When someone invents a mass desalination plant to turn seawater into normal water without polluting the area, it will be a massive achievement, as only 3% of the water on Earth is fresh.
Solar Water Solutions (SWS), a Finnish water technology company, has come as close as anyone to being able to offer the world essentially unlimited fresh water through its unique, zero-emissions, zero-running cost, and non-polluting desalination technology.
Now it’s being deployed, thanks to backing from the Dutch group Climate Fund Managers, in Kitui County, Kenya as part of a long-term goal to provide water for 400,000 rural Kenyans by 2023.
SWS has packed up their desalination plant into a shipping container, making it easy and efficient to ship 200 units to the shores of Kitui, where the technology will convert between 4,000 and 7,000 liters per hour from seawater, or 10,000 liters per hour from brackish water, powered entire by solar panels.
“Through this partnership with CFM and locally with Kitui County… we can together revolutionize access to safe affordable water in rural Kenya,” said Antti Pohjola, CEO of Solar Water Solutions. “This project marks a breakthrough in solar-powered water infrastructure.”
SWS uses reverse-osmosis a method that while effective, has been shown to be both dangerous to human and natural environments.
One critical review in 2007 detailed that the reverse osmosis membranes are susceptible to fouling and scaling must be cleaned with chemicals that may be toxic to receiving waters. The byproduct is an-often contaminated brine twice as strong as regular seawater that is deadly to plant matter in the area.
SWS have designed their product to require very little maintenance, and a spokesperson from the company said only non-toxic cleaners like citric acid are used on the membranes. Provided the byproduct brine is disposed of properly, no eco-damage should occur through the desalination process.
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Looking to combine their passion for cycling and environmentalism, the always eco-thinking Danes are taking their old wind turbine blades and upcycling them into bike shelters.
90% of the population owns a bike. Furthermore, a third of all Danes ride a bike to work at least one time a week, while a quarter of all trips less than 3.5 miles are by bike. With so many cyclists, bike lockup shelters are a much needed feature of the Danish city and townscape.
Turbine blades must endure serious forces contending with the wind, and the first and second generation turbines featured blades made of advanced composite materials like fiberglass, foams, and resins.
This makes them impossible to recycle, and for some years as early wind turbines are gradually having more and more blades decommissioned, warnings about the impending waste have been growing.
Far from the polluting species we were in the past, methods for recycling the unrecyclable turbine blades are already being hypothesized by scientists and advocates like those at Re-Wind Network—who see the approaching 40 million tons of unrecyclable turbine blades as an opportunity.
This advocacy group has published papers in several journals looking at how the rigid blades can successfully be deployed in a wide variety of construction and infrastructure projects, from the aforementioned bike shelters which they constructed in Aalborg, to structural reinforcement, pedestrian footbridges, and traffic guard rails.
Siemens Gamesa
In one instance, they found a 100-meter wind turbine blade could be used as roofing material for a 40 square-meter home.
In another they found that a C96 wind turbine blade’s resistance to torsion, shear, bend, and other effects from ice, extreme wind, fire, and vehicular collision meet the safety requirements for a powerline support pole.
Siemens Gamesa, a major international supplier of wind turbines, have announced their new blades will be fully recyclable.
“The time to tackle climate emergency is now, and we need to do it in a holistic way. In pioneering wind circularity—where elements contribute to a circular economy of the wind industry—we have reached a major milestone in a society that puts care for the environment at its heart,” states Andreas Nauen, CEO of Siemens Gamesa.
Evidently the need for groups like Re-Wind Network will be limited, but it’s a testament to the growing maturity of society at large that just because something is new and innovative, the impact it has on the environment will surely be measured.
Quote of the Day: “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” – Desmond Tutu (turns 90 today)
Photo: by Priscilla Du Preez
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Nearly a century after their beach resort was wrongfully taken from two Black business owners, Willa and Charles Bruce, the California governor signed legislation that will enable Los Angeles County to return the beachfront property to their descendants.
Governor Gavin Newsom visited the Manhattan Beach property on September 30 to sign the law, championed by Senator Steven Bradford of nearby Gardena, with Bruce family members looking on. The measure, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, authorizes the county to immediately begin the process of transferring parcels of what was known as Bruce’s Beach, to the family’s descendants.
The Bruces purchased the property in 1912 and established a popular resort serving Black residents that was a fixture in the community. The Bruces endured years of racist harassment, however, and Manhattan Beach city officials ultimately seized their property through eminent domain in 1924, saying they needed it for a park.
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to right the historical wrong by moving forward with a land transfer to the Bruce family in motions co-authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn and Supervisor Holly Mitchell.
