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4.6B Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment

All this suggests that there is a chance for a deep reordering of the earth’s power systems, in every sense of the word “power,” offering a plausible check to not only the climate crisis but to autocracy. Instead of relying on scattered deposits of fossil fuel—the control of which has largely defined geopolitics for more than a century—we are moving rapidly toward a reliance on diffuse but ubiquitous sources of supply. The sun and the wind are available everywhere, and they complement each other

Particle Lenia Deluxe Edition

Particle Lenia Deluxe Edition. Lenia is a family of cellular automata that produces lifelike behaviors and patterns, first described in the seminal paper by Bert Wang-Chak Chan. This project is heavily inspired by the original Particle Lenia research by Alexander Mordvintsev et al., which implemented a particle-based version of Lenia in Python and JAX. Recognizing the importance of scale (number of particles) for simulation dynamics and iteration times for rapid pattern exploration, I ported th

Right Before Prime Day, Amazon Is Clearing Out Its Own Smart Thermostat at a Record Low Price

Prime Day has become Amazon’s biggest event of the year. It’s the time when Amazon clears out inventory across all its in-house brands, from Ring and Blink security devices to Fire tablets, Kindles, and smart thermostats. If you’re looking to upgrade your smart home setup, Prime Day is the moment to get the best prices Amazon has to offer. This year, the Amazon smart thermostat is coming to an all-time low, but keep in mind that this sale is only for Prime members. Don’t worry if you haven’t si

Early look at EU energy labels suggest no IP rating upgrade for Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7

Evan Blass TL;DR Leaked EU energy labels have revealed key specs for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Flip 7, and Flip 7 FE. The labels highlight each device’s IP rating, battery capacity, and battery endurance. The devices’ repairability and free-fall reliability ratings are also included. Samsung is having a tough time keeping a lid on its upcoming foldables. In just the past few days, a flood of leaks has revealed key details about the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Flip 7, and Flip 7 FE, from their design to thei

The Download: AI agents hype, and Google’s electricity plans

—Yoav Shoham is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and cofounder of AI21 Labs. At Google’s I/O 2025 event in May, the company showed off a digital assistant that didn’t just answer questions; it helped work on a bicycle repair by finding a matching user manual, locating a YouTube tutorial, and even calling a local store to ask about a part, all with minimal human nudging. Such capabilities could soon extend far outside the Google ecosystem. The vision is exciting: Intelligent softwa

Tesla's energy storage business gets sucked into the company's downward spiral

Even Tesla’s energy storage business, which has been a small, yet notable bright spot, can’t escape the cloud that’s hanging over the company. For the second consecutive quarter, deployments of its Powerwall and Megapack stationary storage products have declined, according to stats released by Tesla. In the second quarter of this year, the company installed 9.6 gigawatt-hours of storage, down 0.8 gigawatt-hours from the first quarter. Tesla’s energy storage division peaked in the fourth quarte

Tesla’s energy storage business gets sucked into the company’s downward spiral

Even Tesla’s energy storage business, which has been a small, yet notable bright spot, can’t escape the cloud that’s hanging over the company. For the second consecutive quarter, deployments of its Powerwall and Megapack stationary storage products have declined, according to stats released by Tesla. In the second quarter of this year, the company installed 9.6 gigawatt-hours of storage, down 0.8 gigawatt-hours from the first quarter. Tesla’s energy storage division peaked in the fourth quarte

‘Death Wish’ Planet Actively Triggers Destructive Flares From Its Host Star

A young, energetic star has had just about enough of its clingy planet. The pair are mired in a toxic relationship, with the planet sending waves of energy toward the star—and the host star is responding with violent explosions that are destroying its planet over time. Using the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cheops mission, a team of astronomers from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy gathered evidence for the first known exoplanet with an apparent death wish. In a paper published We

Tesla shares drop on Musk, Trump feud ahead of Q2 deliveries

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Tesla shares have dropped 7% from Friday's closing price of $323.63 to the $300.71 close on Tuesday ahead of the company's second-quarter deliveries report. Wall Street analysts are expecting Tesla to report deliveries of around 387,000 — a 13% de

The GOP’s big spending bill could kill renewable energy projects

is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home , a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals. Senate Republicans today passed a sweeping spending bill that narrowly avoided punitive tax measures on renewable energy but still threatens to stall its growth in the US. After wrangling over hundreds of amendments for more than 24 hours in a so-called “vote-a-rama” on Monda

