🌡 CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is adding urgency to archaeology (long read)

Wildly fluctuating cycles of drought and flood are extremely harmful to sensitive archaeological remains which are preserved best when either submerged or in dry climates, but not oscillating between the two.

Climate change to produce more rainbows, study finds (long read)

On average, by 2100, land locations on Earth will experience approximately 5% more days with rainbows. Specifically, more humid areas like islands will enjoy the greatest increase, while dryer areas will lose rainbow days since sunlight and water droplets in the atmosphere are required ingredients for the spectral shows.

Analysis: Bolsonaro election loss could cut Brazilian Amazon deforestation by 89 (long read)

Data spanning the last five Brazilian presidents over 20 years suggests that Lula’s win over Bolsonaro could reduce Amazon deforestation by 90%.

🔋 CLEAN ENERGY

Porsche invests $400 million into Group14 Technologies, Silicon Batteris (long read)

Group14 Technologies is developing battery technology that uses silicon anodes instead of graphite which results in higher energy density resulting in longer battery ranges, faster charging rates, and lower battery costs which are hovering just above the $100 per kWh mark, widely regarded the point of gasoline parity. An advantage over long-promised solid state batteries is that silicon anode batteries can be dropped into lithium-ion batteries with marginal manufacturing changes.

Mexico & the US are committed to clean energy and the fight against climate change (quick read)

Collaboration between the US and Mexico in Baja California will see the construction of 300 MW of wind power and a 20-year agreement to supply the power to California.

Beaming clean energy from space — Caltech’s “extraordinary and unprecedented project” (long read)

Researchers at MIT are closer to reality with a long-theorized concept of collecting solar power from an orbiting satellite and transmitting its electrical power to Earth in the form of microwaves that are collected by a receiving station on land.

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🚗 AUTONOMOUS & ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Volkswagen to work with Mobileye on automated driving after Argo exit (quick read)

Just days after Ford / VW’s joint partnership in Argo AI was dissolved, VW has announced it’s partnering up with Israel-based, Intel-owned Mobileye, a maker of lidar technology.

George Hotz, iPhone hacker and Elon Musk antagonist, is leaving Comma AI (quick read)

George Hotz, the first person ever to “jailbreak” or carrier unlock an iPhone, just shared on his GitHub page that he’s stepping away from Comma AI, the company he founded that enables cell phones to provide ADAS functionality to certain cars. Hotz said he doesn’t feel “capable” of continuing in his role as CEO, and in any event, regarding the greater AV industry as a whole, lambasted the likes of Waymo and Cruise as little more than a “scam.”

TuSimple CEO and co-founder fired by board over ties to Chinese startup Hydron (quick read)

Xiaodi Hou, TuSimple’s co-founder and CEO, CTO, and president, has been ousted following investigations by the FBI, SEC, and CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the US) involving alleged collaboration with hydrogen trucking startup Hydron which was founded by Mo Chen, TuSimple’s chairman of the board.