September

The Fight to Preserve the Urdu Script in the Digital World

The Nastaliq font is often seen as too complex to use online. Developers and designers are trying to change that.

27/09/2023 Time Magazine

Carbon Concrete: Dresden Building 70 Percent More Sustainable Than Other Concrete Buildings

The CUBE in Dresden proves that carbon concrete is an exciting building material for a successful building turnaround.

27/09/2023 Reset.org

New study shows we can create value from food waste by turning it into a highly desirable material – nanocellulose

We can’t entirely eliminate food waste – but we can find cheap ways to turn it into something useful.

26/09/2023 The Conversation

Batteries for hire could help Nigerians ditch their generators

Reeddi rents out small, lightweight solar-powered batteries in Nigeria that can power devices including TVs, laptops and refrigerators.

26/09/2023 CNN

New technology produces water in Death Valley, but Jevon’s Paradox looms

The inconvenient truth of striving for resource efficiency is that it often results in higher consumption

25/09/2023 El País

Scientific dynamic duo aims to stop the next pandemic before it starts

Two scientists, one Nigerian and one American, created a cutting-edge surveillance network to catch the next emerging disease before it becomes a pandemic.

25/09/2023 NPR

Solar panel breakthrough could supercharge ‘miracle material’ production

Perovskite is cheaper and more efficient than conventional solar cells, but it suffers from instability

23/09/2023 The Independent

Britain is much more liberal-minded than is was 40 years ago, study finds

From attitudes to gay sex and single parenting to views on abortion and the role of women in the home, Britain has evolved into a dramatically more liberal-minded country over the past four decades, a leading study has found.

21/09/2023 The Guardian

A month after Ecuador's historic vote to end oil extraction in Yasuní National Park, its lessons are as vital as ever to Canadians

The decision of the people of Ecuador to halt oil extraction in the Yasuní is a trend-setting precedent of global importance and a victory that Canadians should build upon.

21/09/2023 The Conversation

Silkworms genetically engineered to produce pure spider silk

Spider silk has been seen as a greener alternative to artificial fibres like nylon and Kevlar, but spiders are notoriously hard to farm. Now researchers have used CRISPR to genetically engineer silkworms that produce pure spider silk

20/09/2023 NewScientist

All aboard! Can Luxembourg’s free public transport help save the world?

It’s not quite John o’Groats to Land’s End, let alone Florida to Alaska, but undertaking an end-to-end expedition across Luxembourg has its advantages. The first is that you can do it in a morning: it’s about three hours by public transport.

20/09/2023 The Guardian

DeepMind’s New AI Can Predict Genetic Diseases

AlphaMissense, a new model from Google’s artificial intelligence team, analyzes the effects of DNA mutations and will accelerate research into rare diseases.

19/09/2023 Wired

Battery prices plummet as electric cars approach ‘tipping point’

The cost of batteries fell by nearly 10 per cent in August, taking them past a key milestone that is seen by energy analysts as a “tipping point” to supercharge the transition to electric vehicles.

19/09/2023 The Independent

Scientists invent solar panel coating that lets them work in any weather

Engineers have invented a way to passively remove snow from solar panels to allow them to keep generating electricity during adverse weather conditions.

18/09/2023 The Independent

'This could be the holy grail to replace palm oil' - research team

An Edinburgh food research team produces a lower-fat alternative aimed at cutting palm oil dependence.

18/09/2023 BBC

Pig kidney works a record two months in donated body, raising hope for animal-human transplants

Animal-to-human transplants attempts have failed for decades — the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. What’s new: trying pigs genetically modified so their organs are more humanlike

14/09/2023 El País

Superglue alternative made from soya is strong but biodegradable

Most adhesives are made from fossil fuels and take thousands of years to biodegrade, but a new alternative derived from soya plants bonds metal, wood and synthetic surfaces just as strongly

13/09/2023 NewScientist

How zinc-ion batteries may solve our renewable energy storage problem

Lithium-ion batteries are holding back the full-scale decarbonization of Canada’s energy grid. Zinc-ion batteries may be the solution.

12/09/2023 The Conversation

Whatever happened to the project to crack the wealthy world's lock on mRNA vaccines?

Lower-income countries did not get the COVID vaccines they needed. So the World Bank and other partners tapped a South African company to cook up the (undisclosed) recipe for the Moderna mRNA vaccine.

12/09/2023 NPR

Urban renewal in New York designed for longer life

A Brooklyn housing project aims to enhance the well-being of its residents by incorporating characteristics of Blue Zones — regions with the world’s highest life expectancy

11/09/2023 El País

World’s largest wind turbine breaks record for power generated in a single day

Typhoon helped single turbine, which has a rotor diameter more than double that of the London Eye, produce enough energy to power 170,000 homes

07/09/2023 The Independent

Water is key for this soil-free Brooklyn farm growing fish, plants – and community

Nestled between a Trader Joe’s and New York City’s East River is Oko Farms, a little hub of greenery in Brooklyn that looks out on to Manhattan’s skyline. Fenced off in the corner of an expansive construction site, it’s not easy to locate.

07/09/2023 The Guardian

Number of golden eagles in southern Scotland soars to ‘highest in 300 years’

The number of the raptors in the south has reached about 46 – the most recorded in the area for three centuries.

05/09/2023 The Independent

What you need to know about solid-state batteries

Big companies and car manufacturers like Samsung and Toyota are betting big on solid-state batteries. The next step in battery development. Here's how they work and why we need them.

04/09/2023 Deutsche Welle

Ticino, the Argentinean town lit by peanut shells, where the power never goes out

Using this biomass resource, a power plant supplies 3,000 inhabitants with clean energy and resolves a long-standing environmental and social problem

03/09/2023 El País

Amateur sleuths take on bike thieves in Finland

The Finnish city of Oulu is a hive of activity for bike thieves - but one man is determined to stop them.

02/09/2023 BBC