At the MIT Clean Energy Prize, held May 11th in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an entrepreneurial team looking to disrupt copper’s dominance in electricity transmission took home both the Department of Energy’s $75,000 award and the MIT Grand Prize of $200,000. OptiBit, a start-up composed of young scientists from CU Boulder, UC Berkeley, and MIT, is looking to harvest massive energy savings, principally targeting the burgeoning cloud, where the world’s data continues to run along…

Over the past few years, a very encouraging slowdown has taken place in the growth of fossil fuel consumption across the globe. Oil, natural gas, and coal, have endured steady price declines, as demand has failed to fully recover. Meanwhile, in large countries like the United States and China, where deep concerns about pollution and climate have steadily been transformed into political momentum, the buildout of new wind and solar capacity has been rapid,…

Downtown Los Angeles, once a rather windswept zone of dust and awkward, empty buildings, has come alive in recent years with a blossoming of residential development. But it's LA's natural, geographical center that's now been restored as an emerging transit hub. The intersection of Amtrak, commuter rail, and LA metro lines forms at the majestic Union Station, a wonder of Mission Revival architecture.

These transportation options are new developments in a city that…

The coal belt of America is a zigzag of mining towns and power plants that runs along Eastern rivers and mountainous states, from Kentucky and West Virginia down through Tennessee into Georgia. The mining of coal has been in a terrible slump the past few years, as the ripples of softening global demand have bankrupt several coal companies, putting many out of work. But it’s the burning of coal also that’s being hit hard…

This is the first in a five part series on the ascent of renewable energy sources. Over the course of the next several weeks, we will address the changing energy mix in the US as solar and wind dominate marginal additions to the powergrid, and aging fossil-fuel power retires. The evolution of energy in the US also means the map of energy production is changing. New polices from the States--some helpful, some hurtful--will impact the…

All through the years of the great recession, during the bombed out aftermath of 2008’s financial crisis that saw jobs, wages, and growth recover at a frustratingly slow pace, something unusual began to happen in states like North Dakota and Pennsylvania: oil and gas production began to grow and then accelerate - beginning from low, inconsequential levels. Improbably, the State of North Dakota now produces more oil than former OPEC state Indonesia. And Pennsylvania’s natural…

On a Sunday evening in March 2013, after a late spring snowstorm, several hundred people braved the weather to reach an unassuming building nestled into a former strip mall in the small suburban community of Grandview, Missouri, 16 miles south of Kansas City. Their destination was the International House of Prayer. The prayer room—a nondescript auditorium ringed with small side rooms for prophesying and faith healing—receives daily visitors from all over the world who want…

On a chilly Sunday evening in early February, as tens of thousands of fans converged on the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, America’s first “Bong Bowl” began. The Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos—teams representing the only two states in the nation to have legalized recreational marijuana—were facing off to determine who would take home the coveted national football title. As they played, a static spectacle at the edge of the field raised…

Imagine: you’re on an uneventful final descent into your local metropolitan airport when suddenly the pilot makes a violent lurch to the left. The captain’s voice comes over the loudspeaker with an apology for the turbulence. “Sorry folks,” she says, “all OK up here, but we had to swerve to avoid an 'agricultural drone' that drifted off course from its assigned soy bean fields. We should be clear from here on out.”

Sound far-fetched?…

Football fans threw smoke bombs on İstiklal Caddesi.

The orange smoke billowed upwards, blocking out the buildings of Istanbul's grandest boulevard. Riot cops lined up in front of a water cannon. The protesters could not go forward. They would not go back.

Fans of Istanbul's three main football teams- Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, and Beşiktaş – have shared enmity nearly since the clubs were formed. But since the 2013 Gezi protests, which came to symbolize…