Swedish researchers have invented a fully-recyclable perovskite solar cell that may provide a solution to the growing problem of solar panel waste.
All renewable technologies have a life span — with solar panels it’s 25 to 30 years — which means our solar waste pile is rapidly becoming mountainous. Just 17 % of solar panel components were recycled in Australia in 2023, specifically the aluminium frames and junction boxes. The remaining 83% (glass, silicon and polymer back sheeting) was shuttled out to landfill. Other countries do better; France’s ROSI was an early starter in what could be a $2b market by 2050.
Linköping University researchersmay have a solution — fully recyclable perovskite solar cells.
These cells are also flexible, transparent and inexpensive — who needs aluminium frames when your PVs are stuck to your windows?
Professor Feng Gao with postdocs Xun Xiao and Niansheng Xu at Linköping University (Image Thor Balkhed)
“There is currently no efficient technology to deal with the waste of silicon panels. That’s why old solar panels end up in the landfill,” says coauthor, Xun Xiao, at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) at Linköping University (LiU).
“Huge mountains of electronic waste that you can’t do anything with.”
Perovskites used in photovoltaic solar cells are ‘metal-halide perovskites’ — made from organic ions, metals and halogens. Such cells’ active layers are much thinner and cheaper than those of conventional silicon PV and show efficiencies of more than 26%, comparable with silicon PVs (20% – 22%).
But perovskite PVs are not yet produced at scale.
Recyclability is the key.
“We need to take recycling into consideration when developing emerging solar cell technologies,” says Professor Feng Gao, also at IFM at LiU and a co-author. “If we don’t know how to recycle them, maybe we shouldn’t put them on the market at all.”
The inhospitable Antarctic Peninsula hosts only one native insect, and scientists from Japan have just identified an unprecedented combination of adaptations that allow it to thrive in the extreme cold.
The Antarctic midge is a tiny, flightless insect that lives most of its two-year life as a larva, the grub-like stage that follows the egg stage. (Complete metamorphosis in insects includes egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages).
Adult Antarctic midges. Credit: Yuta Shimizu / Osaka Metropolitan University.
How these larvae overwinter in Antarctica could have implications for cryopreservation technology but, perhaps more pressingly, better understanding of the species’ response to climate change. Previous researchers have suggested that the Antarctic midge be developed as a model organism for survival in extreme and fluctuating temperatures.
The Japanese research team led by Shin Goto of Osaka Metropolitan University studied the unique midge after developing a specialised rearing method, which took them six years to establish.
The team then tracked the growth and physiology of the midge larvae through their natural lifecycle. In a first for science, they documented two distinct forms of dormancy used as seasonal survival adaptations.
In general, dormancy is a state of inactivity, suspended development and reduced metabolism, but insect scientists distinguish between two types: quiescence and diapause.
In the first winter, the Antarctic midge larvae adapted via quiescence, a form of dormancy triggered by external conditions, such as cold temperatures. This means all the midge larvae go dormant at the same time. Quiescence ends when the temperature rises.
(Snip-MORE; it’s fascinating and worth the click. Also not long.)
So today I started out by posting a bunch of memes because I couldn’t sleep. Good and great. Then I went for a nap in the morning totally worn out. However my husband had determined to keep going with the sink pipe break under the house repair. However when I got up and seen how far he had come to removing the stuff in the room with the idea to redo the flooring / put in a new toilet. I had to hit him with my idea of remodeling the bathroom.
See that hallway bathroom was added as first as a toilet and sink, and had its access from the kitchen. But we needed the kitchen access door space for cupboards in our new kitchen so we moved the doorway to the hallway. But when James moved in he needed a place to shower and as he worked nights and coming in late in the evening to shower often got awkward. He would interrupt Ron and I being romantic … is a nice way to put it. I did not care, I had been in the US Army where if there were three people in a room it was understood that guys were going to have sex and we just pretended not to see or hear. James said he was OK with that. But my husband was freaking out. The third time it happened while we were in the throes of passion nude on our bed and James knocked on the door … Ron had enough.
He carved a large portion of our own bedroom master bathroom we had planned to use for a large shower to put a shower in the hallway bathroom. He then built our own much smaller bathroom shower in the space left. Now that James has been gone for years Ron simply has been too tired to deal with changing anything. The leak of the sink gave me the opportunity.