“As we move to remedy this nearly century-old injustice, I thank the Bruce family, Senator Bradford, the Los Angeles County Supervisors and all those who fought to keep the legacy of this place alive and deliver this long overdue justice,” said Gov. Newsom.
“This bill passed the Legislature unanimously and with overwhelming community support. SB 796 shows us that it is never too late to address the injustices of the past,” said Senator Bradford. “The City of Manhattan Beach, County of Los Angeles, and the State of California owe a debt to the Bruce family.”
Office of Gavin Newsom
“This is a milestone for us,” said Supervisor Hahn. “Returning Bruce’s Beach can and should set a precedent for this nation and I know that all eyes will be on Los Angeles County as this work gets underway.”
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A cinema-goer who suffered a heart attack while watching latest Bond movie was saved by fellow films fans who performed CPR on him. The film’s title? No Time to Die.
81-year-old Malcolm Clarke went into cardiac arrest at the Odeon cinema in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on Saturday during a screening of the new release.
Members of the audience, believed to have included a doctor and a nurse, came to Malcolm’s aid and helped keep him alive as the room was evacuated.
Thankfully, their efforts were successful and paramedics soon arrived and took Malcolm to Northern General Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.
Malcolm’s son-in-law, Andrew Wileman, said, “Four very helpful people in the audience worked on him for about 15 minutes because he had lost consciousness.
“Those four people just disappeared in the aftermath, it was two ladies and two gentlemen.
“They saved his life in the cinema aisle, no doubt about it.
“The consultant at the hospital said the prompt and quick CPR had saved his life in the cinema before the ambulance got there. He would have died, there’s no doubt.”
Malcolm had been revisiting childhood haunts in and around Chesterfield where he grew up as a belated treat for his 80th birthday.
ABB has launched an innovative all-in-one Electric Vehicle charger which provides the fastest charging experience on the world market.
The new Terra 360 is a modular charger which can simultaneously charge up to four vehicles with dynamic power distribution. This means that drivers will not have to wait if somebody else is already charging ahead of them. They simply pull up to another plug.
The new charger has a maximum output of 360 kW and is capable of fully charging any electric car in 15 minutes or less, meeting the needs of a variety of EV users, whether they need a fast charge or to top their battery up while grocery shopping.
“With governments around the world writing public policy that favors electric vehicles and charging networks to combat climate change, the demand for EV charging infrastructure, especially charging stations that are fast, convenient and easy to operate is higher than ever,” said Frank Muehlon, President of ABB’s E-mobility Division. “The Terra 360, with charging options that fit a variety of needs, is the key to fulfilling that demand and accelerating e-mobility adoption globally.”
“It’s an exciting day for ABB, who as the global leader in electric vehicle fast charging, is playing a key role in enabling a low carbon society,” said Theodor Swedjemark, Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer at ABB in a statement. “With road transport accounting for nearly a fifth of global CO2 emissions, e-mobility is critical to achieving the Paris climate goal. We will also lead by example by switching our entire fleet of more than 10,000 vehicles to non-emitting vehicles.”
Available in Europe from the end of 2021, and in the USA, Latin America, and Asia Pacific regions in 2022, Terra 360 is designed with the daily needs and expectations of EV drivers in mind.
Its innovative lighting system guides the user through the charging process and shows the State of Charge (SoC) of the EV battery and the residual time before the end of an optimal charge session. The world’s fastest EV charger is also wheelchair accessible and features an ergonomic cable management system that helps drivers plug in quickly with minimal effort.
As well as serving the needs of private EV drivers at fueling stations, convenience stores, and retail locations, Terra 360 chargers can also be installed on an organization’s commercial premises to charge electric fleet cars, vans, and trucks.
This gives owners the flexibility to charge up to four vehicles overnight or to give a quick refill to their EVs in the day. Because Terra 360 chargers have a small footprint, they can be installed in small depots or parking lots where space is at a premium.
Terra 360 chargers are fully customizable. To personalize the appearance, customers can ‘brand’ the chargers by using different foiling or changing the color of the LED light strips. There is also the option to include an integrated 27” advertisement screen to play video and pictures.
A UK-French startup just announced a $17 million funding round to make a variety of products that will allow large producers to cut out their share of microplastic pollution.
With biodegradable microplastic capsules for products like laundry detergent and agriculture chemicals, and special lubricants that prevent plastics from breaking down into microplastics, the firm could save companies and consumers tens of millions in work-around costs and higher prices in the face of an upcoming European Union ban on microplastics in 2022.
Calyxia was started in part by the son of a second generation UK coal miner, Jamie Walters. Seeing the coal mine close down, while good for the physical health of the community and the planet, involved Walters seeing a lot of economic suffering.
