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.
Is peak car headed for Seneca’s cliff?
Two hundred people per second now climb onto a dockless bike somewhere in China; the blue dots (above) denote transactions in Shanghai. Considering that dockless bike sharing platforms were only launched two years ago, in 2015, this growth rate is remarkable. The biggest company, Mobike, Read More...
Renewables will be consistently cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020
In most of the world, renewable electricity is already competitive in terms of price with fossil fuels. That’s good news, but according to a new report, renewable energy is set to get the upper hand by 2020. In the report, analysts predicted that all forms of renewable electricity will be Read More...
The electric vehicle market is heating up as Ford pledges $11 billion investment
Ford is going all in on electric vehicles. The American automaker started the week off by announcing that it will drastically increase its planned investments in electric vehicles to $11bn by 2022, a sharp rise from the previously announced target of $4.5bn. Ford also announced it will have 40 Read More...
How artificial intelligence can help emergency dispatchers diagnose heart attacks
Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to bring a number of positive changes to the medical sector in the coming years. A primary example of this comes from a Dutch startup that has created an AI that can help emergency dispatchers diagnose cardiac arrest by understanding the words and sounds during Read More...
New York City's Mayor de Blasio to divest from big oil and sue the companies
The city of New York's pension funds hold about $5 billion in investments in fossil fuel companies, which are going gangbusters these days. But last week the Mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced a goal to divest City funds from fossil fuel reserve owners within five years, which is a great move; Read More...
Testing self-driving taxis in the world’s largest retirement community
The Villages retirement community in Florida has a name that belies its proportions. The 40-square-mile area features 750 miles of road, three separate downtowns, and a population of 125,000 senior citizens—nearly double the population of Palo Alto, California. In 2013 and ’14, the US Census Read More...
A startup is paying customers to use less electricity
When you save energy, you typically save money. But a new startup is making energy-saving even more appealing by actually paying customers cold hard cash for not using electricity. What this San Francisco-based startup does is monitor the energy markets for spikes in power demand. When it sees that Read More...
Britain now generates twice as much electricity from wind as coal
Just six years ago, more than 40 percent of Britain’s electricity was generated by burning coal. Today, that figure is just 7 percent. Yet if the story of 2016 was the dramatic demise of coal and its replacement by natural gas, then 2017 was most definitely about the growth of wind Read More...
Researchers have created a clever device that can eliminate tinnitus
If you’ve had tinnitus before, you know how annoying it is to constantly hear that ringing noise in your ear. Luckily, researchers believe they may have worked out the first non-invasive treatment that can reduce tinnitus symptoms, and it uses a pretty fascinating mechanism that slowly trains the Read More...
Tesla has kicked of production of its new rooftop solar shingles
Remember those sleek solar panels disguised as regular roof tiles that Tesla was testing out last year? Well now Tesla has started manufacturing the photovoltaic glass tiles at the company’s new factory in Buffalo, New York. For homeowners, the appeal of these rooftop tiles is that they look like Read More...