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.
Wind kites show potential as cheap and efficient way to generate energy from the skies
Wind turbines are great, but it's also expensive to put the machines where they generate most energy: offshore, where they can make use of the strong, consistent winds that are found over the oceans and seas. This is why several teams around the world are currently looking at replacing the turbine Read More...
Sri Lanka is thinking about trying Google's balloons to get country-wide internet coverage
Google has been working on bringing Wi-Fi to hard-to-reach areas by sending giant floating balloons into the air. And the latest news is that Sri Lanka is investigating using Google's balloons to cover the country with internet access. Currently, 1 in 5 residents in Sri Lanka have internet access Read More...
Where is the smog? Google will help cities find out by strapping smog-sensors to street view cars
For the past year-and-a-half, Google has been secretly testing a new way to measure the air quality in city streets. They worked together with a startup company called Aclima, to attach special sensors to its street view cars. With this sensor, they measured different chemicals that are Read More...
Put wind turbines between the legs of a viaduct, researchers propose
Some people think wind turbines are ugly. And to be honest, they're not always the nicest looking structures in a landscape. It's often hard to find the best spot for them, also keeping in mind that they need to catch enough wind. British and Spanish researchers have come up with a clever new Read More...
This biodegradable computer chip from wood makes recycling electronics easier
We love our computer chips, but we also love throwing them away. Once our phones get old, we toss them, and the same goes for many other electronic devices. Computer chips are expensive waste, and many chips contain toxic materials and can cause pollution for the environment. Researchers at the Read More...
No diesel engines anymore, this Alaskan island is now powered by 100% renewable energy
The diesel engines on Kodiak island are sitting idle nowadays. They used to generate the electricity for most of the island’s 15,000 residents, but wind power has been taking over. Because of that, the Alaskan island is now powered almost 100% with renewable energy, a success story for the Read More...
Give it one glass of salty water, and this lamp gives you light for 8 hours
This lamp runs on water and salt. And it can bring a lot of light to the rural communities of the Philippines, often not connected to the power grid. (This is not so strange by the way, knowing that the country is spread over more than 7000 islands.) Lipa Aisa Mijeno, an entrepreneur from the Read More...
Biofuels and the future of the transportation industry
This week, FedEx announced it has agreed to purchase 3 million gallons of low-carbon biofuel per year. In The Optimist Daily, we have featured many more and similar announcements by corporate giants before. This article looks at the challenges, the future and the quest for biofuels in the Read More...
Now opening: The neighborhood for testing driverless cars
Mcity is a cool lab to test self-driving cars in a neighborhood all their own. It’s a 32-acre simulated town with streets, intersections, traffic signs, buildings, and sidewalks, opened yesterday at the University of Michigan. Mcity also has robotic human dummies, designed to anticipate all Read More...
Australian energy giants say going off-grid is viable, sometimes even preferable
While Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott is raising eyebrows all over the world by insisting that coal is "good for humanity," a report from down under shows a different picture. A recent study has confirmed that "off-grid" distributed energy supply is a viable option for some regional and Read More...