News

Keegan Schroeder covers the latest.

Car Companies Pledge Full Transition to Electric Vehicles

Experts in technology economics are predicting that electric cars will follow a similar boom to that seen by the internet. Technological innovations are known to follow an S-shaped (sigmoid) curve in their growth. It starts off slowly as the technology develops, followed by a period of extremely rapid growth as prices fall, and finally ending in market saturation.

It looks like electric cars are moving in a similar way, with several announcements from a variety of car manufacturers pledging a complete transition to electric vehicles. Jaguar plans to sell only electric cars from 2025, Volvo from 2030, and recently the British sportscar company Lotus said it would follow from 2028.

A big driving factor (if you’ll pardon the pun) in this move is the increased cost-effectiveness of batteries. A decade ago, it cost $1,000 per kilowatt hour of battery power. Now it is closer to $100.

Electric Cars

Michael Fousert on Unsplash

Prof Hawking's Papers and Possessions Saved for the UK Public

A 10,000-page archive of Stephen Hawking’s possessions, including childhood letters and his groundbreaking research papers concerning black holes, will be kept at the Cambridge University library. Additionally, his office will be reconstructed and displayed in the Science Museum, just down the road from Imperial College London, next year. The museum exhibit will include his custom-built wheelchairs, communications equipment, and office furniture.

One of the archive letters that I found particularly touching is one from when Prof. Hawking was just six years old, detailing a story about a pirate adventure and signed off with hugs and kisses.

Prof. Hawking was also known for appearances on several television shows such as The Big Bang Theory, Star Trek, and The Simpsons. The scripts from these episodes are also included within the archive.

Science Museum

Johen Redman on Unsplash

Mars Rover Pictures

You may remember reading about the landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover in the last edition of I, Science. In March, another NASA rover named Curiosity captured a series of images on its 3063rd Martian day of operation that depict a new type of cloud. Mars clouds are usually formed at the planet’s equator in the coldest time of year, when Mars is the farthest from the Sun. In the last Martian year, scientists noticed some clouds forming over the Curiosity rover earlier than expected.

This year, Curiosity was tasked with imaging these clouds from the moment they appeared. Previously observed clouds existed no more than 60 kilometres in the sky and were composed of ice. The clouds Curiosity has now imaged are at a higher altitude, where it’s very cold, indicating that they are most likely made of frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice. Colour images from the rover’s Mast Camera, when taken just after sunset, catch the fading light, causing the clouds to appear to glow against the darkening sky.

I’d like to think that perhaps with the rapid advances in space exploration technology that are occurring all over the globe, a lucky future individual will get the chance to see these clouds with their own two eyes, an exciting prospect!

Abstract Mars

Christian Lischka SJ on Unsplash