“So living that experience, I’ve always wanted to rebuild industries because I believe they can rebuild communities that are safe, that are sustainable and could advance society, and that are also economically viable,” Walters told Fast Company.
Some examples of industries Walters hopes to reform are the microplastic capsules used in laundry detergent to deliver the fragrance into your clothes.
These capsules run down through water treatment plants and into aquatic ecosystems.
Agricultural herbicide products sometimes also come in these capsules.
They release the product slowly, necessitating for less overall herbicide use, but the small microplastics fall down and end up contaminating the soil.
Calyxia offers biodegradable microplastic capsules for products such as these that essentially degrade into air.
Another product is a lubricant that can be used to coat the most common form of plastic, polyethylene plastic sheeting used to press-wrap products.
The lubricant stops the plastic breaking apart in the environment, preventing it from releasing toxic microplastics that have contaminated essentially the entire planet.
Currently poised to produce hundreds of tons of their products, they hope to begin work soon with large companies before the microplastic ban in 2022. After which they plan to scale up to thousands of tons of production.
Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communication Technology
When 715 million metric tons of carbon dioxide was coughed up into the atmosphere from the massive 2019-20 wildfires in Australia, scientists feared global warming had just been given a steroid shot.
New research, however, reminds us of just how cyclical everything on our Earth is, by demonstrating that algal blooms in the ocean, feasting in floating deposits of iron-rich ash which rained down from the sky as a result of the fires, have absorbed 80% of all the CO2 which was emitted.
Iron promotes the growth of microscopic marine life called phytoplankton, which use photosynthesis to produce energy just like plants. One of these massive colonies, known as “blooms,” appeared off the coast of South Australia, and another, as wide as Australia itself, further out in the Pacific Ocean towards Chile, where they remained for about three months.
The data on their life cycle was gathered through satellites, and allowed Dr. Richard Matear and colleagues to compute how much CO2 they absorbed before disappearing. A large portion of the 80% of the wildfires emissions taken in by the phytoplankton would have been deposited in the ocean floor.
“It shows a very nice connection between the land and the ocean and how the system tries to balance things out,” Matear told New Scientist.
Since they sit on the very bottom of the marine food web, the phytoplankton could have led to increases in the populations of other sea creatures, but that hasn’t been studied yet.
Because the scorched ground provides ideal conditions for future plant regrowth, most scientists will say a wildfire under normal conditions is carbon neutral, as the emissions are recaptured through the regrowing plants.
However when fires are larger than ever, droughts last longer, and temperatures are hotter, it’s not clear anymore that plant regrowth can last long enough, or return densely enough to recapture what was lost in the blaze.
Quote of the Day: “Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.” – Cynthia Kersey
Photo: by Evan Fitzer
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Las Vegas, long known as a city of High Rollers, has held the distinction of being home to the world’s largest Ferris Wheel (aptly named—what else?—The High Roller) since 2014.
But with Dubai’s luxury Ain Dubai (translated from Arabic as Dubai Eye) Ferris Wheel set for its grand opening this month, the American Casino Capital’s title has just been eclipsed.
Standing a massive 820 feet high, Ain Dubai can accommodate up to 1,750 passengers in its 48 bespoke air-conditioned cabins. For the ultimate in socially distanced dining, those interested can indulge in a VIP option that includes catered meal service and private bartenders to mix up their designer cocktails of choice for the 38-minute scenic circular sojourn.
The Ferris Wheel has certainly evolved since George Washington Gale Ferris Jr’s original contraption with its gravity-oriented gondolas made its debut at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition in 1893.
Ain Dubai’s ticket prices start at $35 for a basic big-thrills, no-frills ride. However, in addition to the VIP upgrade, the private cabins can also be booked for corporate events, weddings, birthdays, and intimate celebrations.
Ain Dubai Ferris Wheel
So, if declaring your undying love in concert with commanding views of the sunset as you and your honey soar above the hubbub sounds like the perfect venue for a romantic proposal (as long as neither of you is afraid of heights), this eye in the sky might just be the “wheel deal.”
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A new five-part television series led by Prince William is being launched globally: Featuring Sir David Attenborough, Shakira, and other big names in conservation, you’ll want to add The Earthshot Prize: Repairing our Planet to your schedules.
Each episode of the five-part series highlights one of the Prize’s five “Earthshots”— showcasing the urgent challenges we face and profiling the inspiring people around the world who are already finding incredible solutions—including those of the first-ever Finalists of grand prize.
These remarkable Finalists and their ground-breaking solutions to our greatest environmental challenges are explored—highlighting some of the most extraordinary practical projects that can be rolled out across the world.
