2 . New Mexico is famed for roasted green chillies with a distinctive smoky flavour, but it comes at a cost — producers in the state typically use propane (丙烷) as fuel, releasing an estimated 7,800 tonnes of CO2 a year. Ken Armijo at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) wanted to see if he could match the flavour without the need for fossil fuels.

Armijo, whose family owns a chilli farm, works with solar concentrators at NSTTF, normally used for experiments boiling liquid to produce electricity, or simulating (模拟) the effect of re-entry on materials used in spacecraft. The facility uses rings of mirrors to focus sunlight on a 60-metre tower at the centre. He improved a traditional chilli roaster and loaded it with 10 kilograms of chillies before placing it in the tower to roast at 480°C.

A group of green chilli connoisseurs (品鉴师) blind-tasted the solar-roasted version alongside the traditional variety and rated them higher for both flavour and smell. Armijo says infrared (红外线的) imaging showed solar heating produced a more even distribution (分布) of heat with fewer hotspots. “Solar-roasted chillies appeared to have a much cleaner taste because the localised heat from propane roasting can cause localised burning,” says Armijo.

Although this test took place at a research facility, Armijo says the cost of solar concentrators is dropping and it could be possible to use technology developed at Sandia to build small solar concentrators at low cost. These could produce the high temperatures needed for roasting chillies and other foods.

Armijo is eager to try the technique with other foodstuffs, including cocoa and coffee beans, which are grown in lower-income countries and could be solar roasted.

Pete Schwartz at California Polytechnic State University, who has been exploring solar cooking for many years, said that he was not sure “whether solar concentrators will catch on in lower-income countries, where he has seen many solar projects fail due to lack of training and technical support.”

Armijo says he has been approached by at least 15 companies and is in discussions on ways to commercialise the technology. He is seeking extra funding from the US Department of Energy and other organisations to pursue small solar concentrators for food processing.

3 . In a paper published recently in Nature Communications, the authors, including experts from China’s Tsinghua University, said that most of the current electricity demand in advanced, industrialized nations can be met by some combination of wind and solar power. “Wind and solar could meet more than 80 percent of demand in many places without crazy amounts of storage or additional generating ability,which is the critical point (临界点),”said co-author Steve Davis,UCI professor of Earth system science,“if we want to have a zero-carbon emission (排放) future without using fossil energy resources”.

The team analyzed 39 years’ worth of hourly energy demand data from 42 major countries to evaluate the adequacy of wind and solar power resources to serve their needs. They found that a full shift to sustainable power resources can be easier for lower-latitude (低纬度的) countries,which can rely on solar power availability throughout the year. The researchers highlighted Germany as an example of a relatively smaller country, in terms of land mass, at higher latitude which will make it more challenging to meet its electricity needs with wind and solar resources.

“Historic data show that countries which are farther from the equator (赤道) can occasionally experience periods during which there is very limited solar and wind power availability,” said lead author Dan Tong, assistant professor of Earth system science at Tsinghua University. “One recent occurrence of this phenomenon in Germany lasted for two weeks, forcing Germans to turn to dispatchable (可调度的) generation,which in many cases is provided by fossil fuel-burning plants.” Among the approaches the researchers suggested to alleviate this problem are building up generating capacity, developing long-term storage capabilities and pooling resources of multiple nations on a continental land mass to make the burden lighter to a certain country.

“Europe provides a good example to help people produce net-zero carbon electricity,” said Tong. “A lot of consistency and reliability could be provided by a system that includes solar resources from Spain, Italy and Greece with plentiful wind available in the Netherlands, Denmark and the Baltic region.”

4 . According to the American Chemistry Council, in 2018 in the United States, 27million tons of plastic ended up in landfills compared lo just 3.1 million tons that were recycled. Worldwide the numbers are similarly bad, with just 9% of plastic being recycled according to a recent OFCD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)report. The statistics are even worse for certain types of pastie. For example, out of 80,000 lens of polystyrene containers generated in the United States, a negligible amount(less than 5,000 tons) was recycled.

