World In Progress
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19744213 > The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest. They’re tall and ungainly. The windshields are vast. Their hoods resemble a duck bill. Their bumpers are enormous. > > “You can tell that (the designers) didn’t have appearance in mind,” postal worker Avis Stonum said. > > Odd appearance aside, the first handful of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles that rolled onto postal routes in August in Athens, Georgia, are **getting rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to cantankerous older vehicles** that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down — and even catching fire. > > **Within a few years, the fleet will have expanded to 60,000, most of them electric models**, serving as the Postal Service’s primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.
news.northwestern.edu
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10508698 > In a new study, the scientists show that their synthetic melanin, mimicking the natural melanin in human skin, can be applied topically to injured skin, where it accelerates wound healing. These effects occur both in the skin itself and systemically in the body. > > When applied in a cream, the synthetic melanin can protect skin from sun exposure and heals skin injured by sun damage or chemical burns, the scientists said. The technology works by scavenging free radicals, which are produced by injured skin such as a sunburn. Left unchecked, free radical activity damages cells and ultimately may result in skin aging and skin cancer. Let's hope this can be in production in the coming years as this really could help people in many ways. Read the link for a pretty good ELI5 to understand what melanin does and why it works.
www.theguardian.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10468036 > The EU has announced €4bn (£3.4bn) of state aid investments in new factories producing electric batteries for cars, heat pumps and solar panels as it seeks to accelerate production and the uptake of green technologies and combat cheap Chinese imports. > > The Swedish battery producer Northvolt will receive €902m in state aid to build a new factory in Heide in Germany, while a wide range of clean tech factories in France are to get a €2.5bn bump in state aid.
**Following the discovery of the rock, Jan Christian Vestre, Norway’s minister of trade and industry, said Norway had an “obligation” to develop “the world’s most sustainable mineral industry”.** Once mined, the ore can be processed into phosphoric acid and supply a broad range of uses, including lithium-iron-phosphate batteries and animal feed. “When you find something of that magnitude in Europe, which is larger than all the other sources we know - it is significant,” founder and deputy CEO of Norge Mining, Michael Wurmser told news website Euractiv. "We believe the phosphorus that we can produce will be important to the West - it provides autonomy," he continued. However, the refining of phosphorus has historically been very carbon intensive, which is partly why there has been little production in Europe in recent years. Norge Mining plans to use carbon capture and storage to offset the environmental impact of production, though the efficacy of these technologies is often called into question. It wasn’t just phosphate that was discovered at the site. Large deposits of critical raw materials titanium - used frequently for joint replacements and in building aeroplanes - and vanadium - used to strengthen steel - were also present. - [from the article.](https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/07/10/huge-mineral-discovery-in-norway-could-supply-battery-and-solar-panels-for-the-next-100-ye)