Battery makers are tweaking — or altogether revamping — the chemistry and mechanics of batteries in an attempt to get a new generation of devices from the lab to the market.
Why it matters: The adoption of electric vehicles, the promise of renewable energy and the bottom line of dozens of companies may hinge on new, solid-state batteries that are meant to be lighter, faster and more powerful.
If your sidewalks are extra nutty with acorns this fall, certain species of oak trees in the region may be "masting," or producing enormous crops of seed.
Why it matters: There's a mystery at the center of why there are so many nuts, as scientists are unsure exactly what triggers "mast" events every few years or why many tree species — not just oaks — experience them.
A new study warns the Earth's climate is on track to warm significantly more than shown by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) projections.
Driving the news: The paper, published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Oxford Open Climate Change, is a synthesis of new and previous discoveries across multiple fields. It is peppered with policy prescriptions, unusual for a scientific paper.
A record wintry snap was slamming much of the Lower 48 U.S. states on Wednesday night.
Of note: Some 70 million people were under freeze warnings, from eastern Texas to southern New York and the National Weather Service said "widespread record low temperatures" were likely Thursday morning from Texas to Maine, with below-normal conditions persisting across the East and South in the daytime.
Why it matters: The form is part of a much larger federal investigation into mysterious sightings involving Congress and multiple agencies, including NASA, but that has yet to produce any evidence aliens or extraterrestrial objects.
The race between weather agencies to see who has the most advanced computer models has given way to an international competition over implementing artificial intelligence.
Driving the news: The U.K. Met Office, which already runs one of the top weather forecast models in the world, announced a new partnership on Tuesday with the Alan Turing Institute to develop highly accurate, lower cost forecast models using machine learning and AI techniques.
An unusually powerful storm is forecast to rapidly intensify and bring heavy rains and damaging winds to Ireland and the U.K., with its effects extending into France, Belgium, the Netherlands and other parts of Western Europe.
Driving the news: The timing of the storm is forecast for late Wednesday through the end of the week. The U.K. Met Office took the unusual step of naming the weather system days in advance, assigning it Storm Ciarán.