Already launched on discovery+ and premiering on 16th October on Discovery in U.S with a global rollout to follow, the series will also air on BBC One in the UK with all 5 episodes available to view on BBC iPlayer.
Filming has been taking place in more than 70 locations, telling stories from locations including the Kenyan savannah, Brazilian rainforest, Australian outback, and downtown Tokyo.
Each Earthshot is underpinned by scientifically agreed targets including the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other internationally recognized measures to help repair our planet.
Together, they form a unique set of challenges rooted in science, which aim to generate new ways of thinking, as well as new technologies, systems, policies, and solutions.
Some of the contenders featured include Coral Vita, Bahamas: A truly cutting-edge breakthrough in coral farming that can restore our world’s dying coral reefs; AEM Electrolyser, Thailand: An ingenious green hydrogen technology developed to transform how we power our homes and buildings; and more.
According to a statement, the series has been developed and produced by Colin Butfield and Jonnie Hughes at Silverback Films; the creative heads behind the phenomenally successful documentary David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet and long-time advisors to The Earthshot Prize.
Seeking to combine his love of numbers and data with music and emotion, a Belgian mathematician has created an electronic music album derived from data gathered from black holes.
By translating data from simulations of black hole mergers, gravitational waves, neutron stars, elementary particle behavior near black holes and white dwarfs into sounds, Valery Vermeulen created music, and even got himself signed to a record deal with Ash International.
Valery worked with the cosmologist Dr. Thomas Hertog, a former colleague and long-time collaborator of Stephen Hawking, to collect gravitational wave data for the project, entitled Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001.
A lot of the data Vermeulen gathered came from the Voyager Satellite, which is currently sitting around 14 billion miles from Earth, and captures primarily electromagnetic radiation given off by various galactic objects.
It then uses “data sonification” to transform the radiation readings into sound.
Vermeulen then blends that data sonification with other data sources which he reinterprets himself using electronic music software like Max MSP to create tracks.
The music itself is dark and representational, and is exactly what one might expect a black hole to sound like. But before you stop and think, General Relativity clarifies for us that we would not be able to detect sound near, far away, or from within a black hole with our ears, even if our bodies weren’t unmade in the process.
What’s striking about the results of Vermeulen and Voyager’s work is that every sound one hears is not the demented flight of fancy of a far-out electronic music producer, but an auditory representation of an important piece of observed real-world data, meaning that there’s no fluff and no unnecessary details.
Back in August, it was reported that a simple pill taken at the onset of symptoms for COVID-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 50%.
Now 1.7 million doses of that drug, an antiviral agent called Molnupiravir produced by Merck, have been secured for use in the U.S. and represents the first orally-ingested treatment for the virus.
The pill acts like a saboteur, incorporating RNA-like building blocks into the fabric of the virus. If they are reproduced, these defunct RNA-imposters ruin vital processes in the SARS-CoV-2 ability to replicate, and the virus dies.
“When the viral RNA then gets replicated to produce new viruses, it contains numerous errors, so-called mutations. As a result, the pathogen can no longer reproduce,” said Florian Kabinger, a co-author of the study that discovered the effectiveness in August.
Antiviral drugs are common, and prescribed for things like the common cold, and even HIV. One called Remdesivir has already been shown to prevent serious symptom onset by 85%, but most be administered through IV in a medical setting.
Molnupiravir was also effective in other COVID-19 variants, including Delta and Mu, and was so effective overall, the company halted further planned trials to submit an emergency use application to the FDA.
National Geographic points out that it’s not clear who would be available or cleared to take the drug, as the U.S. government paid $700 per dose for it, but having an option for those who are elderly, or with underlying condition to take at home could in some cases solve both the problem of the risk of death—and the risk of hospital overflows should further variants arise.
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Dog owners might tell you their dog understands them better than most people. What they don’t know is the dog understands them probably better than even they realize.
Researchers studying canine-human connections have found dogs can “catch” human emotions, and like children, dogs often look into their owners’ faces for clues about how to react to people and the world around them; a primitive form of empathy known as emotional contagion.
They also experience the release of oxytocin, one of the feel-good hormones typical of human bonding.
For years it was assumed these developed as an evolutionary necessity, as disagreeable dogs from the time of their genesis from wolves would be selected against by their new masters. But the reality is much more heart-warming than our furry friends’ bowing to the whims of simple biological imperatives.
Many factors influence the connection between a dog and their owner, such as the neuronal activity in the pooch’s brain, and even changes in human body odor. In a study published this year, it was found that pet dogs and pack-living dogs and wolves had physiological differences when interacting with a closely-bonded human.
The pets released oxytocin, while the pack-living dogs and pack-living wolves did not, even though it was clear they preferred to be with their bonded human, which the researchers suggest means that it’s life experience, not breed, that causes this special connection.
