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Last Energy Gets $19 Billion in Contracts for Simple 20 MW Nuclear Fission Reactors
Home » Energy » Last Energy Gets $19 Billion in Contracts for Simple 20 MW Nuclear Fission Reactors Last Energy is a startup working to make low-cost small pressure water reactors (20 MW) with simple off the shelf parts. They are designing to keep things simple, use as much off the shelf parts as possible
‘Plasticosis’ in Seabirds Could Herald New Era of Animal Disease
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. As a conservation biologist who studies plastic ingestion by marine wildlife, I can count on the same question whenever I present research: “How does plastic affect the animals that eat it?” This is one of the biggest questions in this
Use Nature as Infrastructure
Credit: Martin GeeCoastal cities worldwide are squeezed by two opposing forces: urban sprawl and the rising sea. This struggle is intensely visible in the flatlands of South Florida, where burgeoning neighborhoods routinely flood and saltwater inundation damages the estuaries that protect communities from the worst of our climate crisis. Massive resources are being put into
Volcanic Activity on Mars Upends Red Planet Assumptions
For decades planetary scientists assumed Mars was dead. Geologically, that is. Smaller than Earth, the planet would have cooled faster than ours after it formed. It was, for a time, quite volcanically active. The assumption was that when the interior temperature gradually decreased, so, too, did the planet's ability to generate large-scale geologic activity such
Health Research Is Needed Now before Sending Civilians to Space
Now is the time to protect the health and safety of civilians who will be traveling, living and working in the dangerous environment of spaceBlue Origin’s New Shepard lifts off from the Launch Site One launch pad carrying Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan, Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard, and four other
Deadly Fungi Are the Newest Emerging Microbe Threat All Over the World
Editor’s Note (3/21/23): The dangerous fungus Candida auris is spreading rapidly in hospitals and other health care facilities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Monday. Our June 2021 feature story, republished here, explains why C. auris can be so lethal and who is most at risk. It also describes why this pathogen
CLIMATEWIRE | The United Nations' latest climate assessment has upped the ante for energy policy in the United States, making it clear that rich nations need to cut their emissions more deeply than some of the most ambitious targets. The report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change introduced a new deadline that the world
Will Humans Ever Go Extinct?
The species Homo sapiens evolved some 300,000 years ago and has come to dominate Earth unlike any species that came before. But how long can humans last? Eventually humans will go extinct. At the most wildly optimistic estimate, our species will last perhaps another billion years but end when the expanding envelope of the sun
Relict Glacier Spotted near Martian Equator
A so-called light-toned deposit (LTD) in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, about 160 km (99.4 miles) north-west of Oudemans crater near Mars’ equator, presents distinctive morphologic characteristics of a glacier, according to new research. Although the glacier is likely relict, the preservation of glacial features opens the possibility that water ice might still be preserved beneath LTD
It’s the first day of spring: Here’s what that really means
Monday marked the spring equinox — at least for those in the Northern Hemisphere. But what does that actually mean? WHAT IS THE SPRING EQUINOX? As the Earth travels around the sun, it does so at an angle. For most of the year, the Earth’s axis is tilted either toward or away from the sun.