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.

Class action lawsuits against Tesla have been running for a while based on the claims and promises Elon Musk has made about Tesla Full Self Driving (FSD) over the past decade. Basically, people who spent a lot of money expecting Full Self Driving to work within a reasonable period of ... [continued]

The post Oracle Exec Sues Tesla Over Full Self Driving Promises And Wins $10,600 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia – some of the highest oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters – opposed the measure

The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – which is the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said Wednesday’s general assembly vote, in which 28 countries abstained, underscored that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from the “escalating climate crisis”.

Steve Hanley wrote an article this morning about Tesla’s dysfunctional, wacky automatic windshield wipers, among other things. We happened to have a conversation earlier in the morning about them, but I didn’t realize the extent of his crisis in the pouring Florida rain, and I also didn’t share the followup ... [continued]

The post The Problem With Tesla’s NON-Automatic Windshield Wipers appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A driver in Texas decided to test "Wade Mode" in his Tesla Cybertruck. He wound up getting arrested for his trouble.

The post Epic Fail! “Hold My Beer” Cybertruck Escapade Goes Wrong In Spectacular Fashion 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.

MONACO, Monte-Carlo — Nissan Formula E Team claimed victory at Monaco in Round 10 of the 2025/26 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship with Oliver Rowland, recovering superbly from a difficult Saturday in the Principality. Lining up 12th and 14th for Saturday’s Round 9, both Rowland and teammate Norman Nato had ... [continued]

The post Nissan Formula E Team Clinches Superb Monaco Victory 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.

Optoelectronic Synapse Shows Exceptional Photoresponse for Neuromorphic Vision Like so much else in nature, the human visual system has both a complex structure and functional efficiency that is difficult for scientists to replicate. The system is both a sensor and a processor, with the eyes and the brain working together ... [continued]

The post Scientists Shine Light on Materials That Remember appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Environmental activists lock themselves to pesticide barrels in protest outside Syngenta headquarters

More than 40 people, including Greenpeace UK’s programme director, Amy Cameron, have been arrested after a protest outside pesticide company Syngenta’s Yorkshire headquarters.

A number of the activists locked themselves on to 15 blue pesticide barrels outside the headquarters, blocking the gates and leading to the temporary closure of the local A62. Activists had transformed a roundabout outside the front entrance into a giant hazard symbol carrying the message “Syngenta poisons nature” with an arrow pointing directly at the building. The action took place on World Bee day.

I first encountered these blue-and-white little vans at the BYD Shark launch more than a year ago. I was inquisitive about what made it tick, because fellow journalists were teasing that there was a diesel-powered generator that ran an inverter to charge a large battery storage system. Of course, that ... [continued]

The post ACMobility’s Power-on-Wheels Shows How Southeast Asia May Solve EV Charging Differently appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate change is pushing starving grey whales to San Francisco Bay, where ship strikes led to 40% of 21 deaths

Ferries, cargo ships and tankers cut through choppy waters in the San Francisco Bay on Tuesday as a whale surfaced nearby, its spout barely visible against the white caps. Until now, whales could easily go unnoticed by mariners, but an AI-powered detection network launched this week is designed to track them day and night.

The system, called WhaleSpotter, scans the bay around the clock for whale blows and heat signatures up to 2 nautical miles away, alerting mariners to slow down or reroute when whales are nearby.

The Youth on Track coalition presents its demands for the EU Passenger Package following the presentation of the European Commission’s set of proposals. The Youth on Track coalition, uniting youth organisations, consumer groups, and environmental NGOs, calls in an open letter to EU institutions on raising the ambition of the ... [continued]

The post Open Letter: EU Passenger Package Is A Golden Opportunity For Rail To Reach Its Full Potential appeared first on CleanTechnica.

XPENG has been quick to develop its autonomous driving capabilities. It feels like the company is still so young, and now it’s making robotaxis! A couple of days ago, the company announced “the official rollout of its first mass-produced Robotaxi in Guangzhou.” While there are other robotaxis roaming the roads ... [continued]

The post XPENG Starts Producing Robotaxis appeared first on CleanTechnica.

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

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.

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

Rachel Reeves is poised to fast-track clean energy projects in England and Wales with planning reforms to curb the use of judicial reviews against new infrastructure, the ​Treasury has said.

Under the chancellor’s proposals, parliament will 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 boost the UK’s energy security and soften the economic fallout from the Iran war.

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

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.

Hyundai Motor Group expands its Hyundai Center of Excellence (Hyundai CoE) to seven universities through four additional partnerships The expanded joint platform, India’s premier academic-industrial network for battery and electrification research, builds on the initial 2025 launch The platform is advancing 39 joint research projects through the Hyundai CoE network ... [continued]

The post Hyundai Motor Group Expands Pan-India Network to Accelerate Battery & Electrification Research appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I wondered for a while about Rivian’s timing. Tesla had already gotten huge. All automakers had electric vehicles on the market, more coming, and growing EV sales. They were all advertising their EVs at high volume — in my region, at least. How was Rivian going to squeeze its way ... [continued]

The post Rivian Has The Perfect Opening appeared first on CleanTechnica.