Furthermore, some dogs share not only our joy but our fear as well. Looking at concentrations of cortisol, the stress hormone, another group of researchers found that compared with solitary hunting and ancient, wolf-like breeds, herding dogs’ cortisol concentrations were correlated with those of their owner.
It’s also been observed that dogs react the same way we do when encountering a crying infant: with a mix of submissiveness and alertness, and one study even demonstrated that dogs can synchronize their behavior on the basis of a whopping six human faces: anger, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and disgust.
An article in National Geographic details how it could very well swing both ways, as even though dogs’ emotional capacities aren’t as complex as ours, their rawness in theory could rub off on us.
“I do think we pick up their emotions, too,” Marc Bekoff, an evolutionary biologist at Univ. of Colorado, told Nat Geo. “Sometimes it’s easier to pick up their fear and stress. However, happy dogs are also easy to read if they run up to you with their tails wagging and their ears are forward, not tucked back.”
Cascading effects of joy and stress are plain to see in the world of dog owners. If a dog lunges or growls at something, it can stress or embarrass the owner—signals the dog picks up on, accentuating the stressful encounter.
On the other side of the spectrum, dear friends greeted at the door with kind words can excite a dog, leaping up on the guests’ legs despite being trained not to.
Sharing a life and home with dogs for tens of thousands of years has created an intimate connection between our species; an interdependency that has allowed both of us to flourish far more than we could alone.
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Quote of the Day: “Blissipline is the commitment to experiencing a little or a lot of bliss every day; the practice of expanding one’s capacity for bliss and being open to receive it in any moment.” – Rana Satori Stewart
Photo: by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova
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Previous studies have shown that children with attention difficulties, including ADHD, solve cognitive tasks better when they are exposed to auditory white noise. However, this is the first time that such a link has been demonstrated between visual white noise and cognitive abilities such as memory, reading, and non-word decoding in children with reading and writing difficulties.
“The white noise to which we exposed the children, also called visual pixel noise, can be compared with giving children glasses. The effect on reading and memory was immediate,” explains Göran Söderlund, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Gothenburg and Professor of Special Education at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
The study was conducted on around 80 students in the Småland region of southern Sweden. The children who took part were selected following a word recognition test and were split into three groups: good readers, children with some reading difficulties, and children with major reading difficulties (i.e. having phonological impairments).
In the study, the children were asked to read 12 words while being exposed to four different levels of visual white noise, from zero to high. The test involved assessing how many of the words the children could read correctly and how many words they were able to recall afterwards.
The results showed that the group with major reading difficulties, particularly phonological difficulties, performed significantly better when exposed to visual pixel noise. They read more words correctly and also recalled more words in the moderate noise conditions. The white noise had no effect or negative effects on the good readers and those with only minor reading problems.
“This is the first evidence of visual white noise having effects on higher-level cognition, in this case both reading and memory,” says Göran Söderlund.
Right amount of white noise key
The children in the study, published in the scientific journal Brain and Behavior, were exposed to different levels of white noise, with the results showing that the amount of noise is critical for reading and memory.
“You can compare it with being shortsighted and needing glasses. We saw that when we exposed the children to a medium level of white noise, their reading improved. However, their reading skills were less good when there was no noise or a high level of noise,” adds Göran.
“These results show that children with reading and writing difficulties can be helped with an incredibly simple intervention. By adjusting screens in school or at home, we hope to be able to resolve their problems at a stroke. This is the first study of its kind, and replications are needed.”
Göran Söderlund now wants to further investigate the effects of white noise. He hopes that new studies can answer the question of whether practising with white noise for a prolonged period can lead to lasting improvements.
“It’s worth exploring, as we just don’t know. This first study of ours is basic research. But our results show that the children improved immediately, so it’s important to continue with new studies to establish whether this simple measure, which everyone can do on their own laptop, will actually provide enduring help for these children.”
Ford just announced it is spending $11.4 billion to build two new factories in Tennessee and Kentucky to manufacture batteries and its electric F-series pickup trucks.
Together, they’ll create over 11,000 jobs, and the Tennessee factory will be Ford’s largest ever—and its first new American vehicle-assembly plant in decades.
“This is a transformative moment where Ford will lead America’s transition to electric vehicles and usher in a new era of clean, carbon-neutral manufacturing,” said Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford. “With this investment and a spirit of innovation, we can achieve goals once thought mutually exclusive—protect our planet, build great electric vehicles Americans will love, and contribute to our nation’s prosperity.”
