Sustainability

As private companies make spaceflight routine, Earth’s upper atmosphere has become a testing ground with each launch leaving residues that react with ozone, thinning the layer that shields life below. It’s a problem scientists are just beginning to quantify.

In a world looking to reduce carbon emissions, there are growing calls to look back to trains. Not as a nostalgic nod to the past, but as a cornerstone of climate strategy. Rail isn’t only about efficiency, but also equity and reconnecting rural regions.

China has finished construction of what’s being billed as the world’s first wind-powered underwater data center. The project, which cost around 1.6 billion yuan (US$226 million), marks a bold step in green, high-performing computing infrastructure.

Imagine generating power not from sunlight or wind, but from the simple mixing of fresh and salt water. This is the promise of osmotic energy. The idea has been around for decades, but only now is it flowing into real-world use.

In the largest study of its kind, scientists have documented the seismic shift in animal size over the last 1,000 years, with domesticated species becoming larger as wildlife gets smaller. It underlines the impact of one species in particular – us.

A more sustainable electrolyte made from a class of molecules as strong as stable as the Kevlar that goes into bulletproof vests could soon make it easier than ever to recycle EV batteries – and a whole lot more eco-friendly too.

Once a harmless drifter in the Sargasso Sea, an algae known as sargassum is now flooding beaches, from Brazil to the Caribbean, with stinky piles. But some clever researchers have mixed it into concrete creating a new, ultra-light building material.

Why tear down an entire building, if only its flimsy interior components need to be replaced? That's the thinking behind a new Velcro-like fastening system which allows interior walls to simply be yanked out and swapped for new ones when necessary.

With a chemical formula nearly identical to fictional kryptonite, unique mineral jadarite has the potential to power a million electric vehicles each year. But it remains underground, beneath a Serbian valley, more than 20 years after it was found.

Hospital meals have long been the butt of jokes, but new research shows they might actually pose a health risk, with low-quality diets failing to meet basic nutrition standards in hospitals and nursing homes.

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth in the UK have developed a way to use powdered discarded glass in building blocks for construction, which could make this versatile material a lot more sustainable.

EV this and EV that… Suzuki might have just given us the most plausible alternative to electric motorcycles… 100% sustainable fuel. Team Suzuki CN Challenge is set to compete in the 46th Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race using 100% sustainable fuel.