Alternative Energies
Bigwigs have big ideas for cutting our food waste in half

People are spectacularly good at throwing things away — recyclables, dreams, reputations (lookin’ at you, Ben Carson) all come to mind. And then there’s the mother of all landfill fillers: food. Up to 40 percent of food in the U.S., for example, is wasted. But Thursday sounded a new rallying cry: Two initiatives — both announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — aim to target humanity’s tendency to throw away the stuff that keeps us alive. The first, dubbed Champions 12.3, is run by a patchwork coalition of 30 heavy-hitters from the likes of Nestlé, WWF, Unilever, and the African Union. The coalition, which aims to cut global food waste in half and reduce food loss by 2030, is named after U.N. Sustainable…

Some like it hot: Simulating single particle excitations

Understanding and manipulating plasmons is important for their potential use in photovoltaics, solar cell water splitting, and sunlight-induced fuel production from carbon dioxide. Researchers have used a real-time numerical algorithm to study both the plasmon and hot carrier within the same framework. That is critical for understanding how long a particle stays excited, and whether there is energy backflow from hot carrier to plasmon.

Modern-day slavery and environmental devastation go hand in hand

Slavery didn’t end with the Emancipation Proclamation. Despite slavery being illegal in every country on the planet, there are more enslaved people alive today than at any point in history. From fishing boats in Thailand to private homes in New York to diamond mines in Congo to rock quarries in India, there are an estimated 30 million people working in bondage right now. That’s right — 30 million. Modern slavery is the subject of Blood and Earth, a new book by Kevin Bales, who cofounded Free the Slaves, an organization working to end slavery around the world. Bales spoke with Fresh Air’s Dave Davies, and he said that the devastation bondage causes isn’t limited to the lives of enslaved people themselves; it also has a…