Resources

Aether is manufacturing molecular nano-machinery in the form of designer enzymes. These are not those enzymes, they are "smart handles" showing instrument status. But they sure look cool

Technology

Aether's nano-machines: From super-cheap lithium to brand new molecules

Nano-engineering happens all day long in our bodies, and California startup Aether is designing and testing millions of new enzymes to do a range of other useful tasks – like directly extracting battery-grade lithium from sources nobody else can use.

Direct Lithium Extraction promises more lithium, cheaper, faster and using vastly less land than traditional brine evaporation processes. Volt's system is particularly good with low-concentration brine

Energy

Fast, low-cost direct lithium extraction could avert a supply crisis

Canadian company Volt Lithium has developed and pilot-tested a new low-cost lithium extraction method to pull this critical battery metal out of low-concentration brines. Now it plans to turn old oil fields into lithium production operations.

Impossible Metals Eureka 1: a proof of concept prototype of a super-careful way of extracting vital metals from the ocean floor

Marine

Impossible Metals demonstrates its super-careful seabed mining robot

The green economy desperately needs huge quantities of battery metals, and they're sitting right there on the deep ocean floor. Here's a device designed to harvest them with the minimum possible impact to one of the world's last untouched ecosystems.

An idyllic site in Canada for the world's first all-electric, carbon-neutral lithium mine

Energy

World's first electric lithium mine: Birth of an American supply chain

As the world rushes toward "the greatest disconnect between supply and demand in the history of commodities," Snow Lake Lithium CEO Philip Gross talks us through his company's plans to open the world's first all-electric lithium mine in Canada.

The Uyuni Salt Lake in Bolivia holds an estimated 5.4 million tonnes of lithium

Energy

Lithium resource squeeze could put the brakes on decarbonization

As the EV revolution speeds up, and big battery projects ramp up to stabilize power grids running on intermittent renewables, global demand for lithium batteries will rise sixfold in the next 10 years. But can the world actually supply the materials?

Due to improved efficiency over the years, transistors now require much less silicon to make, and yet our global silicon consumption continues to increase

Environment

Can technology deliver sustainability?

A new study from MIT has examined modern technology through the lens of a 150-year-old economic theory of efficiency and resource consumption – and in almost all cases, the benefits of reducing required resources is cancelled out by the increase in consumer demand for them.

Environment

Is working hard bad for the environment?

In a welcome sacrifice for the good of the planet, a UN International Resource Panel study found that saving the environment may require people work fewer hours in the future. A growing middle class has led to a rapid pace of raw material extraction around the globe.

Artists impression of an Arkyd-200 series interceptor passing a candidate asteroid for mining

Aircraft

Grand plans for asteroid mining unveiled by Planetary Resources

Planetary Resources, Inc. announces plans to remotely mine asteroids for water and precious metals.

Snap of Google Earth U.S. geothermal resource map based on SMU research

Environment

Research unveils extensive U.S. geothermal resources

New research reveals U.S. geothermal potential greater than previously thought

View northeast across the north rim of Cabeus crater (Image: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)

Science

Much more than water found on the moon

New data has revealed that the lunar soil within shadowy craters is rich in useful materials, and that the moon is chemically active and has a water cycle.

Can the Earth sustain 9 billion people? We'll find out in the next 50 years.

Environment

Four crucial resources that may run out in your lifetime

We're already stretching many of our natural resources to their limits, and the world's population will jump by around 2.5 billion over the next 50 years. Here are four resources heading for a catastrophic squeeze within our lifetime.