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Total number of posts: 23691
California dominates US electric car sales
September 25th, 2016 by James Ayre An interesting analysis of the California electric vehicle market was recently published by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), providing a nice overview of the effects of various policies and promotional activities in effect there Read More...
Amsterdam's autonomous canal boats, and more in the week that was
Hydrogen-powered cars and planes are on the rise, and this week Germany announced plans to launch the world's first completely hydrogen-powered passenger train in 2017. In other transportation news, Volvo unveiled a new SuperTruck that's 70 percent more fuel-efficient than big rigs on the road Read More...
Finding better ways to get hydrogen fuel from water
With hydrogen power stations in California, a new Japanese consumer car and portable hydrogen fuel cells for electronics, hydrogen as a zero emission fuel source is now finally becoming a reality for the average consumer. When combined with oxygen in the presence of a catalyst, hydrogen releases Read More...
Cell made from spinach uses sunlight to produce electricity, hydrogen from water
A team of researchers from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology has developed a bio photo electro chemical (BPEC) cell that produces hydrogen and electricity from water using sunlight. They used a simple membrane extract from spinach leaves to achieve this feat. The device produces oxygen, Read More...
In praise of the humble fruit fly
In a series of rooms in the Fly Facility of the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University, around 5m fruit flies are kept in test tubes at any given time. They’re stored at different temperatures to determine varying lengths of life cycle – at 25C, it’s about 10 days; at Read More...
Iceland, Sweden and Singapore are the healthiest countries
Scandinavian countries always lead international rankings based on health and happiness. A very comprehensive, decade-long new study offers no exception: Iceland and Sweden share the top slot with Singapore as world leaders when it comes to health goals set by the United Nations. Using the UN’s Read More...
A new study suggests that entitlement leads to chronic disappointment
Spoiling children doesn’t help them. It leads to exaggerated feelings of deservingness and superiority. Such entitlement may lead to chronic disappointment, and can throw people into a “perpetual loop of distress,” according to a new study. People with high levels of entitlement consistently Read More...
It’s more than twice as long, but this is actually a good wall to build
Building walls is a favorite political topic these days. Here’s a 5,000-mile wall that’s actually worth building. It’s a wall of trees running through eleven countries along the southern frontier of the Sahara Desert providing a barrier against the advancing desert. The Great Green Wall is Read More...
Sweden fights consumerism by offering tax breaks for people repairing used goods
This is a brilliant initiative. Tax is an effective instrument to change behavior. What if it becomes cheaper to repair something than to buy something new? That’s what Sweden plans to achieve with a new law that halves the tax paid on repairs and increases taxes on unrepairable items. The new Read More...
When it comes to happiness, it’s better to be older
Many young adults are suffering from the pressures setting up a career and family. They experience life as a series of never-ending challenges. But here’s the good news: The older you become, the better it gets. Researchers contacted 1,546 people ages 21 to 99 via random telephone calls and found Read More...