Researchers are now looking at biological systems that harness light, hoping to use natures tricks to improve devices like LEDs and photovoltaic panels.
Next Gen Nukes
The nuclear energy industry is deploying new reactor designs that they say will resolve many of the issues that plagued nuclear power in the past. In addition, many nuclear energy startups have emerged to bring even more advanced reactors to the market with the hopes of providing, cheap, reliable, carbon-free electricity.
But many are skeptical, given the nuclear industry's long history of broken promises like cost overruns, construction delays and mismanagement.
Atomkraft? Nein Danke
Both France and Germany have set ambitious clean energy goals, but they don't see eye-to-eye when it comes to nuclear energy, the largest source of carbon-free baseload electricity in both countries. However, they could leverage their respective strengths in pursuit of lower greenhouse gas emissions.
How to pronounce "Energiewende," German for "energy transition"
Peut-être que les centrales nucléaires
After spending time in France and Germany, I put together a few articles on their respective approaches to energy, particularly nuclear power. France gets most of its electricity from nuclear power plants, but the French are growing skeptical of this strategy, as old reactors demand upgrades, new reactors run over budget and renewables join the grid.
The entrance to a French nuclear research center adorned with solar panels
One step forward, two steps back
Human health has drastically improved over the last century, with average life expectancies rising and infant mortality dropping worldwide. The industrial development that enabled these gains has consequences for the environment. A new report in the medical journal The Lancet finds that the changing climate threatens to undo a half-century of health progress. Rising seas, declining crop yields and spreading infections pose increasing risks to global health.
Catch your breath
President Obama has repeatedly invoked health, including his daughter's asthma, as a reason to mitigate climate change. However, the health effects of CO2 are further removed than those of pollutants like ozone. This may be a vulnerability in the President's case for climate action.
Another charge at the sun
In my second visit to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, I spoke the new director of the beleaguered project about proposed changes to bring member nations back on track and whether their ambitions for harnessing fusion have changed.
ITER under construction in southern France