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Yet China’s latest five year plan increases investment in coal and omits any cap on total energy consumption. This leads to the observation that ‘the central contradiction between expanding the smokestack economy and promoting green growth appears unresolved.’ The lack of a cap on total energy consumption was a notable exclusion.
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âDespite pledges to cut emissions, China goes on a coal spree,â a Yale Environment 360 headline proclaimed. In the article, China based freelancer Michael Standaert argues that there is a ‘real and figurative haze about how strong its climate ambitions really are and how quickly the country can wean itself from coal.
Scientists Communicated With Lucid Dreamers For The First Time
April 10, 2021 Share
For the first time, scientists from Northwestern University and various European institutions could communicate with sleeping volunteers who were in the middle of a lucid dream.
The scientists opened a two-way, real-time communication line with the lucid dreamers. This allowed the researchers to chat with them and ask them questions, receiving answers in real-time in the form of particular eye movements. The development could shed light on the content and structure of sleep and open up new possibilities for the technology, entertainment, and commercialization of dreams.
Lucid dreaming is when an individual becomes conscious while asleep (similar to the characters in “The Matrix”). It is a psychological peculiarity that’s long stimulated scientists’ interests. An estimated 55% of people have experienced one or more lucid dreams in their lifetime, while 23% of individuals have luc
Spicy Chili Pepper Chemical Improves Solar Panel Efficiency
January 19, 2021 Share
Chinese scientists find there’s more to chili peppers than health benefits and spicy dishes. Solar cells treated with the compound that makes chili peppers hot – capsaicin – have proven more efficient at converting solar energy.
While ultra-thin, lead-based solar cells can absorb light more efficiently than silicon-based solar cells, they can’t convert energy efficiently because they lose some of it to heat. However, there’s a solution to that – to add a bit of heat.
(Credit: Pixabay. Photo edit: Luana Steffen)
Qinye Bao at Shanghai’s East China Normal University and his colleagues were confident that capsaicin would have an energy-boosting outcome since it can free up electrons that can continue to carry the charge. They added capsaicin to these ultra-thin perovskite solar cells during the manufacturing process to have samples to experiment on in the laboratory.