This news comes amid strong demand for the all-new Ford F-150 Lightning truck, E-Transit, and Mustang Mach-E electric vehicles, and is on top of Ford’s recent announcement to expand production capacity and add jobs at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan.
“This is our moment—our biggest investment ever—to help build a better future for America,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO. “We are moving now to deliver breakthrough electric vehicles for the many rather than the few. It’s about creating good jobs that support American families, an ultra-efficient, carbon-neutral manufacturing system, and a growing business that delivers value for communities, dealers and shareholders.”
Ford’s $7 billion investment is the largest ever manufacturing investment at one time by any automotive manufacturer in the U.S.
Part of Ford’s more-than-$30 billion investment in electric vehicles through 2025, this investment supports the company’s longer-term goal to create a sustainable American manufacturing ecosystem, and to accelerate its progress towards achieving carbon neutrality, backed by science-based targets in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. Overall, Ford expects 40% to 50% of its global vehicle volume to be fully electric by 2030.
“We are proud to be partnering with Ford as they open a new chapter in automobile history,” said Dongseob Jee, president of battery business SK Innovation. “We are excited to be taking this decisive leap together, as partners, and to bring about our common vision for a cleaner planet. Our joint venture, BlueOvalSK, will embody this spirit of collaboration. We look forward to growing our trust-based partnership by delivering on our market-leading value proposition, experience and cutting-edge expertise.”
All-new Ford Blue Oval City
Reimagining how electric vehicles—and the batteries that power them—are designed, manufactured, and recycled, Ford is creating an all-new electric vehicle manufacturing ecosystem.
Blue Oval City will be among the largest auto manufacturing campuses in U.S. history. Like the iconic Rouge complex in Michigan did a century earlier, Blue Oval City will usher in a new era for American manufacturing.
The 3,600-acre campus covering nearly six square miles will encompass vehicle assembly, battery production. and a supplier park in a vertically integrated system that delivers cost efficiency while minimizing the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process. The assembly plant will use always-on cloud-connected technologies to drive vast improvements in quality and productivity. The mega campus is designed to add more sustainability solutions, including the potential to use local renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar, and wind power.
“West Tennessee is primed to deliver the workforce and quality of life needed to create the next great American success story with Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation,” said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. “This is a watershed moment for Tennesseans as we lead the future of the automotive industry and advanced manufacturing.”
Creating approximately 6,000 jobs, Blue Oval City will be a hive of technical innovation to build next-generation electric F-Series trucks. This growth opportunity will allow Ford to reach new customers with an expanded electric truck lineup.
Despite its size, the assembly plant at Blue Oval City is designed to have as minimal an impact as possible on the surrounding environment—and even to generate positive impacts. The assembly plant’s goal is to have a regenerative impact on the local environment through biomimicry in design of the facility.
From the start of production in 2025, Ford’s goal is for the assembly plant to be carbon neutral.
Through an on-site wastewater treatment plant, the assembly plant aspires to make zero freshwater withdrawals for assembly processes by incorporating water reuse and recycling systems. Zero-waste-to-landfill processes will capture materials and production scrap at an on-site materials collection center to sort and route materials for recycling or processing either at the plant or at off-site facilities once the plant is operational.
Ford is collaborating with Redwood Materials, a leading battery materials company, to make electric vehicles more sustainable and affordable for Americans by localizing the supply chain network, creating recycling options for scrap and end-of-life vehicles, and ramping up lithium-ion recycling.
BlueOvalSK Battery Park
Joining the Ford electric manufacturing revolution is a planned $5.8 billion, 1,500-acre BlueOvalSK battery manufacturing campus in Glendale, Kentucky, which is targeted to open in 2025.
Twin co-located plants will be capable of producing up to 43 gigawatt hours each for a total of 86 gigawatt hours annually. Together, these American-made batteries will power next-generation electric Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
Bringing 5,000 new jobs to Kentucky, BlueOvalSK Battery Park will be centrally located to support Ford’s North American assembly plants’ footprint.
“We thank Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation for their investment in Team Kentucky,” said Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. “This is the single largest investment in the history of our state and this project solidifies our leadership role in the future of the automotive manufacturing industry. It will transform our economy, creating a better Kentucky, with more opportunities, for our families for generations. Our time is now. Our future is now.”
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The dramatic footage shows the heroic rescue and reunion of ‘Dewey’ the dog trapped at the bottom of a 30-foot-deep cave—for over two weeks.
Elizabeth Acosta filmed the operation as rescuers climbed into the huge cave to save the emaciated pup.
The rescue team, led by experienced caver Tray Heinke, were actually trying to locate the perfect spot for a member of the group to propose to his partner when they spotted the pup.