Now, researchers at the University of Queensland have found that a species of worm with an appetite for polystyrene could be the key to plastic recycling on a mass scale. They discovered that the Zophobas morio also called “super-worm” can eat through polystyrene, thanks to a bacterial enzyme (酶) in its “Stomach”. Dr. Chris Rilke and his team from UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience fed super-worms different diets over a three-week period, with some given polystyrene, some outer skin of grain separated from the flour, and others pul on a fasling diet.

“We found the super-worms fed a dict of just polystyrene not only survived, but even had slight weight gains,” Dr. Rilke said. “This suggests the worms can get energy from the polypropylene,most likely with the help of their internal micro-organisms. They are like mini recycling plants, tearing up the polystyrene with their mouths and then feeding it to the bacteria in their ‘stomach’. ”

Co-author of the research, PhD candidate Jiarui Sun, said they aimed to grow the bacteria in the lab and further test their ability to break down polystyrene. “We can then look into how we can upgrade this process lo a level required for an entire recycling plant,” Ms. Sun said.

5 . Since the beginning of the summer in 2022, China has been sweltering under the worst heatwave in decades. A number of people in Zhejiang, Henan, Jiangsu and Sichuan provinces were diagnosed with thermoplegia (热射病), the most severe form of heatstroke, and some even died of this disease.

In a warming world, the hazards of heatwaves are increasing. According to a study, the number of deaths caused by heatwaves in China has increased rapidly since 1979, from 3,679 persons per year in the 1980s to15,500 persons per year in the 2010s.

“Over the past four decades, the main drivers of the large increase in heatwave-related deaths in China are the rapid increase in the frequency of heatwaves, followed by population growth, population aging, and rising baseline mortality(基线死亡率),”said Prof. Huang Cunrui, a researcher from Tsinghua University.

High temperatures would accelerate the loss in soil moisture (水分) and hurt the growth of corn, cotton, trees and fruits. What’s more, each additional degree of warming will increase crop losses to insects by 10-25 percent, threatening food security for billions of people. China has witnessed a range of extreme weather events, including heavy rainfall, flooding, tornadoes and record heatwaves this year. Meteorological officials said the country had an average temperature of 21. 3 degrees Celsius in June, 0. 9 degrees Celsius higher than the same period on average, and the highest record for the same period since 1961.

Experts say that while extreme summer heat is not entirely new, these sorts of occurrences could be something that becomes a standard part of life, requiring people to start learning how to cope with heatwaves that may continue for the rest of summer and well into the future.

Remember that even healthy, young athletes can be harmed by extreme heat, so every activity, indoors or outdoors, should be evaluated when extreme heat hits. There are some ways to stay safe during extreme heat events, such as drinking plenty of water, looking for shade or remaining in shade when outside, and avoiding cooking large meals that can add heat to your indoor environment.

6 . British sculptor Jason Taylor has made it his mission to use his talent to conserve our ecosystems by creating underwater museums. Over the years, the environmentalist has put over 850 massive artworks underwater worldwide. On February 1, 2021, Taylor launched his latest work---The Underwater Museum of Cannes.

“The main goal was to bring attention to the fact that our oceans need our help,” Taylor told Dezeen. “Ocean ecologies have been destroyed by human activity in the Mediterranean over the past few decades, and it is not obvious what is taking place when observing the sea from afar.”

The Underwater Museum of Cannes contains 6 sculptures featuring local residents of various ages. They range from Maurice, an 80-year-old fisherman, to Anouk, a 9-year-old student. Towering over 6-feet-tall and weighing 10 tons, the faces are sectioned into two parts, with the outer part like a mask. The mask indicates that the world’s oceans appear powerful and unbeatable from the surface but house an ecosystem that is extremely fragile to careless human activities.

Though the waters surrounding the sculptures now appear a pristine blue, the seabed was filled with old boat engines, pipes, and other human-made trash when the project began about four years ago. Besides removing the trash, Taylor also restored the area’s seagrass. Just one square meter of the seagrass can generate up to 10 liters of oxygen daily. The seagrass also helps prevent coastal erosion and provides habitats for many ocean creatures.

“The idea of creating an underwater museum was to draw more people underwater and develop a sense of care and protection,” Taylor told Dezeen. “If we threw unwanted waste near a forest, there would be a public outcry. But this is happening every day in our surrounding waters and it largely goes unnoticed.”