Ron has been in the middle stage of finishing the Florida Room I am moving out to so we can have a spare bedroom where my pink palace office is. Due to the kitchen sink leak I still plan to post on but it is not yet finished as you can see. See that one I really wanted to do a video on with the new program I spent so much money buying. It will show if it really was worth the money to buy and use. However I have to say even without using it I had an issue and the company stepped in and solved it along with a decade’s old one. So they seem a rock solid company.
So remember that Ron is now this year 70 and I am very disabled but I am willing to help him all I can. But during the attempt to fix the sink leak Ron struggled to get his legs to bed around the pipes and to get himself around the tight spaces. Turns out he has not got the flexibility he once had. Well damn it I knew that from our bedtime and the rest of our life. His is a muscle bound 70 year old man who has lost all flexibility.
So while we had everything removed except the shower I spend a lot of time convincing him that hey, if we shifted this there and that here and did this … we could have the bathroom of our dreams we originally planned on. Took a while. About two hours until he came back to me and said enthusiastically … YES, that is a great idea. But Scottie the work and effort. He told me he remembered how it was so hard for him and I to force that current shower into the room and twist it to the point it would fall into where it needed to be. I was not so disabled then and he was much younger.
I said yes I remember but also this is different. See it is only us living here, no one needs to access the bathroom or shower yet. Plus we don’t have to use any existing spaces. We can remove the walls around the current shower and just work on it as we move forward. We can even cut this shower into pieces and get a new one to put in there as it was a simple cheap 36 by 36 shower anyway. Once he realized that he was all for it. He even was online looking at extra tall elongated bowl toilets. I may regret this, I created a monster. LOL. So below are the pictures of the bathroom and I am going to bed. Love everyone and thanks for following the blog. This saga of remodeling is only beginnings. Hugs
Now all that need to be done is plan out where to put each item and run the needed piping. Hugs
The Trump’s administration’s unprecedented war on LGBTQ+ health research—erasing data, censoring science and threatening lives—demands urgent resistance from the medical and research communities.
For the first time in a long time, I was scared. Two weeks after the election, I gave a lecture I’ve delivered countless times, on the critical need to measure sexual orientation and gender identity in health research. Such measures are necessary to identify the unique health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. In my 25 years of doing research in and withLGBT communities, this is a topic that has shaped my career.
Yet this time, I began my lecture with a caveat: I was uncertain—and afraid—of what the new administration might mean for the hard-won progress we’ve made in LGBT health research, to say nothing of the civil rights gained for my community in the past 30 years.
Not only was my fear justified. It was understated.
The administration’s actions have been swift and ruthless. (snip)
The American Public Health Association filed a lawsuit to challenge federal funding freezes. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has publicly condemned censorship and used their website to post some of the purged data. Organizations that rely on federal data should publicly take a stand, much like the American Association for Public Opinion Research just did. These aren’t just commendable actions; they’re blueprints for what every medical and scientific organization should do immediately.
Academic publishers and journal editors can no longer remain neutral. They have an ethical imperative to actively resist censorship and protect academic freedom. Their platforms, influence and resources need to be deployed in this fight—now, not after more damage is done.
A commentary by editors of the British Medical Journal is an excellent example. In it, they forcefully decry the Trump administration’s ludicrous order for CDC scientists to withdraw or retract scientific articles containing the aforementioned forbidden words, plainly explaining, “This is not how it works.” Article retractions, they note, do not happen on demand. They happen when there is evidence of data fabrication or manipulation, not because of political pressure.
Some may imagine that silence in the face of injustice will shield them from harm, particularly if their work is seemingly unrelated to issues of sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. But when healthcare data and related research about LGBT groups are suppressed, it is not just scientific integrity that is undermined. We’re actively worsening health outcomes and costing lives. And this is a cost we allwill bear.
Strengthening our cross-issue collaborations and advocacy efforts is imperative. This crisis demands unprecedented coalition-building across scientific disciplines, civil rights organizations and public health institutions. The administration’s assault on LGBT people and health research, as well as science writ large, may seem overwhelming. They are counting on our paralysis and division. We should not—must not—fall prey to this tactic.