Sharp-eyed hero Josiah Meert saw movement at the bottom of the 30-foot-deep pit at Dewey Hickman Nature Reserve, Indiana, and realized it was a dog. The group put aside their plans and raced off to grab ropes, helmets, and harnesses and, with teamwork and determination, ‘Dewey’ was freed in only 30 minutes.
Tray said, “We spotted his collar about 15 feet down surrounded by claw marks. He then withstood another 15-foot drop to the floor of the pit. He’d lost about 86lbs.”
“We firmly believe that had he been in the pit only a few more days, he’d be gone. Everything depended on the outcome of the rescue so once he was safe and given a bite to eat, Sean popped the question… and she said yes!
“You could hear the cheers a mile away.” Tray Heinke’s reunion footage shows the incredible moment the pup was reunited with his relieved owners.
‘Dewey’, initially nicknamed after where he was found, excitedly runs over to his family who are delighted to be back with their loving pet, actually named Hawkeye.
His owners confirmed that he was lost just over two weeks before his rescue. Tray added, “Getting Hawkeye out of the cave was huge but finding his owner and reuniting them so quickly was the icing on the cake. “
The power of social media! We didn’t expect a quick reunion. However within two days of finding him, we’d connected with his owners and made arrangements to meet! “
I think this nightmare could have been avoided had Hawkeye been neutered. He blindly followed a female scent into the wilderness, animal instincts aren’t always the best!
“The quick rescue and reunion were also very lucky, so it’s best to leave situations like this to experienced professionals. If one of us had fallen in too, we’d have really been screwed. “We’re all very proud to be a part of this story, the world could use some good news right now.”
That’s certainly true.
(WATCH the rescue video below.)
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An artist's impression of the gas and dust in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star. The inset shows the molecular gas targeted by the MAPS observations, made up of a ‘soup' of both simple and complex molecules in the vicinity of still-forming planets. Credit: M.Weiss/Center for Astrophysics/Harvard & Smithsonian.
Artist’s impression of the gas and dust in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star. The inset shows the molecular gas targeted by the MAPS observations, made up of a ‘soup’ of both simple and complex molecules in the vicinity of still-forming planets; M.Weiss/Center for Astrophysics/Harvard & Smithsonian
Analysis of unique “fingerprints” in light emitted from material surrounding young stars has revealed “significant reservoirs” of large organic molecules necessary to form the basis of life.
Dr John Ilee, Research Fellow at the University of Leeds who led the study, says the findings suggest that the basic chemical conditions that resulted in life on Earth could exist more widely across the Galaxy.
The large organic molecules were identified in protoplanetary disks circling newly formed stars.
A similar disk would have once surrounded the young Sun, forming the planets that now make up our Solar System.
The presence of the molecules is significant because they are “stepping-stones” between simpler carbon-based molecules such as carbon monoxide, found in abundance in space, and more complex molecules that are required to create and sustain life.
Dr Ilee and his team, comprising astrophysicists from 16 universities across the world, focused on studying the existence, location, and abundance of the precursor molecules needed for life to form.
He said, “These large complex organic molecules are found in various environments throughout space. Laboratory and theoretical studies have suggested that these molecules are the ‘raw ingredients’ for building molecules that are essential components in biological chemistry on Earth, creating sugars, amino acids, and even the components of ribonucleic acid (RNA) under the right conditions.
“However, many of the environments where we find these complex organic molecules are pretty far removed from where and when we think planets form. We wanted to understand more about where exactly, and how much of, these molecules were present in the birthplaces of planets—the protoplanetary disks.”
Observing chemistry deep in space
The investigation has been made possible by advances in the ability of the ALMA telescope to detect very faint signals from the molecules in the coldest regions of outer space.
Each molecule emits light at distinctly different wavelengths producing a unique spectral ‘fingerprint’. These fingerprints allow scientists to identify the presence of the molecules and investigate their properties.
Dr Catherine Walsh, also from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Leeds, was one of the five co-principal investigators leading the study. Called the ‘Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales’ (or MAPS) program, it has used data collected by the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (or ALMA) radio telescope in Chile.
Dr Walsh explained, “The power of ALMA has allowed us to measure the distribution and composition of material that is actively building planets around nearby young stars for the first time. The telescope is powerful enough to do this even for large complex molecules that are the precursors for life.”
The research team was looking for three molecules—cyanoacetylene (HC3N), acetonitrile (CH3CN), and cyclopropenylidene (c-C3H2)—in five protoplanetary disks, known as IM Lup, GM Aur, AS 209, HD 163296, and MWC 480. The protoplanetary disks range between 300 and 500 light years from Earth.
All of the disks show signatures of on-going planet formation occurring within them.
Protoplanetary disks ‘feed’ young planets
The protoplanetary disk that surrounds a young planet will feed it with material as it forms.
