Few would have though it possible when former US president Jimmy Carter announced in March that the deadly cancer that had been found in his liver and brain last year had disappeared. A few months earlier, in August 2015, 90-year-old Carter had declared that he had melanoma, a form of skin cancer, and that it had already spread. Soon […]
Formula E? Is that some kind of milk with vitamin E? Or an energy bar? No, the E stands for Electric. And the Formula is racing, just as in Formula One racing. In its second season, a new car racing series is turning heads. So far, the 10-race series has taken place in such cities as Beijing, Berlin, Buenos […]
“It’s a new era. It’s not science fiction. It’s today,” Bertrand Piccard told CNN from California after his successful trip from Hawaii in Solar Impulse, the solar plane. “It exists and clean technologies can do the impossible.” Travelling at about the same speed as a car, the Hawaii-California leg in the aircraft took just over 62 […]
Solar Impulse has taken off again. After 10 months on the ground in Hawaii due to battery problems, the solar plane took off on April 21st to resume its long journey over the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. It has two new batteries and a new cooling system. The flight will take three days and nights. The plane […]
Is it true that “all you have to do is give children a computer”, one loaded with learning programs, films about wildlife and foreign lands, and math games in their language and English, and they will learn independently, without instruction? That’s what Matt Keller of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology aimed to find out. To do […]
Did you know? Capsule-sized circuits that can be swallowed are being developed to monitor the level of fat in obese people and to make them feel satiated. Also being developed is a chip that, like tattoo ink, can be injected under the skin in a finger, for example, to unlock something just by pointing. Progress […]
Solar cookers aren’t new. But according to National Geographic, these devices, which use only the energy of direct sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize food or drink, are making “a big difference in impoverished communities”. In the developing world they are a lifesaver. Solar cooking uses no electricity, gas, charcoal or wood. Only the sunshine […]
Everyone knows how dangerous nuclear energy can be. No so long ago, the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011 caused three meltdowns and the release of radioactive material the next day. Time will tell whether cancer cases and deaths from radiation exposure following the […]
“11 August 2015 marks 1 year since the last wild polio case was detected on the entire African continent. A polio-free Africa would leave only 2 countries where polio transmission has never been interrupted: Pakistan and Afghanistan.” That’s the great news from the World Health Organization in its update: Africa advances toward a polio-free continent. On […]
Solar Impulse, the Swiss solar-powered aircraft, has set a new record. Pilot André Borschberg achieved the longest non-stop solo flight of 5 days and nights as part of Solar Impulse’s enterprising journey around the world. The plane took off from Nagoya, Japan, and landed in Kalaeloa, Hawaii, earlier this month. Without one drop of fuel! The […]