It the midst of this deliberately wrought chaos, we must also take care of each other and ourselves. We cannot let these actions crush our spirit and obliterate our hope. I have found comfort in the work of Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark, who reminds us that hope is itself an act of resistance. “They want you to feel powerless and surrender and let them trample everything, and you are not going to let them,” she posted on her site, “Meditations in an Emergency,” recently. “The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving.”
Science is worth saving. Speak up. Push back. Build coalitions. File lawsuits. Protect data. Continue research. The future of science and countless lives hang in the balance. We cannot wait another day. We will not surrender.
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the weekend. Living through an attempted coup is exhausting. And yet here so many of you are—more every day! Our movement, or whatever we’re calling it now, is growing by leaps and bounds. This newsletter has gained well over 50,000 new subscribers in the last thirty days. That’s NUTS, and also shows that Americans continue to be fired up and determined to fight back. I am so glad.
I know it feels like Trump and Musk are “getting away with everything” right now, but I want to remind you that, as they say in twelve step programs, sometimes we have to just “let time take time.” We’re not even a month into this thing yet. Already the country has seen large demonstrations, swamped Congressional phone lines, mass Senate office visits, the first Stop-Shopping day scheduled (for February 28), and the rise of the 50501 movement. Indivisible groups are exploding, new coalitions are being built, and new connections being formed.
This is a moment when old heroes to many—Adam Schiff, the New York Times, Snoop Dogg?—are proving disappointments, but also when new ones—Chris Murphy, the AP, Kendrick Lamar— are rising with brilliant fierceness. Entire media empires are crumbling, yes, but out of those ashes are emerging a whole new crop of great publications and tough, fearless journalists. Political content creators are taking their rising visibility seriously and forming new groups to coordinate their messaging. State Attorneys General and Governors are stepping up in a big way. Career Prosecutors at the DOJ are, as we speak, exhibiting stunning courage in standing up to Trump.
Progress, in short, is being made, and the work being done. Not always by whom we want, and not always as fast as we want. But that stands to reason: There is a massive and necessary reorganization taking place in response to Trump’s attacks. It can’t be instant—that simply defies the laws of physics. We’ve never been here before, so it stands to reason that none of the old rules apply.
So we’re all going to have to keep building the plane while flying it, remembering that new mechanics and pilots are joining us all the time.
Now a word about the many protests and strikes being planned. I have received a LOT of emails asking me for more information on the ones I’ve mentioned here. I have very little. These events are happening organically in a decentralized way. They are being organized on discords and in signal messages. I am not organizing them. What I put in the newsletter is the extent of what I know.
I did glean some helpful resources from a fellow activist today, though: This site is encouraging groups (not just of these events, but all groups doing on the ground actions) to list their events to create a centralized hub for movement work. You can search by state and see if there’s an action listed. You may also find some events on this website (although it is not organized in a way that is as user friendly). The 50501 Bluesky account is also sharing flyers for events as they learn about them. 50501 also has a Reddit page and a website. They seem to be emerging as a major force in this effort; I intend to follow them. And before you ask—no, I don’t know who “they” are. But last week’s 50501 protests went off without a hitch. I’m not going to keep avoiding them just because they have diffuse leadership. This just may be how resistance to an autocracy has to look. I’m grateful for the work they’re doing.
OK, all. I’m running way behind today, so I’m going to leave you with my favorite Vaclav Havel quote; I resort to it often in moments of duress:
Either we have hope within us or we do not.
It is a dimension of the soul and is not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world.
HOPE is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.
HOPE in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy that things are going well or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not because it stands a chance to succeed.
HOPE is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.
It is HOPE, above all which gives the strength to live and continually try new things.
Hi, I’m a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
(snip)
I know Congress is going on recess soon and I’d like to know when the Senator is holding his/her Town Hall. We constituents have a lot to say about the coup attempt that’s happening and we expect an opportunity to have our voices heard. Thanks.
Hi, I’m a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
I am upset about House Republicans’ proposed cuts to SNAP and Medicaid. Grocery prices and hunger are increasing in the country. Cutting the program that helps over 42 million people put food on the table is unacceptable. Same with Medicaid. 72 million Americans rely on it for healthcare—mostly children, seniors, and veterans. Republicans’ desire to cut these programs in order to pay for tax cuts for rich people is disgusting. What is the Congressmember doing to protect SNAP and Medicaid? Thanks.
