C Bromley

Technology never stops to amaze me. An inventor in the UK has developed the world's first synthetic biological leaf that absorbs water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen just like a plant, and it could enable long-distance space travel. The leaf, created by Royal College of Art student Julian Melchiorri, consists of chloroplasts suspended in a matrix made out of silk protein. "The material is extracted directly from the fibers of silk," Melchiorri said. The Silk Leaf project was developed as part of the Royal College of Art's Innovation Design Engineering course in collaboration with Tufts University's silk lab. Melchiorri said the leaf could also be used for outdoor applications. "So facades, ventilation systems. You can absorb air from outside, pass it through these biological filters and then bring oxygenated air inside," he said.  This material could allow us to explore space much further than we can now," said Melchiorri.

Where is the world's largest grid storage facility? Not in the 🇺🇸 USA, not in 🇨🇳 China, it's in 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia. The storage facility is located in Bisha and has a capacity of 2.5 GWh. Similar projects will follow. Saudi Arabia wants to generate 50 percent of its electricity from renewable energies in the coming years. Why Saudi Arabia in particular? Because renewables are more efficient and you earn more money in the country than inefficient oil and gas. The motto is not "Drill baby Drill" but "Sun baby Sun" and even Saudi Arabia has understood this.