Researchers have recently discovered a way to make an efficient battery out of zinc -- an inexpensive, commonly found metal -- instead of the rare metals used in lithium batteries. [...]

According to Tech Xplore, this new project, led by Xiulei "David" Ji of Oregon State University, offers yet another alternative to lithium-ion batteries: accessible, efficient zinc metal batteries.

The secret is a new electrolyte developed by Ji and his team, Tech Xplore explains. A battery electrolyte is a liquid inside the battery that helps aid the chemical reactions to store and release energy.

Every flight costs thousands of dollars in fuel -- over $10,000 to cross from New York to Los Angeles and almost $30,000 to fly from New York to London. Airlines pass these costs on to passengers via rising ticket prices -- and meanwhile, the huge engines of traditional aircraft make airports noisy, dirty places.

In addition, jet fuel releases heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide when burned. According to Our World in Data, air travel accounts for 2.5% of all carbon dioxide produced worldwide, even though only 20% of the Earth's population uses airplanes. This is about six times more pollution than passengers would produce by driving the same distance, according to BBC News.

Ampaire is changing the game by installing its new AmpDrive electric system in existing aircraft.  So far, its fleet contains the three-passenger Electric EEL, the 11-passenger Eco Caravan, and the 19-passenger Eco Otter. The company is also hard at work on developing the fully-electric Tailwind aircraft.

These hybrid aircraft rely on battery power for the majority of each flight, dramatically reducing the amount of fuel consumed. According to the Ampaire website, its hybrid planes use 10% of the fuel, make 40% of the noise, and require 50% of the maintenance that traditional planes do. 

According to the Psychiatric Times, there are multiple possible physical reasons that high temperatures affect human behavior. For example, the human body prepares for sleep by cooling down, and if people can't cool down, they have trouble sleeping. Lack of sleep is connected to all kinds of negative effects on health and mood.

One study also suggests that heat may impact serotonin, a chemical in the brain that helps regulate mood.

Regardless of how it works, there is a clear connection between heat and mental health. Since heat islands get so much hotter than surrounding areas, people living in urban areas without relief from high temperatures are the most affected.

Carroll's attorneys had handed Trump a black-and-white photograph showing Trump at a social event at some point generally contemporaneous to the time of the alleged rape. Trump considered it for a moment, identifying one man as former television anchor John Johnson. Then he pointed at a woman on the left side of the photo.

"It's Marla," he said, referring to his former wife Marla Maples.

There was a pause. Then the attorneys for Carroll prompted him: "You're saying Marla is in this photo?"

"That's Marla, yeah," Trump replied. "That's my wife."

Carroll's attorneys, hoping to clarify, asked him which woman he was pointing to. There was one of Trump's wives in the photo: his first wife, Ivana, who was on the right side of the photo. But Trump was pointing to the left.

That's when Trump's attorney, Alina Habba, jumped in. "No," she told her client, "that's Carroll."

As indeed it was. Trump had seen the photo and identified Carroll, the woman who was "not his type," as his second wife, Marla Maples. A bit later in the deposition, to put a fine point on it, Carroll's attorneys asked him whether "the three women you've married were all your type." Trump confirmed that they were.

If he wins again, Trump wants to bring back one of the most vile parts of his first stint in office

Donald Trump for months has been telling people close to him that he plans to bring back his infamous "Muslim ban" if he's reelected in 2024, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. "Gotta bring it back," Trump has said of the policy, according to the two sources, who added he regularly calls the idea "beautiful."

In many scientific disciplines randomized trial methods are fundamentally inappropriate--akin to using a scalpel to mow a lawn. If something can be directly measured or accurately and precisely modeled, there is no need for complex, inefficient trials that put participants at risk. Engineering, perhaps the most "real-world" of disciplines, doesn't conduct randomized trials. Its necessary knowledge is well-understood. Everything from highways to ventilation systems--everything that moves us, cleans our air and our water, and puts satellites into orbit--succeeds without needing them. This includes many medical devices. When failures like a plane crash or catastrophic bridge collapse do occur, they are recognized and systematically analyzed to ensure they don't happen again. The contrast with the lack of attention paid to public health failures in this pandemic is stark.

