Latest Articles

Hot tram! Old trolleys are the new classic cars [SLIDESHOW]

After nearly going extinct in the ’60s, vintage streetcars are returning to the rails in downtowns from Philly to San Francisco. Here's what it looks like when mass transit goes retro.

Soup & Bread: Inspiring a community of giving [Recipes]

Check out an excerpt from a new cookbook that celebrates a popular winter food tradition, and the community event it inspired.

Myhrvold finds we need clean energy yesterday (and no natural gas) to avoid being cooked

Former Microsoft exec Nathan Myhrvold built a specialized set of models to answer the question: What effect will deployment of clean energy have on global temperature? The results are in ... and grim.

Terrifying video envisions a world where education is anti-science

Step for a moment into this chilling alternative reality, in which fine young men and women believe “gravity is just a theory” and “cigarettes aren’t addictive”: The video is from the Climate Reality Project, Al Gore’s current climate-change fighting outfit. What do y’all find the most terrifying moment? I lose it around “Scientists are, like, […]

Liquid battery electric vehicle could charge in three minutes

“Flow” batteries, i.e. batteries filled with a liquid electrolyte that can be pumped out and replenished, have the potential to transform the process of charging an electric vehicle into something that more closely resembles filling it up with gas.

New revelations about how Fukushima almost forced the evacuation of Tokyo

During the most dire period in the Fukushima meltdown, the president of Japanese utility company Tepco tried to evacuate all workers at the stricken reactor. If that order went through, it would have precipitated a worst-case scenario and ultimately the evacuation of Tokyo.

Peel-off solar panels could make solar competitive with coal

Ultra-thin solar cells that can be "peeled off" from larger pieces of silicon like delicious fruit roll-ups could be the key to making solar competitive with coal, say researchers at MIT.

All you need to know about TransCanada’s new plan for Keystone XL

Keystone XL lives! TransCanada announced its next two moves in its fight to get the tar-sands pumping pipeline built, and its strategy now involves splitting the project into two parts.

Out of reach: How sprawl jacks up the cost of ‘affordable’ housing

We've poured billions in to low-income housing deep in the suburbs and far from mass transit. The result? Just getting to work and back and paying rent can gobble up half a family's income. Now, affordable housing is getting a facelift.

Watch Republicans try valiantly to be funny by mocking Chevy Volt

Aw, look, they’re trying to make jokes! I’m going to print this right out and hang it on the fridge in a frame that says My First Satire.