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.
Charging an electric vehicle is far cleaner than driving on gasoline
Driving an electric vehicle (EV) has obvious climate benefits: zero tailpipe emissions. But because EVs are charged by power grids that burn fossil fuels, they aren’t necessarily zero-carbon. An EV’s carbon footprint depends on whether its power comes from renewables or fossil, and Read More...
This "air taxi" takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane
What if instead of calling an Uber when you need a lift, you simply call for an “air taxi”. That may become a reality sooner than you think after Google co-founder Larry Page and his Kitty Hawk company unveiled Cora, an electric aircraft that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane. Read More...
Why developing countries could soon see a boom in solar projects
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was formed during the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015 in order to help sunshine-rich countries harness solar energy at an affordable cost. At the ISA’s first meeting in New Delhi, French President Emmanuel Macron announced France would commit an Read More...
China’s battery repurposing business is great for the environment
The quirky thing about lithium-ion batteries is that they remain useful long after the device they power is retired. Letting them go to waste is, well, wasteful, and only spurs more lithium mining, which is terrible for the environment. That’s why repurposing—putting old batteries to use in new Read More...
What’s a proton battery? Three things you need to know.
Most of your everyday electronics run off of lithium batteries — you know, the ones that you can never seem to find in your drawer when the remote is dead? Yet the days of the double-A may be ending. Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia have created a prototype of an alternative Read More...
MIT scientists aim to bring nuclear fusion energy to the grid within 15 years
The promise of harnessing safe, zero-carbon energy from nuclear fusion may soon become a reality thanks to a newly available superconducting material. The problem thus far with fusion energy is that it only produces net energy at temperatures too hot for any solid material to withstand. With this Read More...
Immunotherapy is becoming more powerful thanks to new cancer-killing hydrogel
Researchers have developed a new hydrogel that can be injected directly to the site of a tumor, where it stays to slowly release its payload of immunotherapy drugs for longer. By doing this, the immunotherapy drugs can gradually and precisely target cancer cells until the job is done. In studies so Read More...
Why California is a taking a break from generating new solar energy
California is well ahead of state targets for sourcing 25 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020. In fact, the Golden State is producing so much renewable energy, particularly from solar, that it's taking a break from new renewable projects. California is regularly shunting electricity Read More...
EvoWheel converts almost any bicycle into an electric bike in just 30 seconds
Ready to give your old cruiser a swanky electric makeover? The innovative EvoWheel turns almost any old regular bike into a speedy e-bike in under 30 seconds. The brilliant design, which just launched a fund-raising campaign on Indiegogo, is an app-controlled wheel that gives regular bikes a Read More...
Researchers have created a solar cell that harvests energy from sunshine and rain
A team of Chinese engineers has turned solar energy’s worst enemy into a friend by developing a hybrid solar cell that can produce electricity from sunshine and rain. To do this, the researchers tapped into the motion of raindrops rolling off the surface of a solar cell using textured layers Read More...