Author: Michele Debczak

A one-kilometer stretch of road in the French town of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy is officially the world’s first public “Wattway.” As France 24 reports, the solar panel road was opened by French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal on Thursday, December 22.

The panels cover 30,000 square feet of roadway and have been reinforced with layers of plastic to support the roughly 2000 cars that use the road each day. It can generate up to 280 kilowatts of energy, which will be used to power the town’s street lights.

The project is a big step forward for sustainable energy, and Colas, the company behind the solar road, is optimistic about what lies ahead. As of November, the company plans to build similar sites in North America, Europe, Africa, and Japan.

But there are still several challenges to overcome before solar roadways go mainstream, the biggest of which is expense. Normandy’s Wattway required $5.2 million to build, which means that each kilowatt peak it produces costs $17.74 compared to the $1.36 per kilowatt cost of a conventional solar roof. Colas representatives say they’re working on ways to make the roads cheaper, and Ecology Minister Royal says “the costs will be driven sharply down” as more of these roads are built, according to France 24. Royal’s hope is that before long, France will reach the point where every 1000 kilometers of highway contains at least one kilometer of solar cells.

[h/t France 24]

There’s a whole corner of YouTube dedicated to destroying random objects in oddly satisfying ways, and the channel Mr. Gear may have hit the sweet spot with this experiment. This video of a red-hot knife slicing through soap, post-it notes, a plastic Coke bottle, and more has racked up over 41 million views in just four days.

The experiment begins with someone heating a chef’s knife up to 1000ºF with three blowtorches. From there it’s ready to slice through everyday items with sizzling ease. It’s fascinating to see how the different materials react to the heat, from the instant grilled cheese to the ping pong ball bursting into flames. After watching the video above, heed Mr. Gear’s advice and refrain from performing any tests of your own at home.

In May 2016 and again in August, we covered a road-straddling bus that promised to alleviate traffic in Chinese cities. If the futuristic transit plan seemed too good to be true, that’s because it probably was. As Shanghaiist reports, the test bus has been collecting dust on a city road for more than two months.

Over the summer, the Transit Elevated Bus or TEB took the media by storm when it completed its first test run on a 1000-foot track in Qinhuangdao, China. The demonstration was met with praise by many outlets, while others were less optimistic. A few days after the test, the BBC reported on doubts surrounding the project’s feasibility and the legitimacy of the company behind it. According to CNN Money, the whole thing may have been an elaborate publicity stunt funded by a peer-to-peer financing scheme. These type of lending programs aren’t strictly regulated in China, and they often lead to scams.

The situation isn’t looking any better for investors after a local reporter went to take a look at the old test site recently. TEB Technology had stated they would remove the track before their lease expired at the end of August, but the lease has since been renewed with the track and the 72-foot-long bus is still sitting undisturbed. Motorists in Qinhuangdao are now forced to maneuver around the awkward roadblock that was originally designed to help traffic flow smoothly.

TEB Technology has yet to give the official word on the state of their bus, but it’s shaping up to be more of a cautionary tale than a success story. In the meantime, we can dream of passenger drones, self-driving pods, and hyperloops when looking ahead to the transportation of the future.

[h/t Shanghaiist]

The latest institution investing in autonomous road travel is Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. According to Fortune, the new-and-improved version of their driverless bus is set to hit campus in early 2017.

For the next-gen minibus, the French firm Navya took the design of its 2013 model and added a few upgrades. Called the Arma, the bus is capable of shuttling up to 15 passengers between the NTU campus and the CleanTech eco-business park, close to a mile away. The interior is air-conditioned and features touchscreen displays, while the exterior is equipped with sensors for detecting obstacles on the road. GPS technology and on-board cameras allow humans to remotely track each journey while the bus travels autonomously. Depending on how far it travels, the electric vehicle can run on a single charge for half a day.

Driverless buses are slowly rolling out around the world. The technology has been tested in Zhengzho, China and around Washington, D.C., and last May a fully realized version of the concept launched on public roads in the Netherlands.

In October, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority announced it was, in conjunction with NTU, working to outfit two regular-sized electric hybrid buses with self-driving technology. Those vehicles will also be tested along the NTU-CleanTech route.

[h/t Fortune]

India is home to the world’s largest population of blind people and not nearly enough optometrists to provide the care the country needs. But recently, some doctors there have been receiving help in the fight against eye disease from an unexpected source. As Mashable reports, machine learning is being used to better understand the spread of blindness and predict the success rates of eye surgeries.

The initiative is part of a collaboration between Microsoft and the Indian not-for-profit LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI). At the center of the project are their Azure machine learning and Power BI services: After analyzing the anonymous records of 1.1 million people, the AI system can trace patterns of eye disease. Doctors can then use projections of surgical outcomes for certain types of patients to make informed decisions on how to treat them.

