Online automation tools always sound incredible. They’ll do all the hard work for you! They’ll cut endless steps out of your day! They’ll save you 77 minutes a week and let you focus on what really matters!

But then you actually try to use the things, and more often than not you practically need a degree in engineering to get them up and running.

Off-grid charging stations may have the power to improve EV infrastructure in the States.

By now you’re probably used to seeing parking lots equipped with solar-powered EV charging stations. The vast majority of these units are directly connected to the local power grid, allowing them to function even when the sun isn’t shining and solar power is at a minimum. This connection also means there’s no need for a large backup battery pack, something that can help keep prices down, too.

Image: Beam Global/Facebook

Scientists hoping to harness nuclear fusion—the same energy source that powers the Sun and other stars—have confirmed that magnetic fields can enhance the energy output of their experiments, reports a new study.

The results suggest that magnets may play a key role in the development of this futuristic form of power, which could theoretically provide a virtually limitless supply of clean energy. While this is an exciting prospect, most experts believe that it will take decades to engineer a working fusion reactor, assuming it is possible at all.

Even amid an ultra-tight U.S. jobs market, where unfilled positions outnumber people available to fill them by nearly 2 to 1, when it comes to the places where we toil, employers and workers appear to be moving away from each other. And remote work is the issue now marking the divide.

Seismic impacts on the function and philosophy of where we do our work, first wrought by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, continue to be felt by business owners and employees as new definitions of the workplace are still being written.

Image: Tyson Oldham works in his home office as his son Carson, 7, rattles his chair in Highland on Aug. 14, 2020. More and more U.S. workers want to work from home.Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

A fundamental breakthrough in chemistry promises to unlock ammonia as a clean fuel, and it could help decarbonize the entire chemical industry in the process. Rice University researchers have created a small, LED-powered device that converts ammonia to hydrogen on the fly. It uses a light-driven catalyst that's as efficient as expensive thermal catalysts that need thousand-degree temperatures to operate, and it's made from cheap, abundant copper and iron. And it's only the beginning of a technology that could radically reduce costs and energy use in industrial chemistry.

Image: Syzygy's LED-powered photoreactors and Rice University's extraordinarily effective nano-engineered photocatalysts promise an environmentally-critical revolution in industrial chemistryRice University

Many modern satellites use solar cells to continuously harvest the sun’s energy, allowing them to power their electrical circuits without significant battery storage. Yet in the harsh environment of outer space, unshielded by Earth’s atmosphere, these materials are also vulnerable – especially to solar radiation, in the form of high-energy protons and electrons that stream from the sun.

Image: Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Aerospace manufacturer Rolls-Royce said Monday it had successfully tested and run the world's first hydrogen-powered aircraft engine.

The first-of-its-kind engine could prove a significant milestone in the development of eco-friendly fuel for the aviation industry.

In a press release, Rolls-Royce said it had tested an early concept engine using hydrogen from wind and tidal power. The test was performed in collaboration with British low-cost air carrier easyJet, and officials said the hydrogen engine was a "key proof point" in the decarbonization strategies of both companies.

Whether you live in the rapidly drying American West or are aboard the International Space Station for a six-month stint, having enough water to live on is a constant concern. As climate change continues to play havoc on the West’s aquifers, and as humanity pushes further into the solar system, the potable supply challenges we face today will only grow. In their efforts to ensure humanity has enough to drink, some of NASA’s cutting-edge in-orbit water recycling research is coming back down to Earth.

Image: Johnson Space Center - NASA

There are a few sources of power that are “free” here on Earth, namely wind, solar, hydro and geothermal. Humans have been tapping hydro and wind for millennia, and we’re getting pretty good at harnessing the power of the sun. But with geothermal, we’re still not expertly exploiting the heat that’s generated deep within the planet.

Workplace bullying can take many different forms. As a leader, you need to be equipped to identify and prevent it on your team. Here’s how. Start by watching for signs of hostile bullying (for example, shouting at someone in anger). Hostility is typically triggered by resource scarcity and overall stress. To address this aggressive, overt form of bullying, reduce the pressure of unrealistic deadlines, unmanageable workloads, and toxic workplace competition—and emphasize the importance of teamwork and collective goals. You might also invest in training employees in non-violent communication. Next, look out for the signals of indirect bullying (for example, spreading rumors about someone). 

