Month: April 2022

Enlarge / 70 percent of the cars Porsche has ever built are still on the road. Since it wants to keep it that way, it’s developing a synthetic fuel that emits 90 percent less CO₂ than gasoline derived from fossil fuels. (credit: Porsche)

In 2021, Porsche announced that it was starting to work with synthetic fuels. The company is rather proud that so many of the cars it has built over the decades are still on the road and recognizes that the only way to maintain that in an increasingly climate-blighted future will be with synthetic gasoline that’s made with carbon sucked from the air.

In September last year, the Haru Oni pilot plant, built for that purpose, broke ground in Punta Arenas in Chile. That plant was funded in part by Porsche as well as Siemens Energy and ExxonMobil but is being built and will be operated by a Chilean startup called HIF Global. On Wednesday Porsche announced that it was investing $75 million to buy a 12.5 percent stake in the startup.

The efuel-making process at Haru Oni starts by capturing CO₂ from the air and using wind power to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen. The carbon and hydrogen are used to synthesize methanol, and the methanol is then turned into longer hydrocarbons using ExxonMobil’s methanol-to-gasoline process.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Jeffrey Coolidge)

One America News has officially been removed from DirecTV, as the TV provider resisted pressure from Republicans to keep the right-wing network in its channel lineup. A DirecTV spokesperson confirmed to Ars today that the channel removal went ahead as scheduled.

OAN’s future is in doubt as the network’s owner has said losing the DirecTV deal might force it to shut down. DirecTV previously issued a notice to users stating that OAN would leave DirecTV’s satellite channel lineup and the online service DirecTV Stream after April 4. The removal also affected A Wealth of Entertainment (AWE), another channel owned by OAN parent company Herring Networks.

DirecTV announced it wouldn’t renew its carriage deal with OAN after pressure from advocacy groups that pointed out OAN “is a major supporter of the Stop the Steal movement,” spread “election fraud lies that claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump,” “stok[ed] violent calls for the attack on the US Capitol,” and airs “wall-to-wall COVID-19 disinformation.” US Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) had also questioned DirecTV owner AT&T and other TV providers about why they carry OAN, NewsMax, and Fox News.

Twenty years ago, two small notebooks written by 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin mysteriously disappeared from the archives of Cambridge University Library. One of the notebooks even contains Darwin’s iconic 1837 sketch of the so-called “Tree of Life.” After multiple searches and a public appeal, the notebooks have finally been returned by an anonymous person.

“My sense of relief at the notebooks’ safe return is profound and almost impossible to adequately express,” said Cambridge University Librarian Jessica Gardner in a statement. “Along with so many others all across the world, I was heartbroken to learn of their loss, and my joy at their return is immense. They may be tiny, just the size of postcards, but the notebooks’ impact on the history of science and their importance to our world-class collections here cannot be overstated.”

A page from Darwin’s 1837 notebook showing the “Tree of Life” sketch. (credit: Stuart Roberts/Cambridge University Library)

Darwin famously set sail on the HMS Beagle on December 27, 1831, as the ship’s naturalist. The expedition’s purpose was to chart the coastline of South America, and Darwin’s job was to collect and record specimens as well as investigate local geography at the various landing sites. He dutifully recorded all his observations in his notebooks and shipped many of his finds back to England so other scientists could study them. Originally slated to last for two years, the voyage took nearly five years to complete.

Enlarge (credit: Paramount)

The dizzying alternate Picard timeline on Paramount+ will not be an infinite one.

After cast members suggested that the latest Patrick Stewart-led Star Trek series would soon conclude, Paramount made the news official on Tuesday: Picard will end after its third season. As part of its conclusion, the series will ramp up appearances of familiar faces from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Tuesday’s announcement confirmed that actors LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, and Gates McFadden would appear in the series during its third season. Previous Picard guest stars and TNG castmates included Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner. This massive TNG reunion has so far only been teased with names and audio. Each revealed third-season actor mutters bits of dialogue in a brief teaser trailer that ends with Picard and Riker facing off in an apparent duel.

Enlarge / The image Apple shared alongside the WWDC 2022 announcement. (credit: Apple)

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will return this summer, as if there were any doubt. The company announced the dates Tuesday—June 6 through 10—and confirmed that it will again be an online-only affair.

Before the pandemic, Apple hosted WWDC in person at San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center. But this marks the third year in a row that Apple opted for an online-only event, even though it is asking employees to return to their offices this month.

Few major tech conferences and events have fully returned to their original in-person formats, though. Google’s May I/O event will be a hybrid one, and last month’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) was also a hybrid event, albeit one with a substantial in-person presence.

Enlarge / Lithium-ion cells made by LG Energy Solutions have been linked to multiple fires and malfunctions since 2020. (credit: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Image)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating safety defects in lithium-ion cells made by LG Energy Solutions after a string of recalls since February 2020. The most high-profile of these has been Chevrolet, which has had to recall more than 141,000 Bolt EVs. Still, there have also been recalls for the Hyundai Kona EV, Smart ForTwo Electric, Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid, and last month, some Volkswagen ID.4s, due to problems with LG-made cells.

Chevrolet’s Bolt recall probably gained the most attention due to the risk of fire, which remains a public concern regarding electric vehicles despite the far higher risk of internal combustion engine car fires. But not all the recalls were for the risk of fire.

Watch out for bumps

The first recall cited by NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation concerns a single 2019 Smart EQ ForTwo. In this case, Mercedes-Benz (which owns Smart) discovered that the welding that connected individual cells and modules was not up to snuff. Consequently, the right kind of bang or bump could interrupt the battery’s circuit, causing the car to immediately lose all power, a problem that necessitated a recall.