We Are Awake

Diamonds are worthless in every way.

As the race to adapt to climate change quickens, a South African scientist is leading global research into developing crops that mimic the extraordinary survival skills of “resurrection plants.” Jill Farrant, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of Cape Town, hopes that unlocking the genetic codes of drought-tolerant plants could help farmers toiling in increasingly hot and dry conditions. With more than 130 known varieties in the world, resurrection plants are a unique group of flora that can survive extreme water shortages for years. During a drought, the plant acts like a seed, becoming so dry it appears dead. But when the skies finally open and the rain pours down, the shriveled plant bursts “back to life”,  turning green and robust in just a few hours. “I want to cater to the subsistence farmer, the person who wants to make enough food to live,” Farrant, 55, said. “Farmers are becoming more and more dispirited, and droughts are killing them

Credit: University of Bristol  In the United Kingdom, a tiny little robot has a big hunger for polluted waterways. The Row-Bot, designed by researchers at the University of Bristol, swims for days — even months — skimming the water for gunk, sucking it up and digesting it and then converting it into electricity to refuel its mission. It feeds on microbes and turns them into energy thanks to its microbial fuel cell stomach. The fuel cell powers a motor, which controls the robot’s propulsion and paddles. Researchers got their inspiration from an insect called Corixidae, also known as the water boatman bug. The Row-Bot can thrive in all kinds of water, such as fresh water, seawater and waste water. The swimming robot was presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Hamburg, Germany last month. The researchers’ paper, “ Row-bot: An Energetically Autonomous Artificial Water Boatman ,” details the inner workings of the robot. The

Inspired by real and immediate problems in remote areas of the country, researchers at Peru’s Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) have developed a remarkable piece of technology — a low-cost LED lamp that uses plants and soil as its batteries. The delightfully named Plantalámpara — or “plant lamp” — technically draws its power from microorganisms in the soil that are released by plants as they grow. By way of an energy producing mesh buried beneath the surface, the system can generate enough power to supply two hours of light per day, per lamp. “We put the plant and soil into a wooden plant pot together with a previously established and properly protected irrigation system,” says Elmer Ramirez, professor of Energy and Power Engineering, on UTEC’s   project page . “Then inside the pot we place the energy generation system that we created which stores soil and electrodes capable of converting plant nutrients into electric energy.” The plant lamp system was desi

Developing nations could suffer economic losses of $1.7 trillion per year by 2050 unless a new U.N. deal paves the way for stronger action to curb global warming and more aid for coping with climate change impacts, anti-poverty charity Oxfam said. Talks involving 195 nations in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 are likely to reach an agreement to tackle climate change, amid impressive growth in renewable energy and strengthened political will, the international development agency said on Wednesday. But "Paris is not being hailed as the silver bullet that will save the climate," Oxfam warned in a report on the upcoming negotiations. National plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, put forward this year by over 170 countries as the basis for a new deal, will result in global temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius or more above pre-industrial times, Oxfam said. That would be higher than a 2-degree ceiling governments already endorsed in 2010. "We

PARIS: "Copenhagen". The mere mention of the Danish capital's name can send a chill down the spine of even the toughest climate negotiator.  It was there in December 2009 that high hopes for a legal pact to curb climate-harming greenhouse gases came crashing down as diplomacy foundered in extra time. Now, six years later, 195 nations will try again, this time in Paris.  Much has changed in the climate arena since 2009, and observers say there is reason to be hopeful that negotiators may finally  seal  some sort of deal.  "The world has learned some valuable lessons from the experience in Copenhagen," former US vice president turned climate activist  Al Gore  told AFP.  A key difference is that heads of state and government, who swooped in at the end of the 2009 summit, have been invited to attend only the first day in Paris.  When leaders failed to reach consensus six years ago, a handful among them -- representing key players such as the Unit

After decades of theorizing and searching, scientists are reporting that they’ve finally found a massive reservoir of water in the Earth’s mantle — a reservoir so vast that could fill the Earth’s oceans three times over. This discovery suggests that Earth’s surface water actually came from within, as part of a “whole-Earth water cycle,” rather than the prevailing theory of icy comets striking Earth billions of years ago. As always, the more we understand about how the Earth formed, and how its multitude of interior layers continue to function, the more accurately we can predict the future. Weather, sea levels, climate change — these are all closely linked to the tectonic activity that endlessly churns away beneath our feet. This new study, authored by a range of geophysicists and scientists from across the US, leverages data from the USArray — an array of hundreds of seismographs located throughout the US that are constantly listening to movements in the Earth’s mantle an

The man who created the 5-hour Energy drink says he has more money than he needs—about $4 billion more. So he’s giving it away, spending his fortune on a quest to fix the world's biggest problems, including energy.  Manoj Bhargava has built a stationary bike to power the millions of homes worldwide that have little or zero electricity. Early next year in India, he plans to distribute 10,000 of his Free Electric battery-equipped bikes, which he says will keep lights and basic appliances going for an entire day with one hour of pedaling. Bhargava, who dropped out of Princeton University after a year because he was bored and then lived in ashrams in his native India for 12 years, doesn’t stop at bikes. He’s working on ways to make saltwater drinkable, enhance circulation in the body, and secure limitless amounts of clean geothermal energy—via a graphene cord. “If you have wealth, it’s a duty to help those who don’t,” says Michigan resident Bhargava, 62, in a   documenta

In 1992, a young CEO named Kurt Herwald apparently gave away half a million dollars of his company’s money. His company, Stevens Aviation, had been   advertising   with the slogan “Plane Smart.” Unaware that Stevens had a copyright on the slogan, Southwest Airlines launched an advertising campaign with the tag line “Just Plane Smart.” At the time,   notes Harvard professor Robert Bordone (link is external) , neither company was particularly large or well-known. A lawsuit would cost Southwest half a million dollars, and Southwest’s campaign wasn’t really hurting Stevens. Whereas Southwest was targeting consumers, Stevens specialized in business-to-business market in aviation sales and maintenance. Herwald ended up handing the slogan over to Southwest, asking for nothing in return. Was this a   wise   decision? Most people say no; a smart person wouldn’t give the slogan away. After all, smart people are shrewd, calculating, and logical—not helpful, caring, and compassionate. To