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.
First gene treatment therapy for blindness undergoes successful trial
Scientists in the UK have managed to restore the vision of people suffering from choroideremia, the most common form of inherited blindness. By injecting patients with a virus containing a lacking gene into the rear of their eyes, patients were able to experience significant gains in their vision. Read More...
30 percent of the world’s energy supply to be clean by 2023
The latest annual report of the International Energy Agency suggests that the world will install over 1 terawatt of clean energy within the coming five years. That’s more than the entire power generation of the European Union today. The expected growth is made possible by a rise in the number of Read More...
Introducing the very first Hyperloop passenger capsule
The Hyperloop has long been a distant concept, but now we’ve just gotten a first glimpse of what a passenger ‘capsule’ of the Hyperloop will actually look like. Resembling high-speed trains found in Europe and Japan, the Hyperloop capsule is around 100 feet long, is able to transport up to 40 Read More...
Wider use of clean energy would reduce power outages during storms
In those moments when we were all experiencing “the calm before the storm,” we could not yet know the impact Hurricane Florence would have on our state, but we were certain it would be significant. In its aftermath, Florence indeed left a devastating mark on some of North Carolina’s Read More...
You can hail a public bus like an Uber in this city
When it comes to transportation, cities are facing a moment of reckoning. Private ride-hailing apps like Uber are threatening to cannibalize mass Read More...
A new hydrophobic surface could turn the ocean's waves into electricity
There's waterproof and then there's the surface developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego. They've developed a surface so hydrophobic that it can actually be used to generate electrical voltage, turning seawater into 50 Read More...
Nature built the first nuclear reactor 1.7 billion years ago
Today's nuclear energy doesn't provide a sustainable solution. Nuclear power plants produce dangerous waste for which we have no good solution. But nature shows that energy produced by nuclear fission can work. In fact, the first nuclear reactor was built 1.7 billion years ago, long before the Read More...
This electric zero-emissions plane powered by hydrogen will fly in 2025
While the clean electric car revolution is rapidly gathering speed, we still face a big technology test to clean up the aircraft industry. Clean planes pose a major challenge especially when they get to the jumbo sizes we have been getting used to traveling the world. But it is happening: this Read More...
California amends rules to push vehicles toward hydrogen, electricity, biofuel
California's Air Resources Board (CARB) has announced that it would tighten restrictions on transportation fuels in the state in the hopes of spurring adoption of electric, hydrogen, and biofuel-based cars, trucks, buses, and even planes. Since 2011, CARB has had a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Read More...
Ikea rolls out self-driving car concepts that don’t look like cars
Ikea just became the latest company to announce it's tinkering with self-driving cars. But don't call Ikea the next Waymo or Read More...