Lifeboat Foundation

Anyone who wants to produce medication, plastics or fertilizer using conventional methods needs heat for chemical reactions – but not so with photochemistry, where light provides the energy. The process to achieve the desired product also often takes fewer intermediate steps.

Researchers from the University of Basel are now going one step further and are demonstrating how the energy efficiency of photochemical reactions can be increased tenfold. More sustainable and cost-effective applications are now tantalizingly close.

Industrial chemical reactions usually occur in several stages across various interim products. Photochemistry enables shortcuts, meaning fewer intermediate steps are required. Photochemistry also allows you to work with less hazardous substances than in conventional chemistry, as light produces a reaction in substances which do not react well under heat. However, to this point there have not been many industrial applications for photochemistry, partly because supplying energy with light is often inefficient or creates unwanted by-products.

A recent study reveals how hydrogen gas, often touted as the energy source of tomorrow, provided energy in the past, at the origin of life 4 billion years ago. Hydrogen gas is clean fuel. It burns with oxygen in the air to provide energy with no CO₂.

Hydrogen is a key to sustainable energy for the future. Though humans are just now coming to realize the benefits of hydrogen gas (H₂ in chemical shorthand), microbes have known that H₂ is a good fuel for as long as there has been life on Earth. Hydrogen is ancient energy.

The very first cells on Earth lived from H₂ produced in hydrothermal vents, using the reaction of H₂ with CO₂ to make the molecules of life. Microbes that thrive from the reaction of H₂ and CO₂ can live in total darkness, inhabiting spooky, primordial habitats like deep-sea hydrothermal vents or hot rock formations deep within the Earth’s crust, environments where many scientists think that life itself arose.

Two of my passions are electric bicycle projects and DIY solar powered projects. In fact I’ve written the book on both topics. So to see these two fields combined in one quirky-yet-awesome product totally made my week. I just hope you’re as excited as I am to dive into this strange electric bike/car contraption that boasts a heap of features from seating for two to a giant solar panel array offering nearly unlimited range!

It’s just one of many strange, awesome and fun-looking electric vehicles I’ve discovered while window shopping on the world’s most eclectic digital thrift store: Alibaba. And now it has the honor of officially becoming this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week!

We’ve seen solar powered electric bicycles before, but they’re usually designed with some serious pedaling requirements. The low power of even large-sized panels means that riders generally still have to provide some significant leg assist.

“Declining winter snow cover is one of the most obvious and pronounced impacts of climate change in the Alps. Its effects on the functioning and biodiversity of alpine ecosystems are a major concern for people living in Alpine regions and beyond,” said Dr. Michael Bahn.

How can the impacts of climate change alter biodiversity in vast mountain ranges throughout the world? This is what a recent study published in Global Change Biology hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated how decreased levels of vegetation and snow cover in the Alps due to climate change are having adverse effects on the region’s biodiversity. This study holds the potential to help scientists, legislators, and the public better understand the short-and long-term impacts of climate change on regions across the globe.

For the study, the researchers examined variances in soil grassland microbial nitrogen cycling within the Alps during the spring and autumn due to their warming temperatures that are exceedingly more than twice the global average. In the end, the researchers discovered that nitrogen uptake by plant organics were reduced in the spring and autumn by 70 percent and 82 percent, soil microbial biomass was reduced by 19 percent and 38 percent, and the number of harmful bacteria that could have adverse effects on nitrogen production increased 253 percent and 136 percent, respectively. Collectively, the researchers determined that climate change is having an adverse effect on nitrogen cycling within the Alps’ grasslands.

Continue reading “Impacts of Reduced Snow Cover and Shifting Vegetation Patterns on Alpine Biodiversity” »

“Findings from the study are not just relevant for cities in Singapore where it is hot all year round, but for other urban areas around the world too,” said Dr. Wan Man Pun.

How can paint be used to combat climate change? This is what a recent study published in Sustainable Cities and Society hopes to address as a team of researchers from Singapore investigated real-world applications regarding how cool paint coatings that reflect the Sun’s heat could be attributed to enabling people to feel up to 34.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) cooler compared to traditional city pavement. This study holds the potential to produce more comfortable city environments, especially with summer heats becoming warmer every year.

For the study, the researchers covered roads, walls, and roofs of an industrialized area of western Singapore consisting of almost 130,000 square feet (12,000 square meters) containing several multi-storied buildings. Over a 24-hour period, the researchers discovered that afternoon temperatures within the coated environment were up to 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) cooler compared to non-coated surroundings. Additionally, the team used the Universal Thermal Climate Index to measure temperature comfort levels for locals walking through the area, discovering these individuals experienced up to 34.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) cooler because of the cool paint coatings.

Continue reading “Cooling Down the Concrete Jungle: Real-World Study on Cool Paint Coatings’ Impact” »

Odysseus, which was built by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, powered down one week after landing as lunar night began for 14 days. Flight controllers ordered the spacecraft to snooze for three weeks, while the moon’s south pole faced away from the sun, but they hoped Odie would reawaken once sunlight hit its solar panels again.

“Intuitive Machines started listening for Odie’s wake-up signal on March 20, when we projected enough sunlight would potentially charge the lander’s power system and turn on its radio,” representatives of the company wrote on X, formerly called Twitter.

Researchers develop skyrmion-based microelectronic device for sustainable, high-performance AI computing with energy-efficient technology.

Chipmaker Nvidia has shown off a clone of our entire planet that could help meteorologists simulate and visualize global weather patterns at an “unprecedented scale,” according to a press release.

The “Earth climate digital twin,” dubbed Earth-2, was designed to help recoup some of the economic losses caused by climate change-driven extreme weather.

Customers can access the digital twin through an API, allowing “virtually any user to create AI-powered emulations to speed delivery of interactive, high-resolution simulations ranging from the global atmosphere and local cloud cover to typhoons and turbulence.”

Four Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have partnered with Los Angeles-based SoCalGas and Munich, Germany-based Electrochaea to develop an electrobioreactor to allow excess renewable electricity from wind and solar sources to be stored in chemical bonds as renewable natural gas.

When renewable electricity supply exceeds demand, electric-utility operators intentionally curtail production of renewable electricity to avoid overloading the grid. In 2020, in California, more than 1.5 million megawatt hours of renewable electricity were curtailed, enough to power more than 100,000 households for a full year.

This practice also occurs in other countries. The team’s electrobioreactor uses the renewable electricity to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen. The microbes then use the hydrogen to convert carbon dioxide into methane, which is a major component of natural gas. Methane can then be moved around in natural gas pipelines and can be stored indefinitely, allowing the renewable energy to be recovered when it is most needed.