm Read More...
Ocean currents: Reliable clean energy beneath sea level
Oceans move slowly—on average 1-1.5 m/s. However, water is over 800 times denser than air, meaning that even slow ocean currents are comparable to strong winds. And winds are unpredictable whereas as oceans move constant in both direction and speed. A new Japanese design for a marine turbine is Read More...
America generates more energy from wind than you may think
Solar power has been hot news lately with numbers forecasting another strong year in added solar capacity, but what you may not realize is that wind power has also become a very big deal in the U.S these days. Last year, Iowa generated 31 percent of its power from wind resources, and several states Read More...
China aims to boost renewable energy with 'green certificates'
China plans to set up a market for renewable energy certificates to try to increase the use of cleaner energy as the world's largest greenhouse gas producer tries to reduce its reliance on coal. Power suppliers will be able to trade "green certificates" that represent the proportion of non-hydro Read More...
Solar energy surpasses every other energy source in U.S. in 2016
U.S solar is poised for not just another record year but a blowout year in the solar installations. Last year, solar set a new record with 7.3 gigawatts of total new photovoltaic capacity across residential, commercial, and utility-scale installations. According to new statistics just released by Read More...