Science
From mathematics and AI to medicine and psychology, The Optimist Daily features the latest news on discoveries, technological advances, and breakthroughs in the world of science. Our Science section is here to engage and enlighten you.
America now has a stretch of highway paved with recycled plastic
A newly repaved stretch of highway in Oroville, California, looks like an ordinary road. But it’s the first highway in the country to be paved in part with recycled plastic—the equivalent of roughly 150,000 plastic bottles per mile of the three-lane road. The change in materials makes the Read More...
Plantain fibers could help engineers build stronger and lighter cars
Carbon fiber has long been touted for its incredible material properties, including being extremely durable and lightweight at the same time. Although these properties are precisely what car manufacturers are looking for in materials for building cars, carbon fiber is still very expensive to Read More...
A startup is realizing Nikola Tesla’s dream of wireless power transmission
The dream of wireless power transmission is an old one. In 1890, everyone’s favorite electrical genius Nikola Tesla once proved he could power light bulbs from more than two miles away with a 140-foot Tesla coil in the 1890s – never mind that in doing so he burned out the dynamo at the local Read More...
These “organ chips” could eliminate the need for animal studies
New drugs and products are often tried out on animals before any testing is done on humans. Other than the animal cruelty that can be involved in new drug trials, another problem is that animals simply aren’t human, which means they don’t have the same human response, thus making the results in Read More...
How scientists revived 100-million-year-old microbes
Deep within the cold abyss, beneath the primordial muck of the seafloor and the sediment of millions of years, ancient microbes sit between life and death…and have now been awakened! Scientists haven't quite unleashed Neptune's revenge, but they have revived ancient microbes — possibly over Read More...
Sleeper trains in Europe are making a comeback due to Covid-19
For all their promise of romance and adventure, Europe’s sleeper trains appeared to have reached the end of the line. Pressured by high operation costs and forsaken by travelers for budget airlines, a decision by the German rail operator Deutsche Bahn to terminate the service connecting Paris to Read More...
Here's the best place on earth for a telescope, according to astronomers
Summer is the season for stargazing. Whether you’re just laying out on a picnic blanket in your backyard or have invested in a high-tech telescope, the twinkling vastness of space above can captivate our attention for hours. Now, astronomers have identified the most ideal place on earth for a Read More...
Deutsche Bank joins list of banks in banning Arctic drilling
The world could use some good news about the Arctic after weeks of battling a prolonged heatwave and wildfires. Fortunately, we have some good news: Financial giant Deutsche Bank has introduced a new energy policy banning financial support of drilling in the Arctic. The move comes after years of Read More...
Archaeologists solve big piece of the Stonehenge puzzle
Back in the 1950s, a chunk of rock went missing from the magical tumble of megaliths that now compose Stonehenge. The chunk, a three-and-a-half foot cylindrical core, had been drilled out of one of the site’s massive sarsen stones during repairs and taken home by an employee of the Read More...
Two new innovations allow solar cells to harness more light
Solar cells work by absorbing light waves, harnessing the photons' energy to knock electrons off of atoms, thereby generating electricity. Here's the thing, though: different light waves have different levels of energy, and current solar cells can't use low-frequency wavelengths of Read More...