Science

Agrivoltaics – combining land for solar and agriculture – is a genuine win-win. It allows a single piece of land to produce both food and clean energy at the same time. Around the world, farmers are finding that solar infrastructure creates microhabitats that boost resilience, improve yields and reduce water stress. For the agriculture: ✅ Shade from the panels lower ground temperatures and reduces evaporation. In arid areas, this has doubled or even tripled crop yields while cutting irrigation needs by half. ✅ Shade-tolerant crops like lettuce, kale, berries and broccoli thrive under reduced heat stress, especially during extreme weather. ✅ Higher soil moisture also promotes healthier pasture, leading to more nutritious forage for grazing animals. For solar operators: ✅ Sheep naturally keep vegetation under control, reducing mowing and maintenance costs and lowering fire risk. They also prevent plants from shading the panels. ✅ Crops underneath the panels help to cool the modules, improving performance on hot days. And the animals benefit too. A 3-year study of 1,700 sheep at the Wellington Solar Farm in NSW found the sheep produced higher quality wool and more of it. The arrays offer shade in summer, shelter during storms and cooler microclimates throughout the day. Economically it's a strong proposition: - Landowners gain a stable income stream while keeping land productive. - Developers access more viable sites with fewer permitting hurdles. - Communities retain agricultural land and benefit from local investment and tax revenue. And in the US, a significant "solar grazing" industry is emerging, where farmers become vegetation managers. They rent out flocks of sheep to solar farm owners and the sheep trim the vegetation. Agrivoltaics is showing that solar and agriculture don’t have to compete for land. They can thrive together – and create more value in the process. Image credit: Enel Green Power #energy #renewables #energytransition

MIT just cleared 50% of Alzheimer's plaques using 40 Hz sound waves. No drugs. No surgery. Just precisely engineered frequencies making immune cells devour toxic proteins. Frequency is becoming medicine's most powerful tool. Think about that. While we've spent decades failing with Alzheimer's drugs, MIT researchers discovered something extraordinary: exposing brains to 40 Hz gamma frequencies activates microglia—the brain's cleanup crew—to clear amyloid plaques naturally. Mice regained memory. Human trials are showing promise. This isn't alternative medicine. It's FDA-approved precision. Traditional Brain Treatment: ↳ Invasive surgery with months of recovery ↳ Drugs that barely slow decline ↳ Blood-brain barrier blocking 98% of medications ↳ Essential tremor requiring skull opening The Frequency Revolution: ↳ 60% tremor reduction in one ultrasound session ↳ Same-day discharge, no incisions ↳ Drug delivery increased 5-fold to brain tumors ↳ 90+ clinical trials transforming neurology But here's what stopped me cold: Focused ultrasound doesn't destroy tissue—it tunes it. Opening the blood-brain barrier for exactly 4 hours to deliver chemotherapy. Synchronizing neurons at 40 Hz to trigger natural healing. Making Parkinson's tremors vanish while patients stay awake, go home that afternoon. We're not attacking disease anymore. We're conducting it away. What changes everything: ↳ Brain surgery without cutting ↳ Alzheimer's clearing without drugs ↳ Tumors targeted without systemic poison ↳ Healing through harmony, not harm The Multiplication Effect: 1 frequency device = surgery avoided 10 hospitals equipped = tremor wards emptying 100 conditions targeted = non-invasive becomes standard At scale = medicine's violent era ends Stanford uses ultrasound for depression. Johns Hopkins for addiction. Mayo Clinic for brain tumors. Each discovering that precisely tuned frequencies can reprogram biology better than any drug. We spent centuries cutting and poisoning disease. Now we're tuning it out of existence. Because when 40 Hz can clear plaques that billion-dollar drugs couldn't touch, and ultrasound can perform brain surgery without a scalpel, we're not just advancing medicine. We're using medical precision. Follow me, Dr. Martha Boeckenfeld for breakthroughs where physics becomes pharmacy. ♻️ Share if you want other to learn about new possibilities to fight Alzheimer. Resources: Gamma frequency entrainment attenuates amyloid load and modifies microglia" Authors: Li-Huei Tsai et al. NatureDecember 2016 DOI: 10.1038/nature20587. Gamma frequency sensory stimulation in mild probable Alzheimer’s dementia: Phase 2A pilot study" PLOS Biology, November 30, 2022 Evidence that 40Hz gamma stimulation promotes brain health,” Li-Huei Tsai, PLOS Biology, 2025.

