Technology

For decades, Cory Doctorow has been one of the sharpest critics of the digital world—a bestselling science-fiction writer, journalist, co-editor of Boing Boing, and longtime advocate for digital rights and an open internet. His latest nonfiction book, 'The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI,' takes aim at the hype, fear, and confusion surrounding artificial intelligence.

Hydrogen has long been envisioned as the ideal clean energy source for society. Used as a fuel, it releases only water as it is burned. Thus, it could be a direct replacement for fossil fuels in applications where it is difficult to find viable clean alternatives. In fuel cells, hydrogen can be used to generate electricity. But hydrogen faces a major problem: where to obtain it.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.Not all answers given by artificial intelligence-powered chatbots are equal. It can be that, based on what language users might ask their question, a chatbot may give a different response.We’ll speak with a researcher who was part of a time that examined how government media control affects AI.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.Not all answers given by artificial intelligence-powered chatbots are equal. It can be that, based on what language users might ask their question, a chatbot may give a different response.We’ll speak with a researcher who was part of a time that examined how government media control affects AI.

Lithium is driving the global energy transition, being used in the batteries that power electric cars and in the huge banks used for renewable energy storage. Demand for lithium continues to grow with the battery supply chain (from mining to recycling) being projected to reach a market value of $400 billion and create 18 million new jobs.

Renewable energy in the US is facing serious headwinds under the current administration but one area that is absolutely booming is the manufacturing of battery storage technology for the grid. The legislation in 2025 that put the brakes on multiple aspects of green energy maintained the Biden-era incentives for domestic energy manufacturing and grid battery projects.

Data centers currently consume nearly 5% of the electricity generated in the United States and estimates are that the amount will more than double over the next five years. They could consume up to 12% of our electricity by 2030.

Over the month of March, renewable energy sources generated more electricity than was produced from natural gas plants for the first time. This is an impressive milestone considering that renewable energy is under attack from the current administration. On an overall basis, emissions-free sources, which include renewables as well as nuclear energy, produced more than half of the country’s electricity. This is only the third time this has happened for an entire month.

Plug-in solar systems are small, pre-configured solar panels with microinverters that plug directly into standard household outlets to reduce electricity bills. They are easy to install on balconies, roof decks, or backyard fences and are not permanently attached. They are popular in Europe but not widely available or even legalized in most of the United States. In fact, Utah was the first state to legalize the systems in March 2025.

Mitigating climate change requires reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Not emitting more of it is a key part of the effort but taking some out of the atmosphere will also be important. Direct air capture is the process by which this happens.