Pop Culture

Pop Culture

Lithium batteries' big unanswered question
As the quiet whirr of electric vehicles gradually replaces the revs and noxious fumes of internal combustion engines, a number of changes are set to filter through our familiar world. The overpowering smell of gas stations will fade away into odourless charge stations where cars can re-juice their batteries as needed. Meanwhile, gas-powered generator sites that dot the horizon may be retrofitted to house massive batteries that could one day power entire cities with renewable energy.
By Holy horse3 years ago in FYI
The environmental case for buying a coal mine
ne day, the Swedish energy company Vattenfall decided to divest itself from a particularly dirty form of coal extraction in Germany, so it advertised that its mines were for sale. It would get an offer from a totally unexpected party.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in FYI
The animals that detect disasters
n 2004, a tsunami triggered by a 9.1 magnitude undersea quake off Indonesia decimated coastal communities around the Indian Ocean, killing at least 225,000 people across a dozen countries. The huge death toll was in part caused by the fact that many communities received no warning.
By Udley3 years ago in FYI
The kites seeking the world's surest winds
Look up over the white sand beaches of Mauritius and you may see a gigantic sail. It's much like the kind used by paragliders or kite surfers but the size of a three-bedroom apartment, looping figures-of-eight overhead. The sail isn't a tourist attraction – it's creating electricity for the power grid of this island nation off the east coast of Africa.
By Holy horse3 years ago in FYI
The Illinois town that got up and left
In the summer of 1993, the southwestern Illinois town of Valmeyer took the brunt of a massive flood when, not once but twice in a month, the swollen Mississippi River topped its levee system. The village was engulfed in up to 16ft (5m) of floodwater that lingered for months, damaging some 90% of buildings.
By Udley3 years ago in FYI
The Caribbean mangrove forest that defied destruction
On a sweltering summer day in 1994, an ancient mangrove forest on Union Island was ripped apart. A foreign investor had started the foundation work for a hotel, marina and golf course in Ashton lagoon on Union Island, one of the 32 Grenadine islands which dot the clear, blue waters of the southern Caribbean Sea.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in FYI
The world's most polluted capital city
The onset of spring brings relief in more ways than one to Delhi. The air is cool and crisp, and with the milder weather come light showers that make the vegetation more lush. Around April, south-westerly winds sweep through the region, and the blanket of acrid smog that covers the city in the autumn and winter months begins to disperse. But it never really goes away.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in FYI
The Moorish invention that tamed Spain's mountains
In the warm air of an early-June morning, Jose Antonio Peña walks along a channel of gushing water in the Sierra Nevada of southern Spain. Traversing the rocky terrain and ducking beneath boughs of pine, he eventually reaches a grassy meadow on his left. The ancient artificial channel, known as an acequia, empties into the meadow, where its water branches into meandering streams that soak into the mountainside.
By Udley3 years ago in FYI
Can gravity batteries solve our energy storage problems?
As it trudges through the dense rainforests of West and Central Africa, the forest elephant creates a maze of green corridors by grazing and trampling on small trees in its path. Standing at 3m (almost 10ft), this gentle giant is smaller than its better-known counterpart, the savannah elephant, and remains an elusive, solitary creature. The forest elephant causes mayhem amid the rainforest's lush vegetation as it strips bark from saplings, digs for roots in the soil and munches on leaves and berries. But this destruction does more good than harm to the forest: it helps forests to store more carbon in their trees and preserves one of the planet's most vital ecosystems.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in FYI
The unseen man-made 'tracks' on the deep ocean floor
At the base of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from land, there are some curious marks on the seafloor that no animal could have made. Some of them look like narrow troughs carved into the pale silt. Others could be claw marks, gouged through the ecosystems of the deep by an undersea monster.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in FYI
The quest that discovered thousands of new species
It was once a private house, but now the imposing stone structure on Boswall Road, on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh, is part of a palliative care hospice.
By Holy horse3 years ago in FYI
If Planet Nine exists, why has no one seen it?
As we head towards the end of another extraordinary year, BBC Future is taking a look back at some of our favourite stories for our "Best of 2021" collection. Discover more of our picks here.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in FYI