Mounting evidence suggests the western United States is now in its worst megadrought in at least 1,200 years. Groundwater supplies are being overpumped in many places, and the dryness, wildfires and shrinking water supplies are making climate change personal for millions of people. As an engineer, I have been working with colleagues on a way to both protect water supplies and boost renewable energy to protect the climate. We call it the solar-canal solution, and it’s about to be tested in Califo
Last year, Michelin and Goodyear released their first tires designed exclusively for electric vehicles. Now, another big player is joining the game: Pirelli has announced its own special EV tire, the P Zero All Season Plus Elect. Pirelli’s P Zero All Season Plus Elect. Image: Pirelli But why do EVs need special tires at all? First off, it’s about the weight. Because of the battery, EVs generally weigh more than traditional gas guzzlers. Then comes another characteristic EV drivers know and love:
The inevitable is happening. Last night at SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed NFTs are coming to Instagram soon. The Meta head didn’t spill any details about how this would work, but he said they’re coming in the near future: I’m not ready to kind of announce exactly what that’s going to be today. But over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, [and] hopefully, over time, be able to mint things within that environment. This isn’t the first time we’re hearing about it. L
Scientists at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory recently uncovered a twinkling little star that might hold the key to several of the universe’s deepest mysteries. Called a pulsar for its twinkle, the star’s scant the size of a large city. What makes it special is, as NASA describes it, the fact that it’s apparently spewing a “gargantuan stream of matter and antimatter” into our galaxy. Annihilation Here’s where we run into problems. Matter and antimatter don’t get along. When, for example, a quar
Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Photography can be a perilous hobby — just ask Jeff Bezos. The Amazon kingpin had to tell the world about his “below-the-belt selfies” to avoid an alleged blackmail by the National Enquirer. While you may not have beef with a sleazy tabloid or a love of dick pics, there’s a high chance that you’ve got some sensitive photos of your own. Perhaps you have an emb
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that the supply chain has been in a world of pain over the last few years. This has been caused by COVID shipping delays, bottlenecks at the ports, and significant lags in truck delivery. And one of the biggest pain points is a shortage of long-haul truck drivers. And now, transportation companies are developing tech-driven approaches that not only solve problems that have been plaguing the industry for decades, but also turn trucking itself
In February this year, reports surfaced on Twitter and Facebook that the Ukrainian government was undertaking a mass genocide of civilians. Around the same time, conspiracy theorists began saying Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was an agent of the “New World Order”. These claims have been thoroughly debunked, but not before attracting millions of views and offering a purported justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. More recently, Russian and Chinese officials have claimed the Un
On its way to net zero, Jaguar has developed a portable EV charger, powered by “second-life” batteries from prototype and test I-Pace vehicles. The so-called Off Grid Battery Energy Storage System (ESS) is essentially an energy storage unit, designed to supply power where access to electricity is limited or unavailable. The portable EV charger was created in collaboration with Pramac. Image: Jaguar The device has a capacity of up to 125kWh — more than enough to juice up the I-Pace or to power
A common view of developers and other tech folks is they’re anti-social. In other words, people who prefer to work alone with their headphones and avoid speaking to others at all costs. While this stereotype doesn’t hold true for most programmers, it’s especially wrong for IT architects, a profession that relies heavily on communication. “My work consists of talking, making some notes, doing some sketches, and more talking,” explains Lotje Meijknecht. She works as an IT architect for the Dutch g
It’s that time again, people! The long-awaited iOS 15.4 is finally here — and that means one thing and one thing only: it’s time to rank the new features soon to be on your iPhone. We’ve done this a few times before — whether that’s rating each iOS 14.5 update by how much they’ll annoy Zuckerberg, or those in iOS 14.7 by how useful the new features would be in space. And this time? Well, we’re gonna be boring and rank them from worst to best. What? Don’t complain! All this means is the next Appl