The Hoyle State (2021)

Nuclear physics is complicated compared to atomic physics, because the strong force is complicated compared to the electromagnetic force, and nucleons—protons and neutrons—are bag-like groupings of quarks and gluons held together by the strong force. They resemble elastic bags that attract each other. They jostle each other in the nucleus… governed by the rules of quantum mechanics. To begin to understand such a complex thing as a nucleus, people started with approximate models. In 1930 George

The Senate Just Put Clean Energy for AI in the Crosshairs

After more than a day of continuous debate, the US Senate passed its version of the budget megabill Tuesday afternoon—with potentially disastrous implications for the future of renewable energy in the country. Among a barrage of bad news for climate initiatives, including a new tax credit for coal and the sunsetting of electric vehicle tax credits, the bill forces an aggressive cutoff for tax credits for wind and solar. The bill ends credits for projects placed in service—a term meaning, essent

GOP budget bill poised to crush renewable energy in the US

Far from the front lines of the climate crisis, 100 men and women in air-conditioned offices, 61 of them millionaires, are making decisions that could increase United States carbon dioxide emissions, and the warming of the climate they are driving, for decades to come. In the latest political wrangle over energy and climate policy, a group of Republican senators over the weekend added provisions to the U.S. federal budget bill that, as currently written, would end clean energy tax credits at th

Google bets on fusion power as its greenhouse gas emissions grow

is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home , a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals. Google has agreed to purchase electricity from a forthcoming nuclear fusion power plant, the so-called holy grail of clean energy that scientists have been chasing for more than half a century. While the fusion industry reached a significant milestone a few years ago, the tec

This data center in Nevada runs on solar power and reused EV batteries in groundbreaking project

Forward-looking: Growing demand for AI-driven data centers is straining the energy grid. Repurposed electric vehicle batteries offer a promising solution, storing renewable energy more efficiently while reducing waste. This emerging technology could reshape how we power the digital age. Redwood Energy, a Redwood Materials venture, aims to change how people use lithium-ion batteries. Instead of sending batteries from electric vehicles straight to recycling, the company gives them a second life,

Scientists Intrigued to Discover That Human Brains Are Glowing Faintly

Image by Getty / Futurim Developments Scientists have some exciting news: your brain is likely glowing, whether you can see it or not. The news comes from researchers at Algoma University in Ontario, who found evidence that the human brain, of all things, possesses luminescent properties. Essentially, they found that as the brain metabolizes energy, it releases super-faint traces of visible light. Called ultra-weak photon emissions (UPEs), the flashes of light are emitted when electrons break

Spark AI (YC W24) is hiring a full-stack engineer in SF (founding team)

About Us ⚡️ Join us to accelerate the energy transition with technology. At Spark, we’re building the AI engine behind the next generation of renewable energy infrastructure. Our mission is simple yet ambitious: To help renewable energy developers build solar farms, battery storage plants, and related projects more efficiently. If you’re excited to see your products directly accelerate the energy transition, read on. We’re already powering decision-making for industry leaders like Colliers En

Google’s carbon emissions just went up again

Google’s carbon emissions jumped yet again as the company continues to push ahead in AI. The company’s 2025 sustainability report emphasizes that its “ambition-based emissions” grew 11 percent last year to reach 11.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution, marking a 51 percent increase compared to 2019. That puts Google farther away from its goal of slashing planet-heating pollution in half by 2030 compared to a 2019 baseline. But what it calls “ambition-based” emissions excludes certa

This battery recycling company is now cleaning up AI data centers

The event marked the launch of the company's new business line, Redwood Energy, which will repurpose (rather than recycle) batteries with years of remaining life to create renewable-powered microgrids. Such small-scale energy systems can operate on or off the larger electricity grid, providing electricity for businesses or communities. Redwood Materials says many of the batteries it takes in for processing retain more than half their capacity. “We can extract a lot more value from that materia

Redwood Materials is giving old EV batteries a second life as microgrids

is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Redwood Materials is repurposing old EV batteries into energy storage systems that cost “substantially less” than brand new storage projects, the company said Thursday. The electric vehicle battery recycling and manufacturing venture, which was founded by Tesla’s former chief technologist, has created a new division called