Extra Credit ✅
VERY IMPORTANT! A group of 17 states (all Republican) have sued the United States government in a case called Texas v Becerra. These states are asking the court to get rid of Section 504—a critically important law that says you can’t discriminate against disabled people if you get money from the US government. Section 504 does everything from requiring schools to include students with disabilities and help them learn to requiring doctors and schools to have sign language interpreters for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. There’s so much more. The fact that they’re suing to kill this rule is really shocking. I guess Texas started the lawsuit when they found out that gender dysphoria can get you 504 protections. But they’re not trying to get rid of just that provision. They’re trying to kill the whole thing.
One of my subscribers sent me a document that explains the situation in super clear language. It also gives us ways to reach out to the Attorneys General involved and ask them to drop the lawsuit. I’m asking all of us who live in one of the 17 states involved to take the time to do this, please.
The document is here. Please read it, share it, and, if you live in one of the 17 red states that are part of the lawsuit, use the sample letter as a template and write to (or call) your Attorney General. This MUST be stopped!
Extra Extra Credit for NY State Residents
You can do this if you’re not a NY resident but obviously it will pack more punch if you live there. There’s also an email form here.
Call Governor Kathy Hochul at 1-518-474-8390 and say:
My name is ____ and I live in [NY zip]. The Trump administration and NYC Mayor Eric Adams seem to have engaged in an overt quid pro quo – dropping the criminal case against Adams in exchange for the Mayor facilitating the Trump administration’s indiscriminate immigration crackdown. The Governor has the power to remove Mayor Adams. She needs to do so. He’s a criminal and a disgrace. Thanks.
Get Smart! 📚
As many of us engage on urgent threats to democracy, it is also vital to prepare and plan for the 2025 elections that will need a robust voter protection effort. Early planning and coordination will be key to protecting voters.
To help kick start that work, I’m pleased to announce a short Zoom presentation on February 25, convened by Voter Protection Corps and featuring voter protection experts analyzing the 2024 elections and providing insight into what to expect in 2025.
Please join them for this interactive virtual event.
Speakers: Caroline Hutton (Voter Protection Director, WisDems), Cecelia Ugarte Baldwin (Voter Protection Director, Democratic Party of Georgia), Jenny Guzman (Common Cause Arizona), Jesse Littlewood (Voter Protection Corps), moderated by Quentin Palfrey (Voter Protection Corps)
Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2025 Time: 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM ET
With RFK Jr. now the HHS Secretary access to abortions is more threatened than ever. I truly believe we’re going to see the FDA ban (or severely restrict) abortion pills soon. Fortunately the amazing org Plan C is not backing down.
From them:
At this time of uncertainty we know several things: evidence-based information is critical in healthcare and beyond. People will continue to have abortions. And the evidence shows that abortion pills are safe, effective, life-saving medications, whether obtained through a clinic visit, via telehealth, or as a self-managed option. Abortion pills are accessible in all states and territories, including states with heavy restrictions, and can be kept on hand for two years.
Here are a few specific actions people can take to protect this access. PLEASE share this information:
Learn about pills in advance. People can access highly affordable (as low as $70) abortion pills now before they need them, so they have access to this vital form of health care. Visit plancpills.org/pills-in-advance to learn more and find pill options.
Order Plan C stickers. To date, we’ve distributed more than 4M stickers that direct people to our website with accurate, up-to-date information about how people are accessing abortion pills. We plan to continue to share this information under a Trump administration. plancpills.org/stickers
Spread the word about resources. We encourage people to know about and bookmark the following resources which will have information on how to access abortion:
For pills by mail sources and info on using them, visit plancpills.org
For clinics, travel and pills by mail visit ineedana.com
And for a one-stop URL for reproductive access information, youhaveoptions.com.
Give 💰!
Movement Voter Project has just launched The Comeback Campaign: a plan for the first 100 days which is an all-hands-on-deck push to fund the most effective frontline groups around the country working to protect communities, block MAGA, and plant the seeds to win back power in 2026 and beyond.
Y’all, I’m doing a bit of work with Gay Valimont’s team to help publicize her upcoming special Congressional election in Florida. This race is a super long shot but in this climate I actually think a victory is possible. Watch the video for more info, then sign up to volunteer here or make a donation here.
