Bill Gates was interviewed tonight on the CBS News show 60 Minutes about his efforts to combat climate change: The good news is Gates believes it’s possible to prevent a catastrophic rise in temperatures. The bad news? He says in the next 30 years we need scientific breakthroughs, technological innovations and global cooperation on a scale the world has never seen….
Tag: steel
The moon rock in Washington National Cathedral
A moon rock collected by Apollo astronauts during the first moon landing is enshrined in a stained-glass window – known as the Space Window – in the Washington National Cathedral. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/moon-rock-washington-national-cathedral-stained-glass-window…
SpaceX Cargo Dragon succeeds in 1st autonomous undocking
SpaceX’s CRS-21 Cargo Dragon undocked from the International Space Station’s Harmony module on January 12, 2021, succeeding in the world’s first-ever autonomous undocking and testing of several new vehicle upgrades. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/space-x-cargo-dragon-1st-autonomous-undocking-jan-2021…
Mitsubishi Heavy To Build Biggest Zero-Carbon Steel Plant
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will soon complete in Austria the world’s largest steel plant capable of attaining net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. Mitsubishi Heavy, through a British unit, is constructing the pilot plant at a complex of Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine. Trial operation is slated to begin in 2021. From a report: The plant will use hydrogen instead of coal in the reduction…
Exxon Holds Back on Technology That Could Slow Climate Change
Carbon capture can make money for oil giants, and scientists say we need it. Is the industry willing to invest enough? From a report: Elk and pronghorn antelope migrate each fall through southern Wyoming, where the sparsely vegetated landscape slowly gives way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Interrupting this serene vista is a dense web of steel pipes, tanks,…
‘Mysterious Object Hurtling Towards Earth’ is a 1966 Booster Rocket
“A Mysterious Object Is Hurtling Towards Earth, and Scientists Don’t Know What It Is,” read Newsweek’s headline on Monday, describing an object projected to pass 31,605 miles from earth. (One astronomer told them that was roughly 13% of the average distance between the earth and the moon). But then a computer model calculated its past trajectories through space, according to the…
Emissions From US Industrial Facilities Fell Nearly 5% In 2019
Greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants, manufacturing sites and other large facilities declined nearly 5% from 2018 to 2019, according to data released Monday. Bloomberg reports: The drop is consistent with a decade-long downward trend in greenhouse gas releases from large stationary sources, partly propelled by the power sector’s ongoing shift away from coal to renewable sources and cleaner-burning natural…
Amazon Now Has More Than 1 Million Employees
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Amazon.com said it now has about 1 million employees after hiring 250,000 workers in the third quarter, part of a growth spurt driven by booming ecommerce sales during the coronavirus pandemic and a milestone for a company founded in 1995 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookseller. Despite its rapid ascent, Amazon…
‘How 30 Lines of Code Blew Up a 27-Ton Generator’
After the U.S. unveiled charges against six members of the Sandworm unit in Russia’s military intelligence agency, Wired re-visited “a secret experiment in 2007 proved that hackers could devastate power grid equipment beyond repair — with a file no bigger than a gif.” It’s an excerpt from the new book SANDWORM: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the…
Sweden’s New Car Carrier Is the World’s Largest Wind-Powered Vessel
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Oceanbird might look like a ship of the future, but it harks back to ancient maritime history — because it’s powered by the wind. The transatlantic car carrier is being designed by Wallenius Marine, a Swedish shipbuilder, with support from the Swedish government and several research institutions. With capacity for 7,000 vehicles, the…