Archive
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Magenta solar panels may be agrivoltaics’ cleverest trick yet
See-through solar cells harvest some wavelengths of light to make electricity, while passing through the red and blue wavelengths that plants need. In a new agrivoltaics experiment, broccoli yields held steady.
Could dirty, salty wastewater quench data center thirst?
Data centers need millions of gallons of water a day. Oil and gas industries produce more wastewater than that. Connecting them using today’s desalination technologies makes sense.
Scientists built a soundtrack to lure baby corals to their cyborg reef
Sounds of a healthy reef coaxed coral larvae to settle on artificial structures in Hawai’i—a possible start to “hybrid” reefs, part natural, part built.
How AI chatbots may be talking people out of climate action
Across 28,800 prompts, models were 7.5 times more likely to advise “stay the course” than “change,” even when the status quo is anti-climate.
The green revolution may be turning purple
The synthetic fertilizers behind the Green Revolution come at a steep climate cost. A sunlight-powered purple microbe just matched them in a 2-year field trial.
Researchers have made wallpaper that generates power from indoor humidity
HVAC systems burn energy pulling moisture out of the air. This wallpaper does the opposite: It cut humidity while generating electricity.
Do coyotes thrive in cities more than in the wild?
A study in Washington State found about nine times as many coyotes per area in Seattle as in remote forests.
Solar panels have (another) surprising side effect: Stopping dust storms in their tracks
In a first, researchers realistically calculated how solar farms in the Gobi Desert improve air quality in northern Chinese cities
From sundae to solvents: Chemists find a way to recycle mountains of industrial ice cream waste
The same proteins that keep a frozen pint smooth also make its fat hard to recover. A research team found an inexpensive way around the problem.
Clothes that cool you, warm you—and make power as you move
In a bid to cool people, not rooms, engineers made a printable fabric that turns body motion into electrical signals that switch on cooling and heating when you need it.
