Interesting Ideas

Galegine compound in plant formed blueprint for metformin drug, but without the toxic side-effects

Goat’s rue or French lilac, Galega officinalis, is a wild plant and often grown in gardens for its clusters of attractive lilac or white flowers. For a long time the plant was also used to treat diabetes. Its key ingredient was later identified as galegine, which lowers blood glucose levels but has toxic side-effects.

Eventually galegine led to the development of the synthetic drug metformin, now the classic treatment for treating diabetes by controlling blood sugar. Metformin has none of the toxic side effects of galegine and is now one of the most prescribed drugs in the world. But for many years metformin was vilified and banned in many countries because of its association with galegine.

‘Floral buzzing’, the vibrations bees use to shake pollen loose from flowers, takes more energy than previously thought

Bees use as much energy collecting pollen through “floral buzzing” as they do taking off in flight, a study shows.

Scientists have found the vibrations bumblebees use to shake pollen loose from flowers are among the most exhausting behaviours they perform, forcing bees to “carefully choose” which flowers are worth visiting.

Like many informal settlements, communities that have sprung up on the edges of Ayacucho in the Andes are on the frontline of extreme weather events

In December 2009, a late‑afternoon storm unleashed torrential rain over Ayacucho, in Peru, hitting poor hillside neighbourhoods hard. The deluge overwhelmed drainage systems, turning streams into lethal flows of mud, stones and debris that flooded houses and streets and trapped drivers at a busy junction.

Ten people died, 18 were injured, and 530 houses were destroyed or damaged, according to a government inquest. “It was a disaster,” recalls Edgar Castro, a leader in Ayacucho’s largest informal neighbourhood, Mollepata.

Kestrel Supercomputer Advanced More Than 500 Energy Modeling and Simulation Projects By Julia Medeiros Coad The National Laboratory of the Rockies’ (NLR’s) advanced computing capabilities continue to grow with the demands and complexities of applied energy research, with key upgrades to the laboratory’s Kestrel supercomputer supporting hundreds of projects with ... [continued]

The post How High-Performance Computing and AI Accelerated Applied Energy Research in 2025 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Global study finds wrappers, bottles and lids on shorelines of 93% of countries analysed as UN talks to tackle issue stall

Plastic food wrappers, bottles, lids and caps are by far the most common items of litter found on the world’s shorelines, a study has found.

Researchers looked at data from more than 5,300 surveys of coastal litter to produce the first global analysis of its kind. They found the data in 355 existing studies on the subject.

We used to think of the US Environmental Protection Agency as the site where groundbreaking scientific research took place. One of the most important areas of inquiry by its scientific staff was released to the public in 2009, when the US EPA found that greenhouse gas emissions threatened public health ... [continued]

The post How EPA Cuts Will Affect US Lives For Generations To Come appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Landmark report calls for widespread air conditioning and says UK temperatures forecast to exceed 40C by 2050

• Britain must think like a hot country – otherwise inequalities will only grow

British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough.

Air conditioning should be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years, and in all schools within 25 years, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which published a major report on adapting to the impacts of global heating on Wednesday.

Ontario does not need another storage technology startup searching for a problem today. It needs capacity, flexibility, and reliability in specific places where the grid is constrained and where new generation and wires take years to build. That is the right way to look at Hydrostor’s proposed Quinte Energy Storage ... [continued]

The post Hydrostor’s Underground Pumped Hydro Ontario Storage Plan Runs Into the BESS Benchmark appeared first on CleanTechnica.

After writing an article about how much cheaper it is to “fuel” an electric car than a gas car, something crossed my mind: I should do a comparison of the Hyundai Santa Fe and the Hyundai IONIQ 5! If you haven’t been following along, a friend of mine recently decided ... [continued]

The post $1,845 to Fuel Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid vs. $283 to Fuel Hyundai IONIQ 5 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Chancellor’s planning shake-up would ‘reduce exposure from judicial review on all but human rights grounds’

Rachel Reeves is ​preparing to announce a planning shake-up ‌that would fast-track clean energy ​and infrastructure projects by curbing judicial reviews, the ​Treasury has said.

The chancellor will propose that parliament should be able to designate and approve the most important clean energy projects as of “critical national importance”, as part of a wider package seeking to soften the economic blow from the Iran crisis.

