Toggle light / dark theme

Surprising Sea Slug Is Half-plant, Half-animal

Circa 2011 o.o


A green sea slug appears to be part animal, part plant. It’s the first critter discovered to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll.

The sneaky slugs seem to have stolen the genes that enable this skill from algae that they’ve eaten. With their contraband genes, the slugs can carry out photosynthesis — the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy.

Fusion companies aiming at trillion dollar market

This is the third installment in a three-part series. Read parts one and two.

In the third and final part of our series, Fusion Industry Association director Andrew Holland tells Asia Times’ correspondent Jonathan Tennenbaum how the private sector is leap-frogging government programs in the race to develop commercial fusion power plants.

Andrew Holland: So now the private sector is coming in. You mentioned high-temperature superconductors. That’s an important new thing. There’s a whole range of new developments that come from outside of the fusion space that are now being applied.

The First Cubesat With a Hall-Effect Thruster has Gone to Space

Student-led teams aren’t the only ones testing out novel electric propulsion techniques recently. Back in November, a company called Exotrail successfully tested a completely new kind of electric propulsion system in space – a small hall-effect thruster.

Hall effect thrusters themselves have been around for awhile. However, they have been limited in their practicality, primarily because of their size. Normally they are about the size of a refrigerator and require kilowatts of power, making them impractical for any small satellites.

That’s where Exotrail’s novel system shines. It is about the size of a 2 liter bottle of soda (or pop if you’re from that part of the world), and only requires around 50 watts of power. This makes the propulsion system ideal for satellites ranging from 10 to 250 kg.

Geothermal discovery could launch green revolution for energy industry

Good to see that geothermal is finally starting to be rolled out — this time in Canada.


A small company in Saskatchewan is building what could become Canada’s first geothermal power plant, which could launch a green revolution for the energy industry and the people who work in it.

Watch The National live on YouTube Sunday-Friday at 9 p.m. ET

Connect with The National online:
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/thenational.
Twitter | https://twitter.com/CBCTheNational.
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/cbcthenational.

More from CBC News | https://www.cbc.ca/news.