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Did you know that your brain generates enough electricity to power a light bulb?! 💡 

The human brain generates about 12-25 watts of electricity, enough to power a small light bulb, especially during peak activity.

Culture

Real-Life ‘Aladdin’

A 44-year-old daredevil has brought his childhood dream to life by flying off mountain cliffs on a "magic carpet." Freddy Montigny, from Choranche, France, spent years mastering paragliding, skydiving, and hang gliding to pull off this unique stunt. His latest jump, captured by drone, shows him leaping from the 2,400-meter Croix des Têtes in the Vercors Massif, descending to 1,600 meters before deploying his parachute.

"I’ve always wondered what parts of the myths and legends we heard as kids were real," said Freddy, who began paragliding at 25, skydiving at 30, and hang gliding at 35. "All these skills came together to help me fly a carpet." Freddy says his years of experience make the flights safe, and he always carries a parachute as a backup. "If something goes wrong, I release the carpet and deploy the chute. With the altitude I jump from, there’s plenty of time to correct mistakes."

While it may not be the magical carpet from the stories, Freddy says it’s still an incredible way to push the limits of reality. Freddy, a former drummer and stage technician, now calls himself a "professional carpet rider" and continues to chase his dream.

Innovation

Solving America’s Biggest Clean Energy Challenge

Researchers at Berkeley National Labs have found that oil, coal, and gas power plants will still play a key role in America's energy future—as grid connectors for renewable energy. Renewable energy projects face years of regulatory hurdles before they can fully connect to the grid. In contrast, coal and gas plants already completed that process, making them ideal for "plugging in" renewables.

According to a CNN report, more clean energy projects are waiting for grid access than there is currently power circulating in the grid, highlighting inefficiencies in the transition to renewable energy. Connecting new solar and wind farms directly to the grid is much more challenging than utilizing the infrastructure of existing thermal power plants. Umed Paliwal, a senior scientist at UC Berkeley, explains that using the existing grid infrastructure of these plants should be a key strategy going forward. Many decommissioned or backup plants have suitable land nearby, where 1,000 gigawatts of renewable capacity could be built and connected quickly using their established grid links.

For example, the Sherco power plant in Minnesota, which is being decommissioned, is still using its grid infrastructure to support one of the largest solar farms in the U.S., built by Xcel Energy. Sonia Aggarwal, CEO of Energy Innovation, adds that many fossil fuel plants don't operate around the clock, leaving valuable grid connections unused. These plants, much like aging athletes, can still contribute to a cleaner energy future.

Environment

Saving Queen Conchs

This is the queen conch, an endangered species in Florida now being relocated to deeper waters as part of a new conservation effort.

Rising sea temperatures in the Florida Keys have made the shallow waters too warm, leaving the conchs too sluggish and focused on survival to reproduce. Marine biologists hope the cooler, deeper waters will help solve this issue. A team from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has relocated over 200 queen conchs from near-shore areas to an offshore reef in the Upper Keys. The Gulf of Mexico’s fast-warming waters, along with oil spills and hurricanes, make survival challenging for native sea life.

“These shallow waters are too cold in winter and too hot in summer,” said Gabriel Delgado, a research scientist with the FWC, who led the relocation. “The animals stop focusing on reproduction and put all their energy into surviving, so their reproductive organs don’t develop properly.”

The FWC also involved the public in this effort, asking them to report sightings of queen conchs near the shore, which helped relocate 208 of them in June. Though no breeding has been observed yet, the conchs remain in the relocation area more than a year later.

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Mind Stretchers

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