New research links caffeine to slower aging at the cellular level

High on Caffeine: Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world, and it's found almost everywhere. People consume it through coffee, tea, soft drinks, energy drinks, and more. According to new research, caffeine may do more than just help you stay awake after a long night – it could have other surprising benefits as well. A recently published study confirms what caffeine enthusiasts have suspected all along: the naturally occurring stimulant is not only great for waki

IBM's Dmitry Krotov wants to crack the 'physics' of memory

Dmitry “Dima” Krotov was among the first to congratulate AI pioneer, John Hopfield, on his Nobel Prize in Physics last fall. “John, wow!” he texted Hopfield on the morning the award became public. “Just WOW!!” As Hopfield’s close collaborator, Krotov has helped explain to the world following the announcement how Hopfield’s single-layer digital neural network led to the “deep” networks in use today. At Princeton, the two researchers invented something called dense associative memory, which lifte

Heat Domes and Surging Grid Demand Threaten US Power Grids with Blackouts

Key takeaways: The National Weather Service issues an extreme heat warning affecting almost 150 million people across the US. Heat domes are to blame. Parts of the US -- including the Midwest, New England and Texas-Louisiana -- face blackout risks during high-demand periods like summer heat waves. Electricity demand is a primary challenge across the US due to factors like new data centers, electrification and industrial activity. Regional grid risks vary: The Midwest faces plant retirements,

Good News! Caffeine Might Help Your Cells Live Longer

As if we needed any other reason to drink coffee or tea, new research provides insight into how caffeine supports health and longevity. Researchers in London studying fission yeast—a single-celled organism similar to human cells—have revealed that caffeine impacts aging via an ancient cellular energy system. Their study, published yesterday in the journal Microbial Cell, bolsters previous research suggesting that caffeine reduces the risk of age-related diseases and carries important implicatio

The Debrief: Power and energy

Yet in many ways right now the US seems to be forgetting those lessons. It is moving backward in terms of its clean-­energy strategy, especially when it comes to powering the grid, in ways that will affect the nation for decades to come—even as China and others are surging forward. And that retreat is taking place just as electricity demand and usage are growing again after being flat for nearly two decades. That growth, according to the US Energy Information Administration, is “coming from the

New York’s getting a new nuclear power plant

is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home , a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals. New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans today to develop a new nuclear power plant, the first to be built in the state in decades. It’s the latest signal that nuclear energy could see a comeback in the US thanks to wide-ranging support from some strange bedfellows: the

I changed 5 TV settings to significantly reduce my electric bill (and why they work)

Adam Breeden/ZDNET Did you know that a modern TV uses significantly less energy than a TV that's a decade old? Maybe that shouldn't be a surprise, considering how much more power-efficient today's display panels are. According to Perch Energy, the average power consumption of an old TV runs around $54 per year in energy costs. Because LED-backlit TVs and OLEDs consume less power than traditional LCD screens, newer models cost about $32 annually. Also: How to clear your TV cache (and why you sh

I lowered my electric bill by changing these 5 TV settings - here's how you can, too

Adam Breeden/ZDNET Did you know that a modern TV uses significantly less energy than a TV that's a decade old? Maybe that shouldn't be a surprise, considering how much more power-efficient today's display panels are. According to Perch Energy, the average power consumption of an old TV runs around $54 per year in energy costs. Because LED-backlit TVs and OLEDs consume less power than traditional LCD screens, newer models cost about $32 annually. Also: How to clear your TV cache (and why you sh

Long-Dead NASA Satellite Suddenly Lets Out Epic Blast of Energy

NASA's experimental Relay 2 satellite had been dead in the sky since 1967 — until last summer, when it emitted a super-short and very powerful burst of energy out of nowhere. In an interview with New Scientist, one of the researchers from Australia's Curtin University who discovered the strange pulse coming off the dead communications satellite described his shock at finding the nearby source of that nanosecond-long energy blast. Curtin astronomer Clancy James and his team had been using the A

Heat Got You Dragging? These Simple Tricks Fight Fatigue Fast

If you've ever felt totally drained on a hot summer day, even without doing much, you're not imagining it. High temperatures can wear your body down fast, causing heat fatigue that leaves you sluggish, sweaty and struggling to focus. It's more than just discomfort -- it's your body trying to keep up with rising internal temperatures. The good news is there are simple, science-backed ways to fight back. From staying properly hydrated to making small adjustments to your daily routine, you can red