

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.

Engineers are cooking up a new clean energy solution: charging up crystals with solar energy to temperatures of 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius), potentially making them a greener substitute for the carbon-intensive processes that smelt steel and cook cement.

Many places in the Midwest and northern United States could shrink drastically by the turn of the century, according to a new study based on five climate scenarios. By the same token, according to the researchers, the populations of 40% of U.S. cities could grow by 2100.