"Does a mask protect me from aerosolized virus?" or "Does this seat belt keep me from flying through the window in an accident?" are different types of questions than "Does aspirin reduce death rates after a heart attack?" Imprisoning engineering and the natural sciences at the very bottom of an evidence hierarchy--at the same level as an expert opinion--is a mistake. As with seat belts, whether people use masks properly matters, but no randomized trial could conclude seat belts "don't work." At best, that type of trial would be a truly inefficient way to assess specific instructions and incentives to get people to use them properly.

A well-understood technology, respiratory protection has been validated over decades, with standards (NIOSH in the U.S., CSA in Canada) that codify protection from viruses and bacteria. Mining, biomedical research, chemical processing, pharmaceutical production and many more industries follow these laws and standards worldwide. Without exaggeration, millions of people trust their lives to the effective "real-world" science of respirators, with no need for randomized trial evidence.

It is therefore deeply concerning that prominent medical figures have misrepresented the protection provided by masks, when the evidence supports N95 respirators or better, ideally with two-way masking.

Medical policy makers failed to learn the lesson of the 2003 SARS-1 outbreak, exposed again in the current global pandemic: a novel pathogen requires a precautionary approach that includes airborne respiratory protections until proven otherwise. With millions dead and immense--and still growing--personal and economic damage inflicted by long COVID, failing to adjust now will continue to do enormous harm.

It is not too late to do better.

It is a reasonable question to ask, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) appears to have formally done so, with a reported due date of a response May 8. In lieu of gift taxes, did Crow expense the value of the trips and tuition provided the Thomases on either personal or business income tax returns? Wyden wants to know.

If Crow took business expense deductions for the above referenced "gifts," then he can't claim they were gifts. And if that's the case, he wouldn't have had to file gift tax returns which--given a potential tax rate of up to 40 percent--would represent a pretty price for the billionaire real estate magnate.

The criteria for what constitutes an untaxed gift that exceeds the limit to avoid paying tax vary by year. For example, the limit was $13,000 per recipient in 2013, but $17,000 in 2023. The Indonesian junket--valued at over $500,000 by ProPublica--would generate gift taxes of approximately $200,000 for Mr. Crow.

Now, if Crow did take business deductions for the value of the luxury vacations provided to the Thomases, he would have opened up another can of worms for himself tax-wise. That's because Crow has publicly stated he did not discuss any business before the court with Justice Thomas.

If that is true, then it is possible that Crow falsified his income tax returns by expensing the cost of the vacation provided the Thomases. It's also possible the vacations provided the Thomas family could be viewed as income to Thomas--since he would be viewed as providing value to Crow through business discussions. To be very clear, this is speculative and none of this is proven, but the possibility alone makes it worth investigating.

What seems much more clear-cut is that Justice Thomas doesn't seem to think he has to report gifts from wealthy businessmen, who also are generous corporate political donors, like Harlan Crow.

In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that two of four comatose dying patients experienced a surge in brain activity that resembles consciousness after they were taken off ventilators and their hearts had stopped.

The findings indicate scientists have more to learn about how the brain behaves while we're dying. The study "suggests we are identifying a marker of lucid consciousness," Sam Parnia, a pulmonologist at New York University who did not contribute to the research, tells Science's Sara Reardon.

Special counsel Jack Smith is racing through a roster of interviews in his wide-ranging investigations related to former President Donald Trump, including with former Vice President Mike Pence and other top aides, as he contemplates filing charges, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The steps prosecutors are taking, the people say, suggest Mr. Smith is in the late stages of his inquiry into Mr. Trump's efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election. The special counsel is also considering whether the former president tried to obstruct a separate probe into the handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort by withholding material sought by the Justice Department.