Lifeboat Foundation

In 2021, researchers from Toyota Central R&D Labs developed a large, cost-effective artificial photosynthesis system that produces industrial formate at a solar-to-chemical conversion efficiency (ηSTC) of 10.5%¹. Researchers from the lab say that, to their knowlege, this ηSTC is a first for a one metre squared cell.

Within the next 10 years, the company aims to establish artificial photosynthesis technology for wide-scale production of useful carbon compounds.

With mathematical modeling, a research team has now succeeded in better understanding how the optimal working state of the human brain, called criticality, is achieved. Their results mean an important step toward biologically-inspired information processing and new, highly efficient computer technologies and have been published in Scientific Reports.

“In particular tasks, supercomputers are better than humans, for example in the field of artificial intelligence. But they can’t manage the variety of tasks in everyday life —driving a car first, then making music and telling a story at a get-together in the evening,” explains Hermann Kohlstedt, professor of nanoelectronics. Moreover, today’s computers and smartphones still consume an enormous amount of energy.

“These are no sustainable technologies—while our brain consumes just 25 watts in everyday life,” Kohlstedt continues. The aim of their interdisciplinary research network, “Neurotronics: Bio-inspired Information Pathways,” is therefore to develop new electronic components for more energy-efficient computer architectures. For this purpose, the alliance of engineering, life and natural sciences investigates how the human brain is working and how that has developed.

Solar power gathered far away in space, seen here being transmitted wirelessly down to Earth to wherever it is needed. ESA plans to investigate key technologies needed to make Space-Based Solar Power a working reality through its SOLARIS initative. One such technology – wireless power transmission – was recently demonstrated in Germany to an audience of decision makers from business and government.

The demonstration took place at Airbus’ X-Works Innovation Factory in Munich. Using microwave beaming, green energy was transmitted green energy between two points representing ‘Space’ and ‘Earth’ over a distance of 36 metres.

The received power was used to light up a model city, produce green hydrogen by splitting water and even to produce the world’s first wirelessly cooled 0% alcohol beer in a fridge before serving to the watching audience.

Plastic waste is clogging up our rivers and oceans and causing long-lasting environmental damage that is only just starting to come into focus. But a new approach that combines biological and chemical processes could greatly simplify the process of recycling it.

While much of the plastic we use carries symbols indicating it can be recycled, and authorities around the world make a big show about doing so, the reality is that it’s easier said than done. Most recycling processes only work on a single type of plastic, but our waste streams are made up of a complex mixture that can be difficult and expensive to separate.

On top of that, most current chemical recycling processes produce end products of significantly worse quality that can’t be recycled themselves, which means we’re still a long way from the goal of a circular economy when it comes to plastics.

Earth’s low orbit is filling up, meaning radiation-tolerant cell designs are required as satellites head to higher orbits. Will these new ones do?

Scientists have developed a radiation-tolerant photovoltaic cell design that features an ultrathin layer of light-absorbing material. According to a new study published today (Nov .08) in the Journal of Applied Physics by AIP Publishing.

Significantly, the ultra-thin solar cells not only surpass earlier suggested thicker solar cells in resilience to irradiation; they also produce the same amount of power from converted sunlight after 20 years of use. Additionally, the novel photovoltaic cells could reduce load and considerably lower launch expenses. Barthel.

Baron isn’t done betting on Tesla CEO Elon Musk, even as he dives headfirst into his new Twitter venture. “We have made a lot of money with him,” Baron said, adding that Tesla makes up 40% of his Baron’s Partners fund because his cost is so low at about $13 per share.

“I think in 2025 it [Tesla stock] will be $500 to $600. And in eight to ten years we ought to be somewhere around $4.5 trillion,” Baron said.

Baron agrees with Musk’s recent comments that Tesla could grow to be bigger than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined, which implies a valuation of more than $4 trillion.

Microbiomes, microorganisms that populate specific environments, are known to include both beneficial and harmful bacterial species. Understanding how destructive microbiomes originate in changing environments and their effects on both the environment and human health could help to tackle global well-being challenges more effectively.

Researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and institutions and universities in China and the U.S. have recently carried out a study investigating the compositions and origins of airborne (i.e., transported in the air) microbiomes on Earth. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that humans and animals are among the primary sources of global airborne bacteria.

“We spent a total of about nine years on this global study, including drafting the initial proposal, conducting sampling across the world, collecting and processing data, and drafting and revising the manuscript,” Xiangdong Li, one of the leading researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. “We established a comprehensive atlas of global airborne bacteria with implications for microbiology, ecology, air pollution, and public health, and we believe that airborne bacteria will attract more and more attention from all sectors of society.”

One can split an atomic nucleus to produce energy, but can you also split water to create environment-friendly hydrogen fuel? Doing so currently has two drawbacks: It is both time and energy intensive.

But now, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have taken a different path. BGU environmental physicist Prof. Arik Yochelis and Technion materials science professor Avner Rothschild believe they have identified new pathways that would speed up the catalytic process they think will reduce the invested electrical energy costs significantly.

Their splitting process is assisted by solar energy, which is known scientifically by the term photoelectrochemistry, and lowers the amount of the invested electrical energy needed to break the chemical bonds in the water molecule to generate hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen evolution – the process of generating molecular oxygen (O₂) by a chemical reaction, usually from water – requires the transfer of four electrons to create one oxygen molecule and then the adding of two hydrogen molecules to make water.

“We face two global crises in housing and climate change.”

Southern California met its first-in-the-world 3D-printed zero net home thanks to Mighty Buildings. As part of a 40-unit community in Desert Hot Springs, these 3D-printed houses also draw attention to environmental and economic strategies.

“We are excited to be the first company in the world to complete what we believe to be the sustainable housing standard of the future,” said Mighty Buildings CEO Slava Solonitsyn, as per Dezeen.

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