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.
A Japanese company is building a dam using automated robots
Japan has a labor shortage, partially because the workforce is aging. Last year they passed new legislation to attract foreign workers — a controversial bill, given the nation's historically strict immigration policies. But the construction contractor Obayashi is taking the matter into their Read More...
There are more Emperor penguins than we previously thought
For all you penguin lovers, we have good news: recent satellite images have identified a raft of new Emperor penguin breeding sites. The discovery lifts the estimated global Emperor population by 5-10 percent, to perhaps as many as 278,500 breeding pairs. It's a welcome development given that Read More...
How the world’s biggest science society aims to be more inclusive
On June 10th, Black scientists in America organized a strike to protest discrimination within academia and the sciences. The world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society, The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), took part in the strike, but it’s not stopping there Read More...
Discarded face masks could be turned into biofuel to produce energy
While the pandemic has benefitted the environment in some ways, it has also brought about an unprecedented problem: the overwhelming number of single-use, non-recyclable personal protective equipment (PPE) leaking into the environment. Concerned about how these single-use masks and gloves can be Read More...
AI system knows when to make a medical diagnosis or defer to a human
While artificial intelligence can be used to detect many types of cancer, figuring out when to rely on experts versus the algorithms of AI is still tricky. It’s not simply a matter of who is “better” at making a diagnosis or prediction. Factors like how much time medical professionals have Read More...
Platform allows users get cheaper solar power by skipping the energy grid
One of the benefits of a decentralized energy system - where energy is provided by multiple, local suppliers - is that it can offer more competitive prices compared to the traditional, centralized grid. And in the case of solar power, people with solar panels on their rooftops can sell their excess Read More...
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...