Many of us rely on plastic credit and debit cards to make the majority of our daily purchases but still the idea of saying goodbye to paper money seems ludicrous. The Bank of Canada is planning to do just that, and the first in an all-new line of plastic money will begin rolling out to consumers this month. The bills — made of a single piece of polymer — boast a longer life than paper notes, as well as some advanced security features to keep counterfeiters scratching their heads.
Amazon, the Seattle-based online retail giant may be planning to launch a smartphone next year, Citigroup said in a research note published on Thursday
The Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Plant in Þingvellir, Iceland.
In absolute terms, lithium is not particularly rare on Earth. It’s the 25th most abundant element, close to nickel and lead. Bolivia alone is estimated to have enough lithium to make batteries for 4.8 billion electric cars, and since lithium is not destroyed in use – unlike fossil fuels – old batteries can be recycled into new ones, or used to smooth out the output of wind farms.
So the question isn’t: Will we have enough lithium? Rather, it’s more like: As demand for it explodes, can we ramp up production rapidly enough, at a low enough cost, and while keeping it as environmentally-friendly as possible. It’s still probably going to be much better to make a battery once and then use it for years with progressively cleaner electricity (as the grid incorporates more and more renewable energy) rather than fill up a gas tank with non-renewable fossil fuels from halfway around the world every week, but even in that scenario, it’s going to be better if we can get the lithium cleanly and close to where we’ll use it. That’s where geothermal power plants enter the picture…
Ultra-lightweight materials are an incredibly cool area of materials science, bringing us crazy substances like aerogel. And now, for the first time, scientists have produced a metal that’s so light it can balance on the fluff of a dandelion. Here’s why this material is revolutionary — and how it’s made…
Looking at some of the most beautiful libraries in the world, like the Wiblingen Monastery Library in Ulm, Germany seen above, is truly fascinating. But if you’re like me, it might also make you feel depressed about the sad state of your town’s library.
People who drive hybrid cars are significantly less likely to be injured in an accident because their heavy batteries make the vehicles safer than traditional cars, according to an insurance industry report released Thursday.
The 90-plus population is projected to reach 8 million by midcentury.
More Americans are will reach the age of 90 than ever before. Figures from the first-ever census on the 90-plus population show it’s nearly tripled in size since 1980, to 1.9 million.
Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest employer, recently sought the higher payments from some smokers, as much as $2000 more than non-smokers.
Employers are making a shift toward penalizing employees with unhealthy lifestyles rather than rewarding employees with good habits as more employers are demanding that workers who smoke, are overweight or have high cholesterol shoulder a greater share of their health care costs.
Ever since the attack on the Twin Towers back in 2001, security at airports has been significantly increased to help ensure no aircraft is ever hijacked again. But some of the new security measures have not been welcomed by all, with the prime example being the new full-body X-ray scanners.
These scanners are controversial for two reasons. The first is that they allow operators to see an intimate, graphic view of the person being scanned. But that has been solved to a large extent by the use of privacy filters.
The second, and much larger concern is the risk of them causing cancer…
