Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Wave Power Charges Ahead with Static Electricity Generators

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August 10, 2021

Dear Reader,

The ocean's waves produce enough natural energy to power the entire world, but harvesting this renewable resource has proven difficult. Now a new study has succeeded in a more modest goal—siphoning enough electricity to support the lights and sensors on a navigational buoy—by using static electricity to harness the motion of the ocean. 

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology
@sophiebushwick

Renewable Energy

Wave Power Charges Ahead with Static Electricity Generators

An ocean-powered buoy brings technology closer to the dream of obtaining energy from the sea

By Maddie Bender

Conservation

Indigenous Amazon Communities Fight Deforestation with New Early-Alert Tool

A pilot program reveals that deforestation declined when Peruvian Indigenous communities use an early-alert-system app to detect forest loss

By Annie Sneed

Privacy

What is Pegasus? How Surveillance Spyware Invades Phones

A cybersecurity expert explains the NSO Group's stealthy software

By Bhanukiran Gurijala,The Conversation US

Artificial Intelligence

The Computer Scientist Training AI to Think with Analogies

Melanie Mitchell says digital minds will never truly be like ours until they can make analogies

By John Pavlus,Quanta Magazine

Automobiles

Biden Tightens Vehicle Emissions Standards

A second policy aims to accelerate adoption of electric vehicles

By Arianna Skibell,Adam Aton,E&E News

Weather

5G Wireless Could Interfere with Weather Forecasts

Satellite tracking of water vapor, critical for accurate forecasts, may be foiled by cellphone tower transmissions

By John Fialka,E&E News

Engineering

Entire Buildings Can Be Wrapped in Jackets to Save Energy

Apartment buildings, or blocks of row houses, can be upgraded in one installation

By Willem Marx

Computing

The Question Medical AI Can't Answer

It's unable to tell us why it came to a particular decision—and that's crucial information

By Jason H. Moore

Engineering

Soft Robot Hand Is First to Be Fully 3-D-Printed in a Single Step

Then it played Super Mario Bros.

By Sophie Bushwick
FROM THE STORE

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"By 2020, things had changed. Facebook provided more transparency into political ads, offering a publicly available library of them. But it didn't and still doesn't offer visibility into the crucial ad targeting information that allows advertisers to choose who sees their ads."

Julia Angwin, editor in chief of The Markup via Hello World newsletter

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FROM THE ARCHIVE

Can We Power the World with Waves? [Podcast]

In a new episode of the BBC World Service's podcast "CrowdScience," listener Michael in Kingston, Jamaica, asks the question, "Why can't we use energy from the waves of the sea to create all the electricity we need?"

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