Energy

an overhead shot of land split in three. the left side is dry and dusty. the middle has some vegetation, and the right side has a lot.

Desertification is destroying fertile land. Here’s how we’re fighting it.

a female presenting person in a lab coat holding a solar cell

New “tandem” solar cell breaks world record

A new tandem solar cell containing layers of silicon and perovskite has demonstrated an unprecedented efficiency of 33.7%.

Kristin Houser

Clean Energy

These 4 charts show the unstoppable growth of solar

Solar is growing fast enough to displace fossil fuels from the entire global economy before 2050, but infrastructure needs to keep up.

Andrew Blakers

Series| Hard Reset

Vertical farms could take over the world

11:04

Vertical farming saves water, land, and energy — and it could be how we grow food on Mars.

Jack Berning

Transportation

Ford unveils its first electric pickup truck

Ford’s first electric truck, the F-150 Lightning, has the potential to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles in the U.S.

Kristin Houser

Animals

This app is saving elephants from poachers

Elephant poaching is running wild in Africa. But, with the help of a smartphone app, Kenya is reviving the population.

Teresa Carey

Genetics

This genetically modified grass can clean up toxic pollution

Researchers demonstrated that genetically modified prairie grass can soak up military-grade pollution from the soil.

Teresa Carey

Genetics

1 billion genetically modified mosquitoes will be released in the U.S.

Oxitec recently released genetically modified mosquitoes on three of the Florida Keys. The idea is that they will curb the spread of diseases by decreasing populations of Aedes aegypti.

Teresa Carey

Clean Energy

World's largest tidal energy turbine will prove its worth

Orbital Marine Power successfully launched a tidal turbine that will soon become one of the world's most powerful tidal energy sources.

Teresa Carey

Climate Crisis

How balloons could soak up carbon and fight climate change

A new startup plans to strap direct air capture technology to balloons and float them into the atmosphere to collect and store carbon dioxide.

Teresa Carey

Sustainability

This laundry detergent is made from recycled carbon

Consumer goods company Unilever is now selling a laundry detergent that’s made using recycled carbon instead of traditional fossil fuels.

Kristin Houser

Genetics

These plants have been genetically modifying themselves for decades

New evidence shows that plants have been genetically modifying themselves for decades in a process called lateral gene transfer.

Teresa Carey

Climate Crisis

Look at how much the planet has changed in four decades with Google Earth Timelapse

The new Google Earth Timelapse feature lets us scan the globe and look back from the present day to 1984 to see how human action and natural forces have changed the planet since the 1980s.

Teresa Carey

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