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.
Solar power is mostly for the rich. Here’s how Obama wants to change that.
So far, solar energy is a toy for the affluent. The George Washington University Solar Institute reported earlier this year that of the some 645,000 U.S. homes and businesses with rooftop solar panels, no more than 5 percent were households earning less than $40,000 a year. On Tuesday, the Obama Read More...
Energy storage: the missing link of solar energy adoption
With solar panels on your roof you can generate your own energy. However most of that energy you won’t use yourself. The sun shines during the day when most people are at work. Their solar systems produce energy that’s exported back to the grid. Home energy storage systems allow people to use Read More...
Generating solar energy from noise barriers
Noise barriers along highways can be used as a source for clean energy. Used to dampen the loud sounds of traffic, these noise barriers just sit there, usually not even very pretty. So engineers at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands created barriers with colored panels that Read More...
Sustainable production of hydrogen can change renewable energy revolution
The hydrogen fuel cell is the perfect instrument to power an electric car. The burning of hydrogen in a fuel cell is perfectly clean, producing nothing but water out of the tailpipe of the car. The problem is that almost all commercial hydrogen is produced in an energy-intensive process called Read More...
From Formula One to Formula E: The first electric car championships
This weekend, some 60,000 people will watch the final race in the first Formula E championship in London. Organizers claim the race is the world’s first to use cars regularly charged on solar. The cars will be charged in the pit lane by batteries that are linked to 26 solar panels. These panels Read More...
Plants show the way to solar cells that generate and store energy
A solar can turn sunlight into electricity, but it cannot store the energy. That’s why we need batteries that come with all kinds of additional pollution challenges and inefficiencies. A new study by chemists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) published in Science describes how a Read More...
Germany boosts renewables with clever virtual power stations
Vested power barons argue that we continue needing their fossil fuel- and nuclear-powered plants to guarantee the supply of electricity. Their arguments: The sun doesn’t always shine, the wind doesn’t always blow, and renewable energy projects are small scale and unreliable at times of high Read More...
Israeli innovation: Cheap, clean hydrogen power based on radio waves
Storing renewable energy is difficult and expensive. Batteries are not so clean. They are heavy, and can only hold only a limited amount of energy. Hydrogen provides a great sustainable storage solution, but the way to produce it in a renewable way through electrolysis of water is energy-intensive. Read More...
Generating renewable energy from evaporation
Scientists are working on a clever way to utilize the evaporation powers in nature for energy generation. Have you ever seen the mysteriously pretty sight of a lake in winter covered by a layer of thick fog? When the cold winter air lies over a warm body of water like a lake, the water Read More...
Charging electric cars with street lights
The lack of a reliable charging infrastructure for electric cars is one of the biggest obstacles to their acceptance. Nobody likes the idea of getting stuck with an empty battery somewhere nowhere late at night. But what if existing infrastructure can be used? Mini is demonstrating a new technology Read More...