To continue reading

Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Technology

An American airplane.
Sparks

New ‘SAF’ Just Dropped

A natural gas refinery is being converted into a plant for jet fuel made from carbon dioxide and green hydrogen.

Sparks

American Airlines Is Buying Carbon Removal on the Cheap

The most notable part of the airline’s deal with Graphyte is the price.

Green
Economy

OpenAI Is a Cautionary Tale About Nonprofits

Most nonprofit boards can do whatever they want.

Economy

The Heat Pump Manufacturing Boom is About to Begin

The Biden administration announces $169 million in grants to boost production of the technology in America.

A firefighting drone.

The Hottest Thing in Firefighting Tech

They look like a weapon. They work like a weapon. But they could save countless lives.

Yellow
Hannah Waddingham and Prince William.

Prince William Announces the Earthshot Prize Winners

They include startups focused on protecting Andean forests, recycling batteries, and setting up a carbon market for soil.

Green
Technology

The National Weather Service’s Smart Experiment with AI

By using artificial intelligence to quickly translate weather forecasts and warnings, the agency could save lives.

A person checking a phone.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Yesterday, the National Weather Service (NWS) announced that it, like seemingly everyone else in the world, is experimenting with AI. Specifically, it’s using AI to translate its weather forecasts and warnings into Spanish and Chinese, with a plan to expand into more languages in the future, starting with Samoan and Vietnamese.

I am cautiously optimistic about this. It’s well-known that climate change will disproportionately impact communities of color, many of which consist of immigrants whose first language is not English. The NWS has been manually translating its forecasts into Spanish for 30 years, but this program represents an expansion of access to information that could very likely save lives as climate impacts worsen.

Keep reading...Show less
Sparks

I Will Show You Cheer in a Handful of Dust

OSIRIS-REx went to an asteroid and came back with the building blocks of life.

Asteroid Bennu.
Heatmap Illustration/NASA, Goddard, University of Arizona

A couple of billion years ago, a piece of rock about the size of the Empire State Building broke off from a large asteroid and hurtled into the depths of space. It was called Bennu, and it floated along in the void, alone, until one day in October 2020, when a little craft with an extended arm — the asteroid’s version of a mosquito, essentially — swooped in close and sucked up a few ounces’ worth of rock before buzzing away again.

That craft, called OSIRIS-REx, went on to send the rocks it had collected from Bennu back to Earth. The samples touched down safely back in September, and yesterday we got our first look at what was inside: whispers from the earliest days of the solar system, and a hint at how our planet as we know it came to be.

Keep reading...Show less