—David Keith is the professor of geophysical sciences on the College of Chicago and Daniele Visioni is an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell College
Final week, an American-Israeli firm that claims it’s developed proprietary expertise to chill the planet introduced it had raised $60 million, by far the most important recognized enterprise capital spherical thus far for a photo voltaic geoengineering startup.
The corporate, Stardust, says the funding will allow it to develop a system that might be deployed by the beginning of the subsequent decade, in line with Heatmap, which broke the story.
As scientists who’ve labored on the science of photo voltaic geoengineering for many years, we’ve got grown more and more involved about rising efforts to begin and fund non-public firms to deploy applied sciences that would alter the local weather of the planet. We additionally strongly dispute among the technical claims that sure firms have made about their choices. Learn the total story.
This story is a part of Warmth Alternate, MIT Know-how Evaluate’s visitor opinion collection providing knowledgeable commentary on authorized, political and regulatory points associated to local weather change and clear vitality. You possibly can learn the remainder of the collection right here.
Can “The Simpsons” actually predict the long run?
In accordance with web listicles, the animated sitcom The Simpsons has predicted the long run anyplace from 17 to 55 instances.
The present foresaw Donald Trump turning into US President a full 17 years earlier than the true property mogul was inaugurated because the forty fifth chief of the US. Earlier, in 1993, an episode of the present featured the “Osaka flu,” which some felt was eerily prescient of the coronavirus pandemic. And—someway!—Simpsons writers simply knew that the US Olympic curling workforce would beat Sweden eight complete years earlier than they did it.
Al Jean has labored on The Simpsons on and off since 1989; he’s the cartoon’s longest-serving showrunner. Right here, he displays on the conspiracy theories which have sprung from these obvious prophecies. Learn the total story.
—Amelia Tait
This story is a part of MIT Know-how Evaluate’s collection “The New Conspiracy Age,” about how the current growth in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and expertise.
