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 US state just became the world's greatest renewable energy market
Renewable energy developers, take note. There's a new spot on Earth leading the way for projects in solar, wind, and other sources of green power. That's because of a new bill, signed into law late last week in the state, mandating a massive buildout in renewable power capacity, in a very short Read More...
India to promote use of solar energy
Hundreds of villages in rural India are using clean energy powered by the sun. This month, 61 households in the village of Baripatha in eastern India were given two solar lamps. Villagers had been using kerosene lamps at night. Kerosene produces pollution and can lead to fires. The Indian Read More...
Could Tesla's Model X drive us towards electric cars for all?
The launch of Tesla's long-awaited Model X electric car has received the sort of adulation that we've come to expect of new products from Apple. The Model X is a SUV with gull-wing doors – as made famous by the DeLorean from the film "Back to the Future" – giving it the appearance of a Read More...
The CEO and the activist: Meet the renewable energy odd couple
One wears an impeccably tailored navy blue suit. The other sports a giraffe-print dashiki shirt. Meet the renewable-energy odd couple, the environmental activist and his onetime target, the chief of Italy’s largest utility. A year ago, Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace International, and Read More...
Can Tesla deliver a self-driving electric car before 2020?
Elon Musk has been a media darling for quite some time and his stature as a real life ‘Iron Man’ is growing with each passing day. With PayPal, Tesla Motors, Solar City and Space X, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Musk has so far managed to prove many of his skeptics wrong. In Read More...
Half of car buyers consider electric or hybrid vehicle
We are on the cusp of a major shift to hybrid and all-electric vehicles. According to a survey, 53% of drivers planning to buy or lease a new car in the next two years are considering an electric or hybrid vehicle. The survey was conducted for the British Institute of the Motor Industry. The Read More...
The subway in London is recycling power
The London subway has started using a new technology that stops wasting vast amounts of energy. The quick bursts of speed and abrupt stops that trains make to get from station to station is an energy-expensive system. With “inverter” technology, the Cloudesley Road substation in London was Read More...
The world is on target to get 26 percent of energy from renewables by 2020
Renewable energy is growing! With the advent of more affordable technology and increased political pressure on clean sources of energy, it’s no surprise to learn that renewable energy is on the rise on a global scale. A new report projects that, by the year 2020, some 26 percent of the Read More...
Good news: Wind energy is the cheapest energy source in Germany and the U.K.
Thanks to the plummeting price of solar and wind energy, fossil fuels might be going the way of the dinosaurs. Affordable renewables could be a costly tipping point for dirtier energy sources — and we may have just reached it. According to analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), wind Read More...
Quebec unveils plan to expand electric-car network
The provincial government will make an official announcement on Friday, detailing how it plans to spend $420 million over the next five years on its new vehicle-electrification plan. The plan comes two years after the former Parti Québécois government made a similar, but more Read More...