Decarbonize shipping
The global shipping industry is responsible for over a billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year. That is about three percent of the total global emissions. The International Maritime Organization of the United Nations wants to change that. It has agreed on the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from global shipping to zero by 2050. Setting a target date is an important step for an industry widely perceived as difficult to decarbonize. However, by combining slower speeds, wind assist, and low-emission fuels, the shipping industry could already reduce its emissions by nearly 50 percent by the end of the decade. This is the result of a study by the environmental consultancy CE Delft.
Difficult times for start-ups
German start-ups raised drastically less money in the first half of 2023. According to an analysis by the consulting and auditing company EY, investments fell by 49 percent compared to the same period last year. From January to June, the growth companies were only able to raise around 3.1 billion euros, compared to around 6 billion euros at this point in the previous year. Responsible for the real slump are therefore the rising interest rates and uncertainties about the war in Ukraine and the economy. Most of the money that flowed between January and June went to the Berlin solar start-up Enpal and the energy transition company 1Komma5Grad from Hamburg; both collected 215 million euros each.
Data from Virustotal on the Internet
Part of the user database of Google’s Virustotal has ended up on the Internet. The program examines uploaded files with more than 50 virus scanners and other analysis tools and also offers IT security experts a discussion platform. According to media reports, the file contains around 5,600 names and e-mail addresses, including the organizations of the service users. Among them are the US secret service NSA and German intelligence services. The list thus reveals which people work in these facilities in the area of IT security. Anyone who uses the Virustotal service with access data should therefore take a closer look at contact attempts in the future to see whether it is a question of phishing.
Are the earliest galaxies single “dark stars”?
The James Webb Space Telescope may have discovered three examples of “dark stars” that have so far only been described in theory and that draw their energy from dark matter. At least that’s what a research group at the University of Texas in Austin thinks, which has now presented their find. If this is confirmed, it could also solve one of the biggest mysteries that have emerged from the observations of the new space telescope. Many of the particularly early galaxies, which are discovered in far too large numbers, would then only be unimaginably bright, “puffy” stars and not entire galaxies.
