Higgins and his team members collected an ice sample dated 2.6 million years ago from the Antarctic in the Allan Hills area. He claims it’s the oldest sample of ice with strong trust in the age and air within it. Through examining trace concentrations of argon gas contained within the frost, the sample was dated.
Experts hope to find the deepest ice cores drilled from the continent of Antarctica. They aim to gather samples that are as much as 1.5 million years old.
Steelmaking is currently extremely carbon intensive, accounting for about 7% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. As we continue to use ever more steel for new infrastructure around the world, the task of decarbonising the industry is growing ever more urgent. Hydrogen can now perform that task and Volvo has just taken delivery of the first consignment of carbon-free steel. So how is it done, and will it be a gamechanger for the auto industry and wider world?
Interested in mastering and remembering the concepts that I present in my videos? Check out the FREE Dive Deeper mini-courses offered by the Center for Behavior and Climate. These mini-courses teach the main concepts in select JHAT videos and go beyond to help you learn additional scientific or conservation concepts. The courses are great for teachers to use or for individual learning. https://climatechange.behaviordevelopmentsolutions.com/just-have-a-think-jhat.
“Hubble is the only telescope that has the kind of temporal coverage and spatial resolution that can capture Jupiter’s winds in this much detail”
Over the past 100 years, however, the cyclone has been dwindling, but recent observations with Hubble show that the wind speeds may be picking up again. Is this just temporary, or will the storm return to its former glory?
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has been monitoring the Great Red Spot for over a decade. They discovered that the wind speed of the outermost edge of the storm, known as the high-speed ring, has picked up speed by eight percent between 2009 and 2020.
“When I initially saw the results, I asked, ‘Does this make sense?’ No one has ever seen this before,” said Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the analysis. “But this is something only Hubble can do. Hubble’s longevity and ongoing observations make this revelation possible.”
In recent years, the continued exploitation of natural resources and depletion of our forests has been a major issue, to say the least. The fight for sustainability has become increasingly important as we face the challenge of climate change and its effects on our planet. One possible solution to this problem is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help increase sustainable logging practices.
Beyond data science, AI can be used in conjunction with autonomous robots that are specially designed for forestry work which may provide an answer for this global problem. AI can be applied specifically to logging operations such as planning where trees should be cut down and predicting the best time of day for cutting trees so they do not disrupt nesting birds or other animal habitats.
Lightning is one of Earth’s most energetic events, but there’s much more to it than just a flashing fork and the rumble of thunder. Lightning strikes have been known to generate gamma rays, and now a team of Japanese researchers has found that those bursts can create photonuclear reactions in the atmosphere, resulting in the production – and annihilation – of antimatter.
Bursts of gamma rays from lightning were first detected in 1,992 thanks to NASA’s Compton Gamma-ray Observatory. Since then, these Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGF) have been studied intently, and the new research out of Kyoto University has found an unexpected cause of some of the signals.
“We already knew that thunderclouds and lightning emit gamma rays, and hypothesized that they would react in some way with the nuclei of environmental elements in the atmosphere,” says Teruaki Enoto, lead researcher on the project. “In winter, Japan’s western coastal area is ideal for observing powerful lightning and thunderstorms. So, in 2015 we started building a series of small gamma-ray detectors, and placed them in various locations along the coast.”
In a world first, US scientists on Thursday piloted a camera-equipped ocean drone that looks like a robotic surfboard into a Category 4 hurricane barreling across the Atlantic Ocean.
Dramatic footage released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed the small craft battling 50-feet (15 meter) high waves and winds of over 120 mph (190 kph) inside Hurricane Sam.
The autonomous vehicle is called a “Saildrone” and was developed by a company with the same name.
How did the ancient inhabitants of the hot Iranian desert keep themselves cool during the intensely hot summers where even being in the shade is very unpleasant? Well, besides the windcatchers they had in their homes of course, since we spoke about them a while ago. Think about being in the middle of a hot dry desert, it would be a blessing to be able to drink cold beverages and eat ice cream in the middle of summer to cool off, or to keep your meat, dairy, fruits and other foods fresh for longer periods of time by cooling them. But I am hearing you asking yourselves… ice?? how on earth would they be able to provide ice in the middle of a hot and dry desert? The answer to that is simple yet innovative; build a Yakhchal.
We don’t know for certain where the first ice houses were built on the planet, and we aren’t sure about when the first yakhchal was built either but we do know that around 400 BCE the Persian engineers were already mastering the art of storing ice in the middle of the desert, it was already a widespread phenomenon around this time. This shows that the actual invention of the Yakhchal happened much earlier as you don’t master something by doing it for a short amount of time, but it’s unfortunately unclear for how long. The practice of storing ice itself was already long established by the time of 400 BCE, we know for a fact that the Mongols were already storing ice for quite some time, although again it’s unclear for how long, but there are accounts of them doing it before 400 BCE. Ice was mentioned in older texts in Iran from before 400 BCE, but there was no mention of how it was produced, which doesn’t allow scholars to interpret that as yakhchals already being used for very long before 400 BCE, although it is of course hypothesized as I said earlier, you don’t master something by doing it for a short amount of time.
Oct 18 (Reuters) — Michigan-based Our Next Energy, which is developing an advanced battery for electric vehicles, has raised $25 million from investors ranging from German automaker BMW (BMWG.DE) to a clean technology venture firm headed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the young company said on Monday.
Investors in ONE’s Series A round include BMW iVentures, Detroit-based Assembly Ventures and Chicago-based Volta Energy Technologies, which is partnered with Argonne National Laboratories. Another investor is Singapore-based electronics manufacturer Flex Ltd (FLEX.O), which is also a strategic partner with ONE.
The round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the investment arm of Breakthrough Energy, founded by Gates in 2015 to support and fund innovations to counter climate change. Among the Kirkland, Washington company’s investments: Battery recycler Redwood Materials, electric aircraft maker ZeroAvia and solid-state battery developer QuantumScape (QS.N).
Both environmentalists and space-enthusiasts want the human species to survive long term.
Is there really a conflict between the two movements?
Here is a short youtube video I did today.
Should we cancel all our space programs and divert all funding and talent to fight climate change as suggested by Prince William? Should only billionaires do that?