I interviewed 20 sustainability managers 🎙️ That's their #1 pain point 🤕 ➡️ "Reporting is 1st. Impact is 2nd". Challenges that I can see with sustainability in companies: ❌ Competing frameworks confuse. ❌ Data collection becomes more important than actual impact ❌ Disconnect between reporting teams and operational teams ❌ Excessive time spent on documentation. ❌ Risk of greenwashing through selective reporting (I am sure you have your observations to add🙄) 5 secrets to turn this into the biggest opportunity for change: ✅ Use reporting to clarify sustainability vision 100%. ✅ Identify in-company 'spoilers' - and engage them! ✅ Change sustainability reporting from 'a burden' for all, to an 'invitation to do good' for each individual. ✅ Turn deadlines into celebration moments for internal change. ✅ Use data requirements as opportunities to understand the entire value chain (and opportunities for change). You know the pain ?🧐 📲 Ping me to re-write the script on your sustainability reporting ♻️ #circulareconomy #zerowaste #sustainability

🌍 We Can’t Afford to Get Climate Policy Wrong—A Look at the Data Behind What Really Works 🌍 In the race against time to combat climate change, bold promises are everywhere. But here’s the critical question: Are the policies being implemented actually reducing emissions at the scale we need? A groundbreaking study published in Science, cuts through the noise and delivers the insights we desperately need. Evaluating 1,500 climate policies from around the world, the research identifies the 63 most effective ones—policies that have delivered tangible, significant reductions in emissions. What’s striking is that the most successful strategies often involve combinations of policies, rather than single initiatives. Think of it as the ultimate teamwork: when policies like carbon pricing, renewable energy mandates, and efficiency standards are combined thoughtfully, the impact is far greater than any one policy could achieve on its own. It’s a powerful reminder that for climate solutions the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. Moreover, the study’s use of counterfactual emissions pathways is a game changer. By showing what would have happened without these policies, it provides a clear, quantifiable measure of their effectiveness. This is exactly the kind of rigorous evaluation we need to ensure that every policy counts, especially when we’re working against the clock. If we’re serious about meeting the Paris Agreement’s targets, we need to focus on what works—and this research offers a clear roadmap. Let’s champion policies that have proven to make a difference, because we don’t have time to waste on anything less. 🔗 Full study in the comments #ClimateAction #Sustainability #PolicyEffectiveness #ParisAgreement #NetZero #ClimateScience

🍱 How To Design Complex Data Tables (+ Figma Kits). Practical techniques and useful tools to design better data tables on mobile and desktop (scroll down for the newsletter) ↓ ✅ Start with observing, collecting and prioritizing user needs. ✅ Define complex functionality (drag-n-drop, resizing, reshuffling). ✅ Define logic and permissions (read-only, comment-only, editable). ✅ Decide on truncation, wrapping, stretching and resizing rules. ✅ Draw a table tree diagram that covers all needed features. 🤔 Users don’t expect tables to be the same on mobile/desktop. 🤔 But they do expect features that they rely on to exist in both. 🚫 Row-column-data-tables are terribly inefficient on mobile. ✅ Think about the data alone, rather than its tabular structure. ✅ See how to aggregate data and span it across fewer columns. 🤔 Users rarely navigate through all columns in the table. ✅ Let them show and hide columns (“Columns” button). ✅ There, let them also re-arrange, lock and reset columns. ✅ Abbreviate dates, long labels, units of measure, currency. 🚫 But: don’t rely on tooltips or hover to show critical details. Show only what users really need. Think “card”, not “row” to present a single record of data. Aggregate and re-group data across the table. You might not always need labels, but keep them available to screen reader users. And most importantly: re-organize, rethink and redesign data, rather than squeezing a multi-column table layout in a narrow mobile space. Useful resources: Data Grids and Tables Figma Kits, by Goldman Sachs https://www.figma.com/@gs How To Design Data Tables (+ Figma Kits), by Jordan Hughes https://lnkd.in/eAVuzbfw Designing A Complex Table For Mobile, by Joe Winter 🏳️🌈 https://lnkd.in/eeKVfKR5 How Screen Readers Navigate Data Tables, by Léonie Watson https://lnkd.in/eCQRrz6c Enterprise UX: Data Tables, by Stéphanie Walter https://lnkd.in/eCQRrz6c Architecting A Complex Data Table (+ Features Tree), by Slava Shestopalov https://lnkd.in/eWSZqHWt --- 👋🏼 I'm Vitaly Friedman, and you can find useful UX resources on my profile. I’m also running “Smart Interface Design Patterns” 🍣 (https://lnkd.in/epY4RmXR) with a friendly video library and live UX training. 😊 #ux #design

Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions 🌎 In the pursuit of net zero targets, transparency in emissions reporting is key for organizations. A believable claim to net zero requires clear communication about the organization's total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the methods used to measure them. The initial step in this journey is for an organization to quantify and understand its GHG emissions, which are broadly classified into three scopes: ▪ Scope 1: Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. ▪ Scope 2: Indirect GHG emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heat, and cooling consumed by the organization. ▪ Scope 3: All other indirect emissions that occur in the value chain of the organization, both upstream and downstream. Comprehensive GHG accounting of both operational footprint (scopes 1 and 2) and the wider indirect emissions (scope 3) forms the basis of this understanding. Additionally, organizations must verify their consolidation and boundary-setting approaches to ensure accurate and complete emissions reporting. Conducting a hotspot analysis is also crucial to pinpoint where the most significant emissions occur within the operations and value chain. Regular measurement of emissions is an essential practice for organizations on the path to net zero, enabling them to track progress, identify opportunities for reduction, and demonstrate real commitment to a sustainable future. Source: South Pole #sustainability #sustainable #climatechange #climateaction #netzero #emissions #transparency

For decades, we’ve been told “we need to save the planet”. But the truth is, the planet will be fine. Over billions of years it’s weathered asteroid impacts, ice ages, and mass extinctions at a scale we can hardly imagine. What’s at stake now is something far more fragile: us. That’s the message at the heart of a new Lancet article which argues that as the climate warms and ecosystems falter, we are no longer facing a purely environmental crisis, but a full-scale public health emergency. Environmental breakdown is no longer altering only forests, coastlines, and deserts. It is disrupting the very foundations of human health and wellbeing: our bodies. The true costs of planetary breakdown are not found in charts. They are found in neonatal units and cancer registries, in stolen potential, and in the quiet grief of families facing wholly preventable illnesses and deaths. Recognising that human and planetary health are inseparable should not just sharpen our sense of urgency, it must fundamentally reshape how we govern, invest, and lead. For the last 150 years, we have been dismantling the very foundations of prosperity and doing so in the name of prosperity itself. There was a time where we could feign ignorance, but that time has long passed. The science is clear. The risks are measurable. The costs are already being paid in hospital admissions, in economic disruption, and in the slow erosion of public trust. What remains in doubt is not the data, but whether those in power are prepared to govern in accordance with the world as it is, not as it once was.

My colleague Prof. Eleanor Maguire passed away this weekend after a long battle with cancer. Her contributions to #neuroscience have shaped how we understand memory and navigation, leaving a lasting legacy. One of Eleanor’s groundbreaking discoveries was that when a London taxi driver learns the 25,000 windy streets of London together with thousands of landmarks (collectively called “the Knowledge”), it physically changes their #brain. A part of the brain called the #hippocampus is important both for making new memories and for navigating one’s environment. For aspiring black cab drivers, learning the Knowledge pushes the hippocampus to adapt in remarkable ways. Eleanor and her colleagues used #MRI to measure the hippocampus in taxi drivers compared to a control group and discovered it was larger in the taxi drivers. In other words, London cabbies have special brains that are particularly well suited for their work. This raises a really interesting question: Are they born with a larger hippocampus and therefore better able to become taxi drivers or does learning the Knowledge change their brains? To answer this, Eleanor and her team ran a follow-up study where they followed 39 trainee taxi drivers from the beginning of their training to when qualified approximately 4 years later. Each received a brain scan at the beginning and end of their training. 👉 Before training, the aspiring taxi drivers showed no difference in hippocampus size compared to matched control volunteers. 👉 After training, the newly qualified taxi drivers were found to have larger hippocampi than they did 4 years ago and also larger than the control volunteers. In other words, even as an adult, learning the Knowledge has a strong effect on the brain that can be measured using MRI. Eleanor’s work has become one of the most well-known examples of #neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s remarkable ability to change and adapt throughout life. A few years ago, a group of students were visiting UCL’s Functional Imaging Lab. They had learned about her taxi study in their A-level psychology class so when they discovered that Eleanor worked there, there was a frenzy of excitement! They couldn’t believe that they got to meet the “Maguire” whose work they had read in school. It was absolutely charming! Although best known for work with taxi drivers, Eleanor made substantial contributions to memory and hippocampal function including: 👉 Discovering that patients with amnesia cannot imagine the future 👉 Showing that it is possible to decode individual memories by analysing patterns of activity in the hippocampus 👉 Clarifying the relation between memory for life episodes, the ability to imagine the future, and the ability to navigate spatial environments Eleanor’s work is a powerful reminder of the brain’s potential to adapt and grow throughout life. May her legacy inspire all of us to keep learning and exploring the frontiers of science.

