Telescope #73
For the first time, over 1 million electric cars were sold in the USA within one year. This number represents an increase of 50.7 per cent compared to the same period last year.
SUSTAINABILITY
Everytime Bitcoin is bought or sold, it wastes enough water to fill an entire swimming pool, new research shows, further evidence of the staggering environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. DETAIL
The world's largest carbon capture factory is being built in America, in Wyoming. The factory is expected to be operational by 2030, clearing atmosphere of 5 million tonnes of CO2 annually. DETAIL
The World Economic Forum warns there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. Plastics are quite literally everywhere, and now a new study suggests common plastic additives are turning shrimp-like crustaceans off sex. DETAIL
The United States committed Saturday to the idea of phasing out coal power plants, joining 56 other nations in kicking the coal habit that’s a huge factor in global warming. DETAIL
Climate leaders have reacted with fury after the controversial head of COP28 claimed there was "no science" to suggest phasing out fossil fuels will help limit global warming to 1.5C. DETAIL
Portugal is doing eye-catching work in renewable energy. The country managed to produce all the electricity it needed from renewable sources for 6 days. The 1,102 GWh of renewable energy produced between October 31 and November 4 was 262 GWh more than the country consumed during that time period. DETAIL
HEALTH
Pfizer's new experimental weight-loss pill worked in achieving its stated goal — but with that weight loss came side effects so gnarly that it's shutting down the research. DETAIL
Microplastics have recently entered the public consciousness for finding their way into our bodies and to some of the most remote places on Earth. But now, a much smaller, potentially much more nefarious, and less understood threat is drawing scientist’s attention—nanoplastics. DETAIL
DIGITAL / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE /AI
Israel is, per reports in multiple international news outlets, using a secretive artificial intelligence tool to identify targets — and their accompanying collateral damage — for assassination amid its ongoing war with Hamas that has all but leveled Northern Gaza. DETAIL
From EV batteries to solar cells to microchips, new materials can supercharge technological breakthroughs. But discovering them usually takes months or even years of trial-and-error research. Google DeepMind hopes to change that with a new tool that uses deep learning to dramatically speed up the process of discovering new materials. Called graphical networks for material exploration (GNoME), the technology has already been used to predict structures for 2.2 million new materials, of which more than 700 have gone on to be created in the lab and are now being tested. It is described in a paper published in Nature today. DETAIL
In a surprise announcement last week, Amazon's cloud computing division announced a flashy new AI chatbot aimed at businesses called Amazon Q — not to be confused with OpenAI's secretive Q*, pronounced Q star, which is rumored to be a separate and powerful new AI system. But according to leaked documents obtained by Platformer, Amazon's launch is off to a rocky start. Q is reportedly suffering from "severe hallucinations" and is actively "leaking confidential data." DETAIL
Google on Wednesday infused its Bard chatbot with a new-generation artificial intelligence model called Gemini, which it touts as being able to reason better than ChatGPT and other rivals. DETAIL
ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION
Uganda plans to increase its clean energy capacity more than twentyfold over the next two decades to expand electricity access to its 45 million residents. But funding for this ambitious plan will rely on revenues from a controversial oil pipeline being built across the country. DETAIL
Sowing grasses and wildflowers among solar panels can bring big increases in bees and aid crop pollination in nearby fields, a four-year study in the US suggests. The expansion of solar energy is sometimes seen as a threat to the environment because of the large amounts of land required, but solar developments can be designed to restore habitat and bring biodiversity gains. DETAIL
The Italian automation specialist Comau, part of the Stellantis Group, is developing a manufacturing solution for solid-state sodium battery cells with LiNa Energy from the UK. LiNa intends to use this to significantly increase the production capacity of its patented battery cells to make large-scale manufacturing possible. DETAIL
CYBERSECURITY
Thousands of applicants for the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, widely known as Green Card Lottery, got their private data leaked by the US GREEN CARD OFFICE LIMITED (USGCO), a limited liability company registered in the UK that helps to prepare the documents, the Cybernews research team has found. DETAIL