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.
If drivers of electric cars plug in their vehicles when they get home from work and add to the evening electric peak, even the modest amounts of new generation will force us to build more energy capacity, which could lead to be more fossil fuel-fired plants. But if people wait until bedtime to Read More...
The Internet of Things (IoT) is turning the ancient practice of farming into precision agriculture. Sensors implanted in the soil can tell you when and where to irrigate. Cameras attached to a drone flying over a field of soy beans can spot a mite on a leaf from 400 feet. IoT devices for cattle can Read More...
Physicist Marcelo Gleiser muses over the paradoxes of scientific Read More...
Researchers have claimed a breakthrough in energy storage technology that could enable electric cars to be driven as far as petrol and diesel vehicles, and recharge in minutes rather than hours. Teams from Bristol University and Surrey University developed a next-generation material for Read More...
Ed Krapels is a curious sort of electrical-transmission developer who thinks we don't need to develop more transmission. "We need less transmission in the future, but we need better-located and better-sited transmission,” the founder and CEO of Boston-based Anbaric Development Partners told me Read More...
Traditional or Indigenous knowledge on anything from the medicinal properties of plants to the migration patterns of caribou is valued by scientists when they support or supplement other scientific evience. But when the situation is reversed—when Traditional knowledge is seen to challenge Read More...
In a traditional solar fuel reactor, the process depends upon the solar thermal heat provided by the sun. When the sun disappears at night, so too does its energy. That’s why scientists have developed the world’s first solar fuel reactor that is able to function at night by relying on solar and Read More...
In 2017, the price for high-efficiency solar panels dropped from 72¢/W to 45¢/W, representing a 37 percent decline in cost. The falling price point is driven by several factors, including American consumer demand for higher solar efficiency to compensate for the higher-than-average energy Read More...
How self-driving cars become a part of the way we travel relies not on the technology, but rather, on the way society accepts self-driving cars. According to a new survey, the Chinese public is better poised to accept autonomous vehicles than Americans are, mainly because they trust the technology Read More...
The fossil fuel era won’t last forever. And a new set of nations will find their reserves of lithium, copper and rare earth metals in high Read More...