☢️ A new generation of nuclear reactors is coming. They are safer - and tiny.
Most likely nuclear energy will be an essential part of decarbonizing the world’s electricity. But new plants are expensive and the technology much criticized. Enter the small modular reactor, designed to allow several reactors to be combined into one unit.
🐯 AI could be a gamechanger for the conservation of animals
Automated cameras that snap a picture whenever an animal walks by, have become an indispensable tool for wildlife biologists. But going through and looking at all the pictures is long and tedious work. Now an AI will do that work instead.
⛓️ Volvo will use blockchain to make sure its cobalt wasn’t mined by children
The data in the blockchain will include the cobalt's origin, attributes like weight and size, as well as the chain of custody.
🧬 The first person in the U.S. to have genes edited with CRISPR
Last week, a woman named Victoria Gray became the first person in the U.S. to have her cells edited with CRISPR to help with her sickle cell anemia.
🐒 Economic growth does not need to hurt wildlife
A study compared bird and mammal populations in 33 countries and found consistently positive relationships between economic growth, gender-parity in governments, and abundance of wildlife
🏭 European coal power output in steep decline
The European Union has seen an unprecedented 19% year-on-year decline in coal-fired power generation in the first half of 2019.
🐺 Mexican wolf removed from extinct species list
Thanks to conservation and breeding efforts in Mexico and the United States the Mexican wolf is no longer at risk of being extinct.
🔬 A possible treatment for deadly pancreatic cancer found
Pancreatic cancer, which maintains a 95% mortality rate, is resistant to all current treatments. But now scientist have discovered a molecule that reduces the cancer cells by 90 percent.
🩸 The erstwhile fantasy of a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease has become reality
Up to two decades before people develop the characteristic memory loss and confusion of Alzheimer's disease, damaging clumps of protein start to build up in their brains. Now, a blood test to detect such early brain changes has moved one step closer to clinical use.