“Descent”? Which way is down when you’re at the bottom?

Sick. Seems like something to keep an eye on

Ooh cool I hadn’t heard of them! My understanding from the wiki page though is that the 90% efficiency refers to energy transfer efficiency within the microwave range, rather than the conversion rate from sunlight which is theorised to be about 70%. The stuff about generating power in space using solar cells then transferring it back to earth sounds awesome, though possibly a bit impractical compared to regular solar farms.

Surprisingly not! I’d have expected photosynthesis to have similar energy efficiency to man-made solar panels, but it’s actually only around 11%. I suppose since leaves have more functions than just energy generation for a plant, it’s not usually an evolutionary imerative to maximise efficiency. There’s probably a bit of variation between different geographic regions, I’d imagine.

For a p-n junction based cell, the theoretical maximum efficiency is about 33%.

You can game this a bit using tandem cells with layers of varying bandgaps, but even as the number of layers approaches infinity the theoretical maximum only increases to about 68%. They’re also not hugely practical or cheap, obviously, and in practice they barely reach above the regular limit of 33% due to engineering constraints. There are some other ways of trying to get around it, but I don’t know of any that can approach 95% efficiency.

Worth noting that this is staggeringly high efficiency in comparison to most other energy sources, given that at the end of the day all of them ultimately come from sunlight.

It’s also a physical impossibility iirc

EVs are not the primary application for sodium ion batteries, I dont know why this post is trying to focus on that. The really exciting application is cheap grid-scale energy storage, making renewables even cheaper than they already are.

Poland.

Hear me out: none of this matters. Just another distraction from the world being run by greedy psycho billionaires

This is the stated reasoning for it https://english.cctv.com/2026/03/08/ARTIJc8xDJItXkz9P4fjkDUE260308.shtml

Fucking nutcases. At this rate troops might actually just mutiny

No :( they need a brain to work

These people fundamentally do not think about human life in a normal way.

Well actually it was the taxpayer that had 12 million quid, then gave it to a sweaty nonce for some ungodly reason

Duh

most of the worlds polution is caused by big buisness and industry.

There is definitely truth in this. But I also think it’s a dangerous attitude to perpetuate. Because blaming the majority offender can counterintuitively leading to an endless loop of passing responsibility along. Case in point when some people in relatively smaller countries argue that its not their responsibility to cut emissions because countries like China and India are the majority polluters. China and India can then point to developed countries having made more cumulative emissions over time. Eventually someone has to take a stand and make a change, even if the main impact is to initiate a cultural shift.

Trump gets:

• Venezuelan oil and mineral wealth
• cheap labour of Venezuelan people under occupation
• PR win at a time when his approval is at an all time low
• distraction from the Epstein files

Maduro gets:

• to a escape a long and bloody war he’d probably lose
• a cushy life in Florida with a new identity
• safety for his family
• escaping trial for anything he might have done during his presidency

Depends on whether anybody can quickly step in to fill the gap really

He made a deal with Trump. Maduro has abandoned venezuela. You can’t capture a national leader this easily unless they’re compliant