Hey Missouri!
I’ve launched yet another state newsletter! This time it’s Missouri (here’s the link). My co-author is Anna Eggemeyer, a St. Louis-based activist, and we’ll be sending out legislative updates, actions, events etc. once every two weeks or so starting today. If you’re from MO, go check it out! Or if you know someone who is, send them the link. Thanks!
No Resistbot letter today, sorry!
OK, you did it again! You’re helping to save democracy! You’re amazing.
February 15, 1898 The man-of-war (battleship) USS Maine was sunk in Cuba’s Havana Harbor as the result of an explosion, 260 American naval personnel dying as a result, another 58 wounded. An insurrection against Spanish colonial rule in Cuba had persisted for years, and brutal Spanish tactics had engendered strong American reaction. That is why Consul General Fitzhugh Lee had asked President William McKinley to send the Maine “for the moral effect it might have.” Spain’s Governor-General Weyler had forced 300,000 Cubans into towns and cities to insulate them from the insurgents but had made no preparations for their food, housing or health care. Half of the reconcentrados, as they were called, died as a result. Pres. McKinley had tried since coming into office to reach a settlement through negotiation but Spain rejected his efforts. Following the sinking of the Maine, popular opinion in the U.S. moved toward war with Spain, partially in response to inflammatory press coverage. Congress then voted McKinley $50,000,000 to be used for the national defense at his discretion, and provided for a contingent increase of the army to 100,000 men. The cause of the explosion ???
February 15, 1998 About 2,000 people – including a tractor convoy consisting of over 100 farmers – staged a demonstration in the north German town of Ahaus in protest against the planned shipment of nuclear waste to a storage facility in the town. A consignment of full CASTOR (Casks for Storage and Transport of Radioactive Material) containers was expected at the Ahaus interim nuclear storage site within the next two weeks.
February 15, 2002 President George W. Bush approved Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the site for long-term disposal of 70,000 metric tons (77,000 tons) of highly radioactive nuclear power plant waste. 12 years and $6.8 billion worth of study and construction had gone into the site 90 miles from Las Vegas. It is officially estimated that, by the time it is completed in 2017, the total construction cost will be $23 billion. 2000 additional metric tons of such waste are generated by U.S. nuclear power plants each year, leading to concerns that the facility would be full shortly after its opening. All such waste is currently stored onsite at individual nuclear power plants. Problems with the Yucca Mountain site What are the alternatives FAQs on Yucca Mountain
February 15, 2003 The world said NO to war… In the single largest day of protest in world history, millions on 6 continents demonstrated against the U.S./U.K. plans to invade Iraq. Reported totals included 1 to 2 million in London and Rome; 1.3 million in Barcelona, Spain (a city of 1.5 million); 500,000 each in Berlin, Paris, Madrid, and New York. Smaller demonstrations were held in over 600 cities and towns across the U.S., including tens of thousands in several cities, and 150,000 the following day in San Francisco. Total participation is estimated at 25 million in more than 100 countries.
I love this! While far too many of the top Democratic Party leadership want to stand by watching the government fall and burn thinking it will be a sweet easy return to pick up the pieces they don’t seem to understand the power of messaging. Every failure of government will be blamed on the democrats while everything of benefit Biden did will be created to their great god tRump. We need to get an offensive game going yesterday. A defensive only game loses every time. We are battling uphill only because our team won’t go to every microphone they see and blast the republicans. There is so much easy low hanging fruit to nail them on. The question is … are the democrats too scared to come out and play the game they ran to be in? They seem to be cowering before the maga republicans just as the republicans cower before tRump. How can they expect anyone to vote for them if they already surrendered. Hugs
I have been ill so all I could do is mostly save stuff, post news from my bed, and watch videos, one after another. Most of what I watched I did not remember. This one I had watched and liked, and saved to the video computer. I am so glad I did. As I rewatched the video I began to realize how vast and immediate the impacts are to us right now. The entire things regions are known for will have to shift. In the now wetter areas that business and housing take up the majority will have to give way to growing food crops if we want to eat. Sadly meat consumption will have be drastically cut until ways to mitigate the damage food animals do at all levels of production. Plus these methods of water reclamation and returning water back to the aquifers. Love it. Thanks to Ten Bears for posting it. Hugs.
Scottie's Playtime 