Sarah Kaplan and Aaron Steckelberg, - The Washington Post
Stephan: I think we are looking at the future. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia whose entire economies are dependent on oil and gas are in for a big wakeup call, and so are states like Texas. Economies with oil dependence had better start planning for the future.
The Aptera can go 150 miles after just 15 minutes at an ordinary charging station. Starting price is $25,900.
The dream began in 1955, with a tiny, toylike creation called the “Sunmobile.” Built from balsa wood and hobby shop tires, it was just 15 inches long. The 12 selenium solar cells that decorated its exterior produced less horsepower than an actual horse. But it was proof of a concept: Sunlight alone can make a vehicle run.
The years went on, and the dream evolved into a converted vintage buggy with solar panels on its roof. Then a glorified bicycle, a retiree’s garage project, a racecar that crossed the Mojave Desert at 51 miles per hour.
It is a dream of perpetual motion. Of travel that doesn’t do damage to the planet. Of journeys that last as long as the sun shines.
There are problems with this dream, big ones. Clouds come. Night falls. The laws of physics limit how efficiently solar […]
Stephan: It is beginning to dawn on governments around the world that the internet holds implications about how power operates that have never been fully considered or understood. This story describes what is beginning to happen.
Over the last year, the worldwide web has started to look less worldwide.Europe is floating regulation that could impose temporary bans on US tech companies that violate its laws. The United States was on the verge of banning TikTok and WeChat, though the new Biden administration is rethinking that move. India, which did ban those two apps as well of dozens of others, is now at loggerheads with Twitter.And this month, Facebook (FB) clashed with the Australian government over a proposed law that would require it to pay publishers. The company briefly decided to prevent users from sharing news links in the country in response to the law, with the potential to drastically change how its platform functions from one country to the next. Then on Tuesday, it reached a deal with the government and agreed to restore news pages. The deal partially relaxed arbitration requirements that Facebook took issue with.In its announcement of the deal, however, Facebook hinted at the possibility of similar […]
Stephan: I have been watching the research on green tea for almost a decade now, watching it become ever more nuanced and certain, and for much of that time I have been drinking two quarts of green tea iced every day. Here's where it stands now.
Credit: Alisher Sharip
Green tea has been consumed in China for 4,000 years—and one of its compounds may hold the key to staving off cancer, according to compelling new research.
It switches on a gene called p53, which is proven to block the development of tumors.
Known as the “Guardian of the Genome” for its ability to repair DNA damage and destroy cancerous cells, p53 is classified as a tumor suppressor—and if a person inherits only one functional copy of the p53 gene from their parents, they are predisposed to the disease.
A new study published this month in Nature Communications shows that an antioxidant found in the traditional Chinese drink may increase levels of p53 and improve its efficiency, say scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Studying the direct interaction between p53 and the green tea compound, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), offers hope that a new drug might be created to mimic it.
Chris Mooney and Andrew Freedman, Reporter | Editor - The Washington Post
Stephan: The climate change trend is gaining speed and manifesting in ways few ever anticipated, or even now fully understand. Here is an example of what I mean.
Skogafoss waterfall is pictured near Skogar in Iceland. The country’s climate is more temperate than in other regions that far north because of the influence of the warm Gulf Stream current. Credit: Maja Hitij/Bongarts/Getty
A growing body of evidence suggests that a massive change is underway in the sensitive circulation system of the Atlantic Ocean, a group of scientists said Thursday.
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a system of currents that includes the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream, is now “in its weakest state in over a millennium,” these experts say. This has implications for everything from the climate of Europe to the rates of sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast.
Stephan: Climate change for the first time in human history has made a northern trade route through Arctic waters possible year-round. It will change geopolitics, and result in human migration north. It hasn't registered with most people, but our world is changing before our eyes, if only we had the open-mindedness to see what is happening.
The Arctic tanker Christophe de Margerie, operated by Sovcomflot, is seen in the Gulf of Ob in northern Russia on February, 18, 2019. Credit: Alexander Ryumin/TASS/Getty
The Arctic is now open for business year-round after a large commercial ship sailed the Northern Sea Route from Jiangsu, China, to a Russian gas plant on the Arctic coast, for the first time ever during the month of February, when winter temperatures normally make the icy waterway impassable.
The tanker, owned by Russian maritime shipping company Sovcomflot, was able to make the trip through the Arctic sea ice because it is no longer frozen all winter due to human-induced global warming.
