In the freshest apocalyptic omen since last month, the Amazon rainforest is current on fire—tens of thousands of fires, deliberately started, and greenlit by Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right, populist leader. G7 heads…
Israeli Agritech Outfit Taranis Wins $20m Funding Round
Taranis, a Tel Aviv-based startup that uses aerial imaging, field sensors and weather forecasts to optimize farming yields, has secured a $20 million capital funding round. The injection was led by Viola…
Naava Founder Aki Soudunsaari: “It’s Not Normal to Live Without Nature”
Aki Soudunsaari is founding partner, and chief entrepreneurial officer, of Naava, a Helsinki, Finland-based startup building “active green walls” that clean air with plants and technology. Despite what President Trump says, Finland…
Ukrainian Innovators Make Break for Energy Independence
Amid the fallout of Ukraine’s continued eastern conflict, its energy sector has come under intense scrutiny. The 2014 annexation of Crimea wrested a huge amount of energy potential away from the former…
Offshore Wind Energy is at a Turning Point: Next Comes Innovation
This April Germany’s Bundesnetzagentur selected four offshore wind projects–three by Danish firm DONG Energy, one by German EnBW–at an auction some have earmarked as a turning point for the industry. The reason?…
Slavutych, The Town that Chernobyl Built, Makes a Bid for a Tech Future
In Slavutych, the nuclear town created as a communist utopia 30 years ago, talk is usually fixed on half-lives. This weekend, in a function room above an Estonian restaurant, around 50 people…
Tesla Acquires SolarCity – But Markets are Unsure
Tesla has officially acquired SolarCity, the largest American provider of solar energy services. The deal, which was sealed this morning, was approved by over 85% of Tesla shareholders, and marks another significant step…
Tech Shares Wobble, Renewables Worry, on Trump Election Win
America is in a state of collective shock after last night’s surprise election victory for Republican candidate Donald Trump. As results came in and Trump’s path to the White House was paved…
As California Votes to Legalize Weed, The Drug’s Tech Industry is Enjoying High Times
The US marijuana industry is lighting up. America now has 8.4 million regular cannabis users, up from half that in 2002. Thanks largely to legalizations in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Colorado, the…
How Supercomputers and the Berlin Wall Made a Nuclear Marvel Possible
Located a ten-minute drive outside the pretty German town of Greifswald, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics has a gray-and-glass front and gently waving roof that scream ‘Science Stuff Here.’ Inside,…