Lifeboat Foundation

Do we have enough fuel to get to our destination? This is probably one of the first questions that comes to mind whenever your family gets ready to embark on a road trip. If the trip is long, you will need to visit gas stations along your route to refuel during your travel.

NASA is grappling with similar issues as it gets ready to embark on a sustainable mission back to the moon and plans future missions to Mars. But while your car’s fuel is gasoline, which can be safely and indefinitely stored as a liquid in the car’s gas tank, spacecraft fuels are volatile cryogenic liquid propellants that must be maintained at extremely low temperatures and guarded from environmental heat leaks into the spacecraft’s propellant tank.

And while there is already an established network of commercial gas stations in place to make refueling your car a cinch, there are no cryogenic refueling stations or depots at the moon or on the way to Mars.

Find out how this high-schooler developed an AI tree equipped with a solar-powered trap designed to counter invasive Lanternflies.

This article discusses the risks of ChatGPT and Generative AI innovations are having on sustainability goals and highlights the energy and water consumption risks.

At the brink of a new phase of the industrial revolution, the Navigating the Industrial Metaverse: A Blueprint for Future Innovations report draws on insights from over 150 experts, advocating for a responsible approach to metaverse innovation that balances economic growth with sustainability and human-centric values.

Covariant this week announced the launch of RFM-1 (Robotics Foundation Model 1). Peter Chen, the co-founder and CEO of the UC Berkeley artificial intelligence spinout tells TechCrunch the platform, “is basically a large language model (LLM), but for robot language.”

RFM-1 is the result of, among other things, a massive trove of data collected from the deployment of Covariant’s Brain AI platform. With customer consent, the startup has been building the robot equivalent of an LLM database.

“The vision of RFM-1 is to power the billions of robots to come,” Chen says. “We at Covariant have already deployed lots of robots at warehouses with success. But that is not the limit of where we want to get to. We really want to power robots in manufacturing, food processing, recycling, agriculture, the service industry and even into people’s homes.”

A researcher at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a mug-sized device that can clean water using only a small jolt of electricity. The device could be used to help get drinking water to people left stranded by extreme weather events.

Dr. Donglei “Emma” Fan — an associate professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering — along with her research team, was able to create the device using a specially designed “branched” electrode, now patented.

The electrode, when electrified, created a field that E. coli and other bacterial cells are attracted to, causing them to “swim” into the electrode branches. In lab experiments, the device successfully removed 99.997% of E. coli bacteria from water samples in just 20 minutes.

Rivian’s 2026-bound R2 goes up against the Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and more. Let’s see how their specs compare.

The Australian Synchrotron, a crown jewel of Australian scientific infrastructure, is making major strides towards sustainable energy independence. The nuclear research facility recently completed the installation of 3,200 solar panels which now blankets the facility’s rooftops. This move is expected to generate substantial savings and support Synchrotron’s world-class research.

The state-of-the-art particle accelerator has now gone green with a 1.59 MW/ 1,668 kWh rooftop solar system. The facility will save about $2 million in energy costs over the next five years.

Imagine a dress that doesn’t just fit you perfectly – it morphs along with your style, body, and the shifting trends of the season. It sounds futuristic, but this ‘smart’ garment exists thanks to a collaboration between textile innovators at MIT and a forward-thinking fashion house. It makes sustainable fashion more innovative.

Traditionally, bespoke tailoring—making clothes to a customer’s measurements—was the only way to ensure a perfect fit for one’s body. However, this option was too expensive for most people. A new invention of active fibers and innovative knitting processes is making custom clothing more accessible and eco-friendly.