On December 19, Microsoft announced partnerships with the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami, the Flaum Eye Institute at the University of Rochester, the Federal University of Sao Paulo, and the Brien Holden Vision Institute in Australia. The company plans to continue working with eye doctors to examine new data and zero in on how to help blind children in particular, 200,000 to 700,000 of whom live in India.

Equipping doctors to treat visual impairments is just one of machine learning’s many potential medical applications. Earlier this year, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School taught an AI system to detect breast cancer with near-human accuracy.

[h/t Mashable]

From gaslight to d’oh, many common terms we use today have their roots in pop culture. Now, Merriam-Webster reports that the word Jedi, which originally referred to a member of the fictional knightly order in the Star Wars universe, is increasingly cropping up in contexts that have nothing to do with the franchise.

The dictionary cites a few examples of its usage from the past several years. In May 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported an increase in employers looking to hire a “Jedi,” and in February 2016, The Salt Lake Tribune wrote that Liev Schreiber portrayed Boston Globe editor Martin Baron as a “newsroom Jedi” in the 2015 film Spotlight.

When both writers use the term Jedi, they aren’t talking about someone who has mastered the Force and knows their way around a light saber. In this context, a Jedi can refer to a person who is exceptionally skilled at anything.

According to Merriam-Webster, the phrase “Jedi mind trick” has also entered the lexicon, and it’s used to talk about something a little different. When removed from its Star Wars origins, it means “coercing someone into a different state of mind,” like in this excerpt from a February 2011 issue of Redbook.

“So how do you hold on to your Zen when your husband’s in a bad mood? Leave him alone … To get him to sync with you (and not you with him), just sit back and let your good vibes work a Jedi mind trick on him.”

Star Wars isn’t the only major franchise to have an impact on language. The first Harry Potter book debuted decades after the premiere of A New Hope, and the word muggle already has an entry in Oxford Dictionaries. When used outside the context of the films and books, its meaning is the exact opposite of a Jedi: “A person who is not conversant with a particular activity or skill.”

Today, the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York is thought to have one of the most disciplined student bodies in the nation. It may come as a surprise, then, that the school was once the site of one of the worst examples of eggnog-fueled debauchery in history.

During West Point’s early years following its founding in 1802, it hardly resembled the highly revered institution that exists today. According to Smithsonian, admission standards were lax, and students could be enrolled at any point during the year. Drinking was also a significant part of the campus culture, especially around the holidays. It was an annual tradition at West Point for cadets to drink eggnog during their Christmas festivities, but in 1826, the school’s superintendent, Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, cut them off: As a means of whipping the community into shape, Thayer imposed a harsh new rule that prohibited the purchase, storage, and consumption of alcohol on West Point property. Unfortunately for Thayer, a few cadets took these new restrictions as a challenge come Christmas Eve.

The cadets (among them class of ’28 student Jefferson Davis, a.k.a. the future president of the Confederacy) smuggled in three or four gallons of whiskey from a local tavern. Thayer suspected there might be shenanigans afoot for the holiday party, but he only took the normal precautions that night, assigning two officers to the North Barracks. The officers went to bed around midnight with no trouble to report, but that all changed around four in the morning. One of the officers, Captain Ethan Allen Hitchcock, was awoken by the sounds of partying a few floors above him.

He went to investigate and found six or seven cadets in a drunken state. He ordered them back to their rooms, and as he went to leave, he heard a second party going on in the room next door. There he found two intoxicated cadets hiding beneath a blanket, and a third party who was so drunk he refused to remove the hat he was using to conceal his face. When Hitchcock demanded that he show himself, they argued, and things got so tense that after the officer left, the cadets declared, “Get your dirks and bayonets … and pistols if you have them. Before this night is over, Hitchcock will be dead!”

Soon after, the infamous West Point eggnog riot was underway. Anywhere from 70 to 90 cadets ended up taking part, and while no one was killed that night, the chaos did result in assaults on two officers, several shattered windows, and banisters being ripped away from stairways. By the time morning arrived, the North Barracks had been completely wrecked.

Instead of indicting up to a third of the academy’s 260 students and further reinforcing its reputation as an unruly institution, superintendent Thayer chose to only target the worst offenders. Jefferson Davis was able to evade a charge, and he, along with fellow classmates (including future Confederate General Robert E. Lee) testified in their peers’ defense. Nineteen cadets were eventually expelled, and the buildings that served as the site of the riot were demolished.

When new barracks were constructed in the 1840s, the school took special precautions that would make similar riots more difficult in the future. The buildings were constructed to include short hallways that forced students to exit the building entirely before reaching another floor, which would introduce an added element of crowd control in case it was ever needed. Today, the story of the West Point eggnog riot is largely unknown to its current students, the school’s historian told Smithsonian. Their debased holiday parties are a thing of the past, and when the school does throw parties, any alcohol that’s present is available in limited quantities. Perhaps the administration doesn’t want their cadets getting any ideas from the academy’s rowdy history.

