“Microsoft has joined forces with LF Energy, a Linux Foundation nonprofit working to accelerate the energy transition of the world’s grids and transportation systems through open source,” reports ZDNet:
Microsoft has become a strategic member of the fo…
Scientists Find Hormone That Allows Seeds To Germinate In Low Water Conditions
Slashdot reader StellarThoughts shares an announcement from the University of California, Riverside. (Alternate URL):
Plants have the ability to perceive drought. When they do, they emit a hormone that helps them hold on to water. This same hormone, AB…
6,000 Evacuated After Volcanic Lava Flow Spreads on Spanish Island
On Monday RockDoctor (Slashdot reader #15,477) wrote: Regular readers may remember recurring concerns over the instability of the island of La Palma, in the Canaries archipelago [population: 85,000]. Estimates of the threat ranged from 100 megadeaths (…
Samoa Scraps Daylight Saving Time
Samoa is joining Japan, India, and China in scrapping daylight saving time, which was first proposed in 1895 so entomologist and astronomer George Hudson could study insects at night. “Hudson is dead, so daylight saving is no longer necessary,” writes …
Spain To Ban Sale of Fruit and Vegetables in Plastic Wrapping From 2023
The sale of fruit and vegetables in plastic wrapping will be prohibited in Spain’s supermarkets and grocery stores starting in 2023. From a report: This is one of the measures in a decree being drafted by the Ministry for Ecological Transition, accordi…
A Warning Sign of a Mass Extinction Event Is On the Rise, Scientists Say
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Vice: If you live near a freshwater river or lake, odds are good that you have seen warning signs about harmful algal and bacterial blooms posted on its shores. Alarmingly, a new study reports that these blooms …
Endangered African Penguins, With Multiple Bee Stings, Are Found Dead
More than 60 endangered African penguins were recently found dead, all with multiple bee stings and no other external injuries, according to officials in a coastal city in South Africa where the birds regularly migrate. From a report: Sixty-three dead …
Can the Computer Chip Industry Reduce Its Carbon Footprint?
“Last week Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chipmaker, which supplies chips to Apple, pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2050,” reports the Guardian.
“But decarbonizing the industry will be a big challenge.”
TSMC al…
World’s Whitest Paint Sets Guinness Record, Could Reduce Need For Air Conditioning
“The whitest paint in the world has been created in a lab at Purdue University,” reports USA Today, “a paint so white that it could eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning, scientists say.
“The paint has now made it into the…
Global Computing’s Carbon Footprint Is Bigger Than Previously Estimated
An anonymous reader quotes a report from UPI: According to a new study, published Friday in the journal Patterns, information and communications technology, or ICT for short, is responsible for a greater share of greenhouse gas emissions than previousl…