1
Energy Production and Consumption
Explore data on how energy production and use varies across the world.
Most cited
Posts that commenters keep linking to, ranked by how many different people have cited them in Hacker News comments. 27 posts.
2
If the world adopted a plant-based diet, we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares
We could reduce the amount of land used for grazing and croplands used to grow animal feed.
3
Electricity Mix
Explore data on where our electricity comes from and how this is changing.
4
Which form of transport has the smallest carbon footprint?
How can individuals reduce their emissions from transport?
5
Where does the plastic in oceans come from?
Which countries and rivers emit the most plastic to the ocean? What does this mean for solutions to tackle plastic pollution?
6
Surgical masks reduce Covid-19 spread, large-scale Stanford study shows
Researchers found that surgical masks impede the spread of COVID-19 and that just a few, low-cost interventions increase mask-wearing compliance.
7
Energy Mix
Explore global data on where our energy comes from, and how this is changing.
8
Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions
Modern doomsayers have been predicting climate and environmental disaster since the 1960s. They continue to do so today. None of the apocalyptic predictions with due dates as of today have come true. What follows is a collection of notably wild predictions from notable people in government and science.
9
Is soy a key driver of deforestation?
The world loses 5 million hectares of forest each year. What activities are driving this?
10
Sector by sector: where do global greenhouse gas emissions come from?
Globally, we emit around 50 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases yearly. Where do these emissions come from? We take a look, sector-by-sector.
11
Deforestation and Forest Loss
Explore long-term changes in deforestation and deforestation rates across the world today.
12
Viral Loads Similar Between Vaccinated and Unvaccinated People
A new study from the University of California, Davis, Genome Center, UC San Francisco and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub shows no significant difference in viral load between vaccinated and unvaccinated people who tested positive for the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. It also found no significant difference between infected…
13
Cars, planes, trains: where do CO₂ emissions from transport come from?
Transport accounts for around one-fifth of global CO₂ emissions. Three-quarters of this is from road transport.
14
U.S. Adults' Estimates of COVID-19 Hospitalization Risk
Americans' estimates of both the risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 and the efficacy of the vaccine for the disease vary widely by their political affiliation and vaccination status.
15
Safety of Nuclear Energy
Explore global data on nuclear energy production and the safety of nuclear technologies.
16
Merck Statement on Ivermectin use During the COVID-19 Pandemic
KENILWORTH, N.J., Feb. 4, 2021 – Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today affirmed its position regarding use of ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic. Company scientists continue to carefully examine the findings of all available and emerging studies of ivermectin for the…
17
How death rates from Covid-19 differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated
To understand how the pandemic is evolving, it’s crucial to know how death rates from COVID-19 are affected by vaccination status.
18
United States - CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Country Profile
Data on the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions
19
MIT-designed project achieves major advance toward fusion energy
For the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created. The demonstration helps resolve the greatest uncertainty in the quest to build the first fusion power plant that can produce more energy than…
20
Simple, solar-powered water desalination (2020)
A completely passive solar-powered desalination system developed by researchers at MIT and in China could provide more than 1.5 gallons of fresh drinking water per hour for every square meter of solar collecting area. Such systems could potentially serve off-grid arid coastal areas to provide an efficient, low-cost…
21
Nuclear energy is long-term sustainable
Some people claim nuclear fuel is inexhaustible and circular, others say we'll run out soon. We do the math. Turns out, it's roughly as inexhaustible as sunlight.
22
Wildfire restored a Yosemite watershed
Half a century of allowing lightning fires to burn in Yosemite’s Illilouette Creek Basin has recreated a lost forest ecosystem that is far more resilient to the impacts of drought, wildfire and climate change
23
24
The Inconsistency of Arithmetic (2011)
Note: These pages make extensive use of the latest XHTML and CSS Standards . They ought to look great in any standards-compliant modern browser. Unfortunately, they will probably look horrible in older browsers, like Netscape 4.x and IE 4.x. Moreover, many posts use MathML, which is, currently only supported in…
25
How Audio Fingerprinting Works
An intuitive explanation of how audio fingerprinting works helping users in identifying music from short snippets
26
Plunge in lithium-ion battery costs
The cost of lithium-ion batteries for phones, laptops, and cars has plunged over the years, and an MIT study shows just how dramatic that drop has been. The change is akin to that of solar and wind energy, and further declines may yet be possible, the researchers say.
27
Researchers shrink camera to the size of a salt grain
Researchers at Princeton University and the University of Washington have developed an ultracompact camera the size of a coarse grain of salt. The new system can produce crisp, full-color images on par with a conventional compound camera lens 500,000 times larger in volume.