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (JHU) continues to pad its space community résumé with its interactive map, “The map of the observable Universe,” that takes viewers on a 13.7-billion-year-old tour of the cosmos from the present to the moments after the Big Bang. While JHU is responsible for creating the site, additional contributions were made by NASA, the European Space Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the Sloan Foundation.

The powerful Webb telescope doesn't need to take pretty pictures to revolutionize our grasp of the cosmos.

Astronomers focused the space observatory — which successfully reached its outpost one million miles from Earth this year — on the Saturn-like exoplanet (meaning planet beyond our solar system) WASP-39 b. It's a hot, gas giant closely orbiting a star 700 light-years away. Previously, scientists used specialized instruments aboard Webb to detect the gas carbon dioxide on this extreme world.

Image: An artist's conception of the distant exoplanet WASP-39 b. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / J. Olmsted (STScI)

The Metaverse has the potential to generate an additional $800 billion to $1.4 trillion to Asia’s gross domestic product (GDP) per year by 2035, growing into a market worth up to $13 trillion annually by 2030, according to a recent report by international consultancy Deloitte.

The report, entitled The Metaverse in Asia: Strategies for Accelerating Economic Impact, provides an in-depth evaluation of the economic opportunities the Metaverse presents for 12 of the region’s countries and territories: mainland China and Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Image: Source: Deloitte

With little hydrogen infrastructure available, Hyperion Motors plans to deploy mobile hydrogen stations to support its XP-1 fuel-cell supercar.

The Hyper:Fuel Mobile Stations, which can also be equipped with DC fast-chargers for battery-electric vehicles, will be quicker to deploy than conventional infrastructure, and can be repositioned as needed to meet real-time demand, Hyperion said in a press release.

Image: Hyperion hyperfuel mobile - Courtesy

The fifth generation of wireless network technology is expected to resolve telehealth's challenges by addressing its most limiting factor so far, that is, the network bandwidth, especially in rural areas. This is the most established use case of 5G in healthcare so far.

"As 5G rolls out, we will see more and more use cases. 5G is a huge opportunity to up the scope of reach. Data is our essence. We should tap into this data effectively. Policy framework also has to be looked at to see how effectively it can be used," said Vidur Mahajan, chief executive officer, CARPL.ai, while speaking at the IET Future Tech Congress (FTC).

Image: Unsplash

For your team to succeed, you must ensure that they are satisfied and equipped with the right tools. At the same time in many cases, that seems more difficult than it actually is.

In order to help your team excel at work, you can invest in productivity tools. Using these technologies improves time management among workers by reducing repetitive grunt work, simplifying collaboration and communications, and streamlining everyday processes.

Image: https://www.entrepreneur.com

With the after-effects of the pandemic still creating upheaval in the workforce and a recession looming on the horizon, business leaders may be anxious about finding ways to tighten their metaphorical belts while still delivering high-quality products or services to customers. While no one would choose these challenges, lean times can offer a hidden opportunity to think differently—not only about a company’s spending, but also about optimizing the people, processes, and ways of thinking that generate the greatest positive impacts.

Lyndon B. Johnson was known for his histrionics — his customary reaction to minor pain or illness was "frantic" and "hysterical," wrote Robert Caro for the New Yorker in 2012. But when under pressure — real pressure, as he was the day he became president after John F. Kennedy was assassinated — Johnson assumed a near preternatural calm.

As Caro writes, "Johnson's aides and allies knew that, for all his rages and his bellowing, his gloating and his groaning, his endless monologues, his demeanor was very different in moments of crisis, in moments when there were decisions — tough decisions, crucial decisions — to be made; that in those moments he became, as his secretary Mary Rather recalled, 'quiet and still.'"

The world faced numerous crises in 2022, and overcoming the biggest of them is going to be an immense, long-term challenge. The UN Foundation listed a few of the most pressing, covering topics from poverty to pollution, environment to equality. The greatest concerns are protecting the environment and addressing global poverty, both of which impact billions of people. But humanity is nothing if not ingenious. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and humans have been inventing things to solve problems for as long as humans have existed on Earth. Britannica highlights several inventions in the past, dating back millennia, which have revolutionized our way of life and quite literally changed the world.

In a rare piece of good news from Meta, artificial intelligence researchers at the company have just announced a scientific breakthrough. Their AI program named Cicero can now play the board game Diplomacy at a human level.

Now, before you get too excited, Cicero isn’t playing at superhuman level. It was beaten by around 10% of the humans it played against. By comparison, in previous AI milestones, like AI beating humans in chess or Go, humans have long been completely surpassed.