Extreme heat is becoming the new normal. A new study in Nature Sustainability finds that if global warming reaches 2°C, the number of people exposed to extreme heat will more than double by 2050. 📊 From 1.5 billion people (23%) in 2010 ➡️ to nearly 3.8 billion people (41%) by mid-century. 🔴 The biggest shift happens early, around the 1.5°C threshold. This means adaptation cannot wait for the future. It must happen now. Key implications: 🌍 No part of the world is immune, not even temperate, high-income countries 🏙️ Cities and buildings designed for cold are increasingly unfit for heat ⚡ Energy systems will shift from heating-dominated to cooling-dominated demand 🏥 Health systems, labour productivity, education, and food security are all at risk ❄️ Air conditioning demand is set to overtake heating globally with major equity and emissions implications It is a systems issue, spanning energy, infrastructure, public health, and development. 👉 Early warnings, climate-informed energy planning, heat-resilient buildings, and data-driven adaptation are no longer optional. Because there is no adaptation pathway on a 2°C world that doesn’t involve heat. read the article here https://lnkd.in/eg8pwBMt

“Our messaging is not working” Enrique Ortiz, a veteran conservationist and founding member of the Andes Amazon Fund, has spent decades translating the complexities of ecosystems into action. But in his recent commentary for Mongabay, he issues a striking critique—not of science itself, but of how it’s conveyed. “Facts are not the most important part,” Ortiz writes. “The current narrative needs a re-thinking.” That rethinking, he argues, begins not with more data, but with deeper insight into how people process information, make decisions, and respond emotionally to the world around them. Ortiz’s concern is not that people are unaware of climate change. In fact, the majority of the global population acknowledges it. But many remain unmoved, caught in a web of abstract language, ideological filters, and emotional distance. Scientific accuracy, while essential, often falters in the face of cognitive and cultural barriers. Ortiz points to the findings of cognitive scientists and neuroscientists: facts rarely shift belief systems. Instead, people gravitate toward stories, experiences, and social cues. “When facing uncertainty,” he notes, “humans make decisions that are satisfactory, rather than optimal.” This disconnect, Ortiz argues, is especially clear in environmental communication. Words like “rewilding,” “green,” or “ecological” may have once inspired clarity, but have since become muddled through overuse or conflicting interpretations. Worse, they sometimes trigger skepticism or backlash. In this fog of abstraction, the human connection is lost. What’s needed, Ortiz suggests, is a new narrative strategy—one that harnesses the emotional power of stories and speaks to how people actually think and feel. He draws from his own experience as an educator: while his lectures on plant-animal interactions faded from memory, it was the stories that lingered. This phenomenon, known as “narrative transportation,” isn’t mere sentimentality. It’s a neurological reality that helps ideas stick—and decisions shift. Rather than continuing to warn of catastrophe, Ortiz believes we should share stories of adaptation and resilience. From Andean farmers modifying how they grow quinoa and potatoes, to everyday consumers making environmentally conscious choices, these narratives offer agency and hope. They bridge divides and foster shared values. “Our messaging is not working,” Ortiz writes bluntly. “We need a revolution in narratives—and in how we tell them.” That revolution may begin not in the lab or the newsroom, but in the quiet space where empathy meets understanding—and where change can finally take root. 📰 His piece: https://lnkd.in/gmrWBcc5 📸 Hoatzin. My photo.