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August 7, 2025—An ancient way to fight extreme heat. Plus, a candidate planet around a nearby star, and China's newest polar research station is green. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | This artist's concept shows what a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A could look like. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC) | | - The James Webb Space Telescope spotted a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A—the closest star system to our own. The exoplanet seems to be a tantalizing gas giant. | 7 min read
- The majority of power at China's newest polar research station comes from solar panels, wind turbines, a hydrogen energy system and lithium-ion batteries. This is how they did it. | 5 min read
- Satellites orbiting Earth create light pollution that interferes with astronomers' observations. Satellite operators and astronomers are starting to talk about how to co-exist. | 5 min read
- Try out our new game: Wordology
| | Cooling facade built from terracotta. Courtesy of CoolAnt | | Companies in India are using a 3,000-year-old innovation to combat extreme heat: terracotta. The clay-based ceramic has a porous surface that allows water to slowly evaporate, carrying heat away and cooling the space around it. Architects in India are using terracotta in passive cooling solutions, which are designs that regulate building temperatures with natural materials, strategic ventilation and well-controlled shading. They're making clay-based refrigerators, perforated tiles, ventilated screens, and facades that allow natural ventilation. Why this matters: Hundreds of millions of people in India face rising temperatures without artificial cooling (like AC or refrigeration). And extreme heat claimed an estimated 700-plus lives in India in 2024, the country's hottest year on record. But terracotta is a low-cost, low-energy solution. The Delhi-based design company Ant Studio used the material as a second skin on concrete buildings and witnessed a temperature drop of six to eight degrees Celsius at more than 30 sites, according to studio founder Monish Siripurapu. What the experts say: Terracotta can complement existing cooling systems and reduce our dependence on the fossil-fuel-powered grid, says Niyati Gupta, a senior program associate at research institute WRI India. "That alone could be a game changer for both the energy and construction sectors." —Andrea Tamayo, newsletter writer | | | | |
Big changes are happening. Semafor Net Zero keeps you in the loop on the latest on forces driving change in the energy corridor. Covered by climate correspondent, Tim Mcdonnell, Net Zero brings you up to speed twice a week on latest news on the business, economics, and finance of the energy transition occurring globally. Subscribe for free. | | | | |
- Chatbots are trained on extraordinary amounts of human data, enabling them to effectively mimic the thought patterns of humans, writes Susan Schneider, the director of the Center for the Future Mind, a center that studies human and machine intelligence. But these emerging capabilities do not mean that AIs are conscious, she says. "We must develop a range of tests to apply to the different cases that will arise, and we must still strive for a better scientific and philosophical understanding of consciousness itself." | 6 min read
| | In 1996, clinical geneticist Carmencita Padilla launched a pilot study that became the Philippines' newborn health-screening program. "After our successful pilot and years of lobbying, government-funded newborn screening became mandated in 2004—making the Philippines one of the first low- and middle-income countries to do so," she says. "Our program has become a model for other countries." Nature | 3 min | | Terracotta often triggers visions of red rooftops perched over the Mediterranean Sea in a village in the south of France or in Spain. But the biggest display of terracotta I've ever seen was in Xi'an China. In 210-209 B.C., China's first Emperor Qin Shi Huang was buried with an army of nearly 8,000 terracotta warriors to accompany him into the afterlife. Each life-size figurine was hand-painted in vibrant colors and outfitted with bronze weaponry and equipment (as were the hundreds of terracotta horses and chariots). Many of the warriors remain buried, while scientists devise a way to excavate them that preserves their vivid colors. If you ever have the opportunity to visit this army, please do. It absolutely took my breath away. | | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor
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