California's strawberry fields may not be forever. Could robots help?
In a strawberry field surrounded by strawberry fields on the outskirts of Santa Maria, a pair of robots have been picking berries all summer.
Jul 28, 2022
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Robotics
In a strawberry field surrounded by strawberry fields on the outskirts of Santa Maria, a pair of robots have been picking berries all summer.
Jul 28, 2022
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18
Energy & Green Tech
As more drivers adopt plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, the demand for lithium-ion batteries will continue to explode over the next decade. But processes for extracting lithium can be time-consuming and chemical-intensive, ...
Jul 26, 2022
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Automotive
U.S. safety regulators have opened three investigations into safety issues with about 1.65 million vehicles made by Stellantis.
Jul 26, 2022
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Business
Airbus said Tuesday it had successfully tested its A400M military transporter as a water bomber as heatwaves cause an increasing number of wildfires during the summer in Europe.
Jul 26, 2022
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Telecom
The COVID-19 pandemic has enormously boosted the popularity of video communication—but sometimes poor transmission quality, dropouts, and connection failures during meetings or conference calls tax the participants' patience. ...
Jul 26, 2022
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Energy & Green Tech
Scientists have known since the 1950s that it is theoretically possible to generate electricity through the movement of water in locations where seawater and river water meet. This type of technology is called osmotic power ...
Jul 21, 2022
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Consumer & Gadgets
The pace of change in telecommunications is increasing every year.
Jul 19, 2022
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125
Energy & Green Tech
Texas A&M Superfund Research Center investigators have developed a novel green infrastructure plan to reduce stormwater runoff in Houston's Sunnyside community by uniquely combining the results of three separate landscape ...
Jul 18, 2022
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Engineering
Efficiently producing green hydrogen energy on a large scale is critical to reducing the use of carbon fuel. Making this transition is tricky, though, because of the many challenges in transporting and distributing hydrogen.
Jul 14, 2022
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Engineering
In recent years, engineers have been trying to devise new technologies to produce and store energy more sustainably, with the hope of overcoming the global reliance on fossil fuels and to fight climate change. A solution ...
Water is a ubiquitous chemical substance, composed of hydrogen and oxygen, that is essential for the survival of many known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam. Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface. On Earth, it is found mostly in oceans and other large water bodies, with 1.6% of water below ground in aquifers and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation. Saltwater oceans hold 97% of surface water, glaciers and polar ice caps 2.4%, and other land surface water such as rivers, lakes and ponds 0.6%. A very small amount of the Earth's water is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products. Other water is trapped in ice caps, glaciers, aquifers, or in lakes, sometimes providing fresh water for life on land.
Water moves continually through a cycle of evaporation or transpiration (evapotranspiration), precipitation, and runoff, usually reaching the sea. Winds carry water vapor over land at the same rate as runoff into the sea. Over land, evaporation and transpiration contribute to the precipitation over land.
Clean, fresh drinking water is essential to human and other lifeforms. Access to safe drinking water has improved steadily and substantially over the last decades in almost every part of the world. There is a clear correlation between access to safe water and GDP per capita. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability. Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation. Approximately 70 percent of freshwater is consumed by agriculture.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA