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Winter wind and solar lulls reveal Europe's need for costly backup power

21 August 2026 at 18:40
This summer, record-breaking heat waves in Europe led to extreme stress on the power system, with high evening electricity prices due to air-conditioning demand, insufficient battery storage and outages at thermal and nuclear power plants. Events such as these highlight the challenge of maintaining a reliable power supply during extreme weather.

Built to last: Hydrogen catalyst operates for 3,000 hours

21 August 2026 at 18:20
A research team has developed a highly durable platinum-nickel (PtNi) hydrogen evolution catalyst that suppresses nickel (Ni) leaching through atomic ordering. Nickel leaching is a major cause of performance degradation in catalysts used for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE). The findings are published in the journal Carbon Energy.

AI-generated ads outperform human designers in live campaign, advantage holds 18 months later

21 August 2026 at 18:00
The common belief throughout the marketing and advertising world is that generative AI can produce striking visuals, but it struggles to match the performance and brand discipline of skilled human designers. New research published in the journal Marketing Science challenges that assumption, finding that a carefully designed AI system can outperform visuals created by humans, and it can outperform designs created by another AI model that was optimized solely on the basis of aesthetics.

An improved foam with the potential to increase oil production and CO₂ storage

21 August 2026 at 17:40
A new formulation of CO2 foams could help address one of the energy industry's main challenges, specifically regarding the injection of CO2 underground: controlling CO2 mobility in reservoir porous media. This advancement has the potential to improve reservoir sweep, enhance oil recovery and increase geological CO2 retention.

Scientists Develop Coconut Jet Fuel That Works in Existing Turbine Engines

21 August 2026 at 16:38

Air travel may one day get a little greener thanks to an unlikely fuel source: coconuts. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a biofuel made from coconut oil that can be blended with conventional jet fuel and used in existing turbine engines without significantly reducing engine efficiency. The fuel may also help lower some […]

The post Scientists Develop Coconut Jet Fuel That Works in Existing Turbine Engines appeared first on Knowridge Science Report.

La Chine dévoile un robot-cheval tout-terrain que deux personnes peuvent réellement chevaucher sur 40 km !

21 August 2026 at 16:03
Après les robots-chiens, voici venu le temps des robots-chevaux. Présenté à Pékin, le Qiji X1 reprend le principe du quadrupède, mais dans un format nettement plus imposant. Doté d’une intelligence artificielle et conçu pour évoluer sur des terrains accidentés, il pourrait bientôt être...

MIT’s New Excavator Controller Could Help Beginners Dig Like Experts

21 August 2026 at 16:01

Anyone who has struggled with an arcade claw machine knows that controlling a mechanical arm is not as easy as it looks. Excavator operators face a much harder version of the same problem. They must coordinate several joystick movements to control the machine’s boom, arm, bucket and cab at the same time. Learning those controls […]

The post MIT’s New Excavator Controller Could Help Beginners Dig Like Experts appeared first on Knowridge Science Report.

Lost Mega-Cliff May Explain the Grand Canyon’s Missing Billion Years

21 August 2026 at 16:00

A gigantic line of cliffs may once have stretched for thousands of kilometers across ancient North America, helping erase more than a billion years of geological history from rocks now exposed in the Grand Canyon. Scientists led by the University of Southampton in the UK believe this enormous landscape formed about 800 million years ago, […]

The post Lost Mega-Cliff May Explain the Grand Canyon’s Missing Billion Years appeared first on Knowridge Science Report.

Mysterious Gravitational Waves May Be Echoes of Ancient Dark Stars

21 August 2026 at 15:59

A faint gravitational-wave signal spreading across the universe may contain clues about mysterious stars that existed more than 13 billion years ago, according to new research. Scientists from Colgate University have investigated whether some of the earliest supermassive black holes could be responsible for much of the extremely low-frequency gravitational-wave background detected today. Their findings […]

The post Mysterious Gravitational Waves May Be Echoes of Ancient Dark Stars appeared first on Knowridge Science Report.

When the algorithm determines wages

21 August 2026 at 15:40
What happens when companies on digital labor platforms no longer decide for themselves how much to pay their workers, but leave this to learning algorithms? Researchers at TU Darmstadt, Bielefeld University and the Université Côte d'Azur have demonstrated in computer simulations that, where only a few firms compete with one another, such artificial intelligence (AI) systems can "learn" to set wages at a very low level without communicating with one another or having been programmed to collude.

In Minnesota, Words Matter More Than Rape

21 August 2026 at 15:00

Shiloh Hendrix got a $1,000 fine and 200 hours of community service for using a racial slur. The Somali man who filmed her had rape charges dropped "in the interest of justice". Only in Minnesota, says Steven Tucker.

The post In Minnesota, Words Matter More Than Rape appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

JBL Flip 7 à moins de 100 € : l'enceinte Bluetooth est affichée à prix immanquable sur Amazon

21 August 2026 at 15:00
La JBL Flip 7 est une enceinte portable de forme cylindrique qui mise sur sa simplicité d'utilisation et l'intelligence artificielle AI Sound Boost. Une valeur sûre du catalogue JBL, désormais accessible en version noire sous la barre des 100 euros sur Amazon grâce à une remise de 33 % par...

Waymo doubles spending on lobbying in robotaxi battle with Uber

Waymo has sharply increased its lobbying spending as it seeks to persuade US regulators to clear a path for fully autonomous taxi services, intensifying its battle with rival Uber over the future of robotaxis.

The Alphabet-owned company spent more than $1 million between April and June on lobbying the federal government, more than double its outlay a year earlier, according to filings. That put Waymo’s spending close to Uber’s and well ahead of rivals including Amazon’s Zoox and Tesla.

The rise in lobbying comes as Waymo and Uber push competing visions for the future of ride-hailing. Waymo wants a faster route to fully driverless commercial services, while Uber is advocating a staggered rollout in which robotaxis operate alongside human drivers.

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