The future is looking bright for dissatisfied grocery shoppers. Earlier in December, Amazon unveiled their concept for a store with no checkout lines. Now inhabitat reports that an augmented reality supermarket designed by an MIT professor has opened in Milan.

The new high-tech location of Coop Italia, Italy’s largest supermarket chain, is designed to provide shoppers with up-to-date information about their purchases as they make them. When customers walk up to take a product from a table or shelf, they’ll activate motion sensors nearby. A screen above will then display facts about the item, including allergens, nutritional information, and tips for disposal.

The augmented reality grocery store concept is the brainchild of Carlo Ratti, a designer and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab. He debuted the prototype with his team from Carlo Ratti Associati at last year’s Milan World Expo.

Now the idea is ready for the real world, with over 6000 products filling 10,000 square feet of space. But in a press release, Ratti emphasizes that there’s still room for improvement:

“Today, this information reaches the consumer in a fragmented way. But in the near future, we will be able to discover everything there is to know about the apple we are looking at: the tree it grew on, the CO2 it produced, the chemical treatments it received, and its journey to the supermarket shelf.”

If you’re missing out on the high-tech shopping experience in Milan, there are plenty of ways to get your information before you enter the store: Here are some supermarket products to avoid if you’re looking to become a smarter shopper.

[h/t inhabitat]

As we get deeper into winter, getting dressed to go outside becomes an ordeal. Not only do we have to worry about wearing enough layers to stay warm, we also have to deal with static electricity giving our garments a life of their own.

If you’re hoping to tackle static cling head-on this season, it helps to first understand the science behind why it happens. TIME recently spoke with two experts, Rutgers University biomedical engineering professor Troy Shinbrot and George Mason University professor of Earth sciences Robert Hazen, about why this sticky phenomenon becomes so pervasive once the temperatures drop.

According to Shinbrot, the culprit is an excess of either positive or negative electrical charge. All atoms contain both positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons. When balanced in number, these charges cancel each other out; but when two objects make contact, electrons can come dislodged from their original atoms and jump to another, disrupting the object’s “neutral” charge.

The “cling” part comes in when these imbalanced atoms start sticking together. Opposites attract, atomically speaking, so when wool tights with too much positive charge are introduced to a dress with a neutral or negative charge, the protons in the tights will adhere to the electrons in the dress. Like charges, on the other hand, repel each other. If you get a bunch of positively charged atoms in one place the protons will push away from one another. This is why your hair sometimes acts like it wants to float off your head after you brush it. “Like people on a crowded beach who want to put space between themselves, they all stand up and spread out,” Hazen told TIME.

But that still doesn’t answer the question of why static cling is at its worst in the winter. For that we’ll need to shift gears briefly from atomic physics to meteorology: According to WCCO Minneapolis meteorologist Chris Shaffer, cold air means dry air (anyone who’s gone through multiple bottles of hand cream in January can attest to this).

In the summertime, water molecules in the air attract most surplus protons or electrons around you, so charges on your clothes or hair rarely stay imbalanced long enough for you to notice them. But when the air outside is cold and ill-equipped to retain moisture, these charges can quickly get out of control.

That doesn’t mean you’re forced to live with static cling until spring rolls around. There are ways to take the seasonal annoyance into your own hands: When getting dressed in the morning, keep a spray bottle filled with water and a tablespoon of fabric softener nearby. A spritz or two should be enough to tame sticky fabrics when the air is dry. For static that disrupts your ‘do, a little hair spray will work to the same effect. And it’s important not to underestimate the power of dryer sheets. The positively charged material combats the negative charges that build up as your clothes dry, and they can even be used outside the laundry room to wipe down unruly hair.

Humans have sent some unusual things into the Earth’s orbit and beyond. An issue of Playboy, a corned beef sandwich, and Luke Skywalker’s light saber prop have all made the journey to space, and now Ars Technica UK reports that a meat-and-potato pie has become the first to leave the planet. To mark next week’s World Pie Eating Championship in Wigan, UK, a team of scientists launched the savory pastry into the upper stratosphere on December 15.

The British specialty was baked by the local shop Ultimate Purveyors before it was carried 29 miles above the Earth’s surface via weather balloon. A team of scientists with the group SentIntoSpace organized the launch. Then, they watched the live steam of its ascent from “mission control” (a.k.a. a nearby pub) and its descent back to Earth.

On December 20, pie-eating competitors will gather in Wigan to wolf down meat pies nearly 5 inches in diameter as quickly as possible. The current champion, Martin Appleton Clare, polished one pie off in a record-setting 22.53 seconds.

Though it was primarily done for fun, the mission did serve a tenuous scientific purpose. Tony Callaghan, the owner of the pub that served as mission control, told the Manchester Evening News:

“We are aware that scientists have been experimenting with plants on the International Space Station to see if their molecular structure changes, so we are experimenting with pies to see if the structure changes with space travel and allows the pie to be eaten quicker.”

The team was also interested to see if the friction upon re-entry would act as a valid cooking method.

[h/t Ars Technica UK]