Lifeboat Foundation

For his work on liquid metal batteries that could enable the long-term storage of renewable energy, MIT Professor Donald Sadoway has won the 2022 European Inventor Award, in the category for Non-European Patent Office Countries.

Sadoway is a longtime supporter and friend of MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory and is the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

“By enabling the large-scale storage of renewable energy, Donald Sadoway’s invention is a huge step towards the deployment of carbon-free electricity generation,” says António Campinos, President of the European Patent Office. “He has spent his career studying electrochemistry and has transformed this expertise into an invention that represents a huge step forward in the transition to green energy.”

Wing-like rigid sails are leaping from the rarified world of yacht racing to the backs of cargo ships.

There they go again. The firm BAR Technologies has roots in the elite environment of the America’s Cup hyper-competitive racing series, and lately it has been applying its know-how to design rigid sails for cargo ships. That’s right, wind power is making a comeback on the high seas, and the global shipping industry is down for it. Well, beginning to be down for it. Rigid sails for cargo ships are still in the tryout phase, but that could change as Russia continues to pinch the global fuel supply and climate goals kick in.

Continue reading “High-Tech Hard Sails Transform Old Cargo Ships Into Racing Yachts” »

Circa 2020

In 2016, Elon Musk’s younger brother, Kimbal Musk co-founded Brooklyn-NY-based vertical-farming operation Square Roots as part of a broader quest to grow fresh, local produce close to population centres and empower young people to participate in the sustainable urban farming trend. Over four years, Square Roots has grown more than 120 varieties of crop, including salad greens, vegetables and strawberries.

Continue reading “Elon Musk’s brother ramps up vertical farming venture” »

This article is an installment of The Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Thursday morning by subscribing here.

If nuclear fusion was a viable energy source, everything could be electrified. Electricity would be so cheap that projects that seem impossible now could be within our grasp, like commercial space flights, desalinating sea water, or direct air carbon capture.

Continue reading “Nuclear fusion gets closer to reality with this new reactor” »

The average global price of solar kilowatt-hours fell 13% on 2020’s prices, as around two-thirds of the renewables capacity installed last year was cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel alternative.

White House asks the public for ideas on what to do when we return to the Moon and cislunar space.

The U.S. has plans to return to the moon by the middle of this decade through NASA’s Artemis Program. But going back to the lunar surface and cislunar space isn’t just about putting boots on the ground. That’s why the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on behalf of the Cislunar Science and Technology Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council has issued a request for ideas (RFI) with a deadline of Wednesday, July 20, 2022, for interested parties to make submissions.

The U.S. government has defined cislunar space as the entire region beyond Earth’s geostationary orbit subject to the gravity of both our planet and the Moon. The RFI covers both orbiting and lunar surface activities.

Continue reading “U.S. Government’s Office of Science and Technology Issues Call for Cislunar Strategies” »

In the deep subsurface that plunges into the Earth for miles, microscopic organisms inhabit vast bedrock pores and veins. Belowground microorganisms, or microbes, comprise up to half of all living material on the planet and support the existence of all life forms up the food chain. They are essential for realizing an environmentally sustainable future and can change the chemical makeup of minerals, break down pollutants, and alter the composition of groundwater.

While the significance of bacteria and archaea is undeniable, the only evidence of their existence in the deep subsurface comes from traces of biological material that seep through mine walls, cave streams, and drill holes that tap into aquifers.

Many scientists have assumed that the composition of microbial communities in the deep subsurface is primarily shaped by local environmental pressures on microbial survival such as temperature, acidity, and oxygen concentration. This process, environmental selection, can take years to millennia to cause significant community-level changes in slow-growing communities like the subsurface.

Sustainable cell cultured mollusk seafood products — nikita michelsen, founder & CEO, pearlita foods.

Nikita Michelsen, is Founder & CEO of Pearlita Foods (https://www.pearlitafoods.com/), the world’s first cell-based mollusk company, which is developing sustainably & ethically grown products, like oysters and abalone, that are contaminant free without compromising flavor or nutrition.

Continue reading “Nikita Michelsen, Founder & CEO, Pearlita Foods — Sustainable Cell Cultured Mollusk Seafood Products” »