Water
Scientists discover world’s largest plant off Australian coast
General Sherman is the largest tree in the world. It’s a giant sequoia in Sequoia National Park standing at 275 feet, nearly the length of a football field. It turns out, though, that General Sherman isn’t the biggest plant on earth. Scientists have discovered a patch of seagrass off the Read More...
Rare highfin dragonfish spotted by MBARI researchers
Some creatures’ adaptations help them camouflage so well that, along with predators, naturalists and researchers find it hard to spot them. This is the case with the rare highfin dragonfish (Bathophilus flemingi), which researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have Read More...
Oregon wastewater facility makes its own power with human waste
Two weeks ago, we wrote a piece on upcycling your “business,” going into the green uses some companies found for human waste. Innovation and recycling mean looking everywhere possible for solutions, and The Optimist Daily loves writing about the ones that are found… even if they come out of Read More...
Supporting beavers and our ecosystems
At The Optimist Daily, we’ve written a great deal about the benefits beavers bring to their environment and the importance of restoring their populations in certain areas. Beavers are often vilified in certain communities for the same reason they’re such iconic North American creatures: they Read More...
Peatlands, a boggy carbon sink absolutely worth saving
For those in the world who have to live with it, you may wonder “what on earth is peat good for?” Peatland is a mossy wet mass that you can’t build on, you can barely walk on, you can’t grow crops on it, and all its stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes which bring Read More...
Scientists discover an octopus from before the dinosaurs
They are alarmingly intelligent and can solve puzzles. They can change their color to blend into their surroundings and they can squeeze themselves through tiny spaces. Is it any wonder that octopuses, being some of the most adaptable creatures on the planet, may even pre-date the Read More...
This system takes CO2 from the air by taking it from the sea
The world over, researchers and scientists are looking for effective and economical ways to pull CO2 out of the air to mitigate the effects of climate change. There are many promising solutions out there, but the amount of CO2 that needs to be withdrawn is substantial and the process of pulling it Read More...
Automated and eco-friendly! “Green” water taxi launches in Amsterdam
In 2020, The Optimist Daily wrote about a fully automated water cab in development by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. In October 2021, prototype models of the Roboat were launched and are now navigating Amsterdam’s Read More...
These buoys will be able to charge ships at sea with offshore wind energy
A lot of the world’s commerce is done at sea by huge cargo ships that burn enormous amounts of fuel idling near ports waiting to load up. This may change in the future with the development of Stillstrom charging buoy, a wind-powered solution. Offshore wind-powered charging Read More...
This solar-powered desalination system is a gamechanger
Desalination offers a lot of promise to communities that may face water scarcity in the future. For some, the problem is compounded by the potential scarcity of reliable electricity. As such, it has been the aim of many researchers to develop solar-powered desalination devices, which is a difficult Read More...