For 150 years, the Mease had been altered by human hands, which destroyed habitats. But in 2013, a restoration project began – and now its wetlands are abuzz with wildlife

‘A noisy river is a healthy river,” says Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust (TRT). The Mease in the Midlands must be in fine fettle, then, as it gurgles merrily along. Sunlight glints off riffles in the water and shoals of fry dart past. Needham whips out her phone to video the tiny fish: “My colleagues will be jumping for joy to see them!”

Needham has good reason to be buoyant. Last month, the Mease won the UK River prize 2026 – which was established by the River Restoration Centre in 2014 to acknowledge innovative projects – in recognition of the trust’s 13-year restoration campaign. “The prize has been a massive boost,” says Needham. “If we can get the Mease into better condition, we can improve other rivers, too.”

‘We wanted to get people to work together’ … Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust

Young Americans are suing the president for violating rights with executive orders that fuel the climate crisis

Eva Lighthiser was at a dorm party on her Colorado college campus last month when she had to call it an early night.

“I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go to bed, I’m flying out to Portland tomorrow,’ and then of course follow-up questions get raised,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a lot to explain.’”

In the Annual Energy Outlook 2026 (AEO2026), our long-term outlook, we project electricity consumed by data center servers will increase across the commercial building stock, increasing more in standalone data centers than in all other data center rooms combined. By 2050, server consumption alone reaches between 446 billion kilowatthours (BkWh) and 818 ... [continued]

The post Data Center Server Energy Use Grows Across The Commercial Building Stock appeared first on CleanTechnica.

As new settlers clear their forest habitat, the apes are coming into conflict with humans. But simply moving them to another part of the forest may not be the answer

• Support for this article was provided by a grant from the Pulitzer Center

The banana skins were an ominous sign. As was the branch that had been broken off to get to the fruit. Had Edi Ramliwalked into the forest, he might have seen scattered balls of bark that had been ripped off trees, chewed like gum, then spat out. It takes a powerful jaw to do that. Closer to Edi’s home, there was an intricate construction of bent and broken branches high in a tree. The nest.

It was October, the fruiting season. The pile of half-eaten bananas was less than a minute’s walk from where Edi and his family slept. He felt nervous. He got on with his day. He picked sweetcorn and sold it at the market. He bought a carton of chocolate milk and biscuits for his grandson. He and his wife, Siti Munawaroh, ran the farm with their three adult children. They prepped the land, sowed seeds, tended crops. Survival depended on what they could grow.

If you have been following the EV charging market in the US, you know there has been great progress made in the last year or so. Despite the Trump administration trying to stop the growth of electric vehicles in the US, more and more public EV chargers have been installed. ... [continued]

The post First EV Chargers Installed At Large Restaurant Chain appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Ukrainians lament appalling toll of fighting on their country’s bird population

Russia sent kamikaze drones to attack the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in February. They hit buildings and killed several people. One unreported victim of the bombardment was a male long-eared owl, blinded in one eye and found with a badly broken wing. A passerby scooped up the stunned bird, put him in a box and took him to the city of Dnipro.

The owl – nicknamed Sunny – is now recovering in a cosy room belonging to Veronica Konkova. No longer able to fly or hunt, Sunny instead hops around.

Ah, yes, of course — who wants to burn gas fast when it costs $4.43/gallon?! But, look, I got your attention. Naturally, people want to save money on gas right now. One thing early-generation electric vehicle owners can tell you is there’s one big, obvious way to reduce your gas ... [continued]

The post The Best Way to Burn 100 Gallons of Gasoline Fast appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Bioprospecting Tool Could Boost Critical Mineral Refining By Anna Squires Throughout the 1800s, naturalists journeyed to far-flung corners of the world to catalog birds, mammals, minerals, and plants. Now, a team of U.S. researchers is assembling a catalog of their own: an atlas of naturally occurring proteins capable of binding ... [continued]

The post New “Atlas” Will Catalog Proteins That Bind to Rare Earth Elements appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Free Software Will Help Industry Understand the Full Value of Energy Projects Energy productivity—the measure of how much economic value is generated for every unit of energy used—can be underestimated when multiple benefits are overlooked. Multiple benefits are the operational and strategic improvements—such as productivity gains, quality enhancements, safety improvements, reduced downtime, ... [continued]

The post JUSTIFI Tool Could Unlock Value in Energy Productivity Projects appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Should a man who cannot make automatic windshield wipers work be trusted to make cars that drive themselves?

The post Tesla, Wipers, And The Malevolent Mr. Musk appeared first on CleanTechnica.