For example, it is thought that the young Earth was seeded with material via impacts of asteroids and comets that had formed in the protoplanetary disk around the Sun. But scientists were uncertain whether all protoplanetary disks contain reservoirs of complex organic molecules capable of creating biologically significant molecules.
This study is beginning to answer that question. It found the molecules in four out of the five disks observed. In addition, the abundance of the molecules was greater than the scientists had expected.
Dr Ilee said: “ALMA has allowed us to look for these molecules in the innermost regions of these disks, on size scales similar to our Solar System, for the first time. Our analysis shows that the molecules are primarily located in these inner regions with abundances between 10 and 100 times higher than models had predicted.”
Importantly, the disk regions in which the molecules were located are also where asteroids and comets form. Dr Ilee says it is possible a process akin to that which may have helped to initiate life on Earth could also happen in these disks—where bombardment by asteroids and comets transfers the large organic molecules to the newly formed planets.
Dr Walsh added, “The key result of this work shows that the same ingredients needed for seeding life on our planet are also found around other stars. It is possible that the molecules that are needed to kick-start life on planets are readily available in all planet-forming environments.”
One of the next questions the researchers want to investigate is whether even more complex molecules exist in the protoplanetary disks.
Dr Ilee added, “If we are finding molecules like these in such large abundances, our current understanding of interstellar chemistry suggests that even more complex molecules should also be observable.
“We’re hoping to use ALMA to search for the next stepping stones of chemical complexity in these disks. If we detect them, then we’ll be even closer to understanding how the raw ingredients of life can be assembled around other stars.”
Details of the study are published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. It is one of 20 papers reporting on a major international investigation into the chemistry of planet formation.
As much as it’s a time for growing and learning, childhood is also a time for unabashed joy. Pastimes like careening down a snowy hillside on your sled, flying off a rope swing into a cool lake on a hot summer day, or even just a game of catch are part and parcel of growing up.
But the joys of playtime aren’t just reserved for human kids—animal offspring are just as likely to get into the act as well, and some of their activities are startlingly similar to our own.
Young ravens hold body-surfing “competitions” down the slopes of wintery rooftops; juvenile elephants create impromptu waterslides along muddy riverbanks; herring gulls engage in their own version of airborne hacky sack substituting seashells for bean-filled projectiles.
Scientists believe that for certain animal species, some fun and games is strictly that—play for the sake of play—but as with humans, other forms of diversion are preparing youngsters for the rigors of adulthood.
“Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth,” wrote Kenneth R. Ginsburg in the American Journal of Pediatrics. “Play also offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage fully with their children.”
Those same tenets, it seems, hold true in the animal kingdom as well.
“Horses…are known to engage in play almost as soon as they are born. Once they can walk, they immediately start to gallop, frolic and buck, again, honing the motor skills they may need when they’re mature,” notes BBC Earth.
Play with purpose
But along with social and motor skills, play also teaches animals essential hunting and survival skills.
Inge Wallmrod
While the antics of cute cavorting kittens is the stuff that’s spawned a myriad of viral videos, whether it’s an opportunity to take down an errant mouse or to avoid harm in the face of unexpected danger, their ninja-like antics may in fact be helping kittens learn to be ready when life hands them a surprise.
Even natural-born predators, such as kestrels, use play to hone their hunting skills by practicing with targets that look like real prey when they’re young.
In the oceans, dolphins chase underwater air rings to fine-tune their sonar skills.
And while it’s unclear why bear cubs are so quintessentially playful, zoologists believe at least some of their shenanigans have a more serious purpose that aids in their survival as adults.
One of the most important teaching aspects of play is socialization. These days, for human kids, that usually means the basics like learning to share, teamwork, and knowing boundaries.
For animals, especially those that live in packs, flocks, or herds, play (often in the form of play fighting) imparts an understanding of where each animal fits into the community hierarchy.
In ways that are remarkably similar to the training children of traditional tribal cultures receive, it is through the rules of play that lion cubs, kangaroo joeys, and wolf pups discover and establish the roles they’ll be expected to perform as adults.
But for animals, not all socializing play is about fighting or establishing dominance. Some of it’s about learning to be better parents—and that involves playing with dolls. While they might lack a perambulator and a fancy wardrobe, female chimpanzees are known to lavish their doll babies with love and emulate their own mothers’ attentive care.
So whether it’s frolicking in the pasture, hanging from a tree, or rollicking in the surf, it seems that play will always be an intrinsic—and fun—part of both human and animal development.
And we’re pretty sure when those ninja-kitten TikTok stars stop climbing that curtain, they’ll be thrilled to hear about it.
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