Dunning-Kruger effect

Dunning-Kruger effect:
People with low ability tend to overestimate themselves. On the other hand, high performers have a tendency to underestimate their skills.

Overcoming the Dunning-Kruger effect
Take time to reflect. Some people feel more confident when they make decisions quickly, but snap decisions can lead to errors of judgment. ...
See learning as a way forward. ...
Challenge your own beliefs. ...
Change your reasoning. ...
Learn from feedback.

Beware of this effect when you are starting a new business.

Tomorrow's Scientists: How is the global talent pool changing?

 The World Economic Forum reported that #China had 4.7 million recent STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) graduates in 2016. #India, another academic powerhouse, had 2.6 million new #STEM graduates while the U.S. had 568,000. Chinese STEM graduates outnumber US STEM grads 8.2 to 1.

The gap is going to become even wider. Even modest predictions see the number of 25 to 34-year-old graduates in China rising by a further 300% by 2030, compared with an increase of around 30% expected in #Europe and the #UnitedStates.

By 2030, China and India could account for more than 60% of the STEM graduates in major economies, compared with only 8% in Europe and 4% in the United States.

China has been building the equivalent of almost one university per week.

For decades, the United States had the highest proportion of people going to university and dominated the graduate market.

https://lnkd.in/enMe9zMw

 from the "Human Capital Report 2016" by WEF

The search reveals eight new sources of black hole echoes

Scattered across our Milky Way galaxy are tens of millions of black holes — immensely strong gravitational wells of spacetime, from which infalling matter, and even light, can never escape. Black holes are dark by definition, except on rare occasions when they feed. As a black hole pulls in gas and dust from an orbiting star, it can give off spectacular bursts of X-ray light that bounce and echo off the inspiraling gas, briefly illuminating a black hole’s extreme surroundings.

Now MIT astronomers are looking for flashes and echoes from nearby black hole X-ray binaries — systems with a star orbiting, and occasionally being eaten away by a black hole. They are analyzing the echoes from such systems to reconstruct a black hole’s immediate, extreme vicinity.

In a study appearing today in the Astrophysical Journal, the researchers report using a new automated search tool, which they’ve coined the “Reverberation Machine,” to comb through satellite data for signs of black hole echoes. In their search, they have discovered eight new echoing black hole binaries in our galaxy. Previously, only two such systems in the Milky Way were known to emit X-ray echoes.

In comparing the echoes across systems, the team has pieced together a general picture of how a black hole evolves during an outburst. Across all systems, they observed that a black hole first undergoes a “hard” state, whipping up a corona of high-energy photons along with a jet of relativistic particles that are launched away at close to the speed of light. The researchers discovered that at a certain point, the black hole gives off one final, high-energy flash, before transitioning to a “soft,” low-energy state.

This final flash may be a sign that a black hole’s corona, the region of high-energy plasma just outside a black hole’s boundary, briefly expands, ejecting a final burst of high-energy particles before disappearing entirely. These findings could help to explain how larger, supermassive black holes at the center of a galaxy can eject particles across vastly cosmic scales to shape a galaxy’s formation.

“The role of black holes in galaxy evolution is an outstanding question in modern astrophysics,” says Erin Kara, assistant professor of physics at MIT. “Interestingly, these black hole binaries appear to be ‘mini’ supermassive black holes, and so by understanding the outbursts in these small, nearby systems, we can understand how similar outbursts in supermassive black holes affect the galaxies in which they reside.”

Source:MIT

What's oil made up?

 What's oil made up?

THE KEY MINERALS IN AN EV BATTERY

 THE KEY MINERALS IN AN EV BATTERY

The EV battery market is still in its early hours, with plenty of growth on the horizon. Battery chemistries are constantly evolving, and as automakers come up with new models with different characteristics, it’ll be interesting to see which new cathodes come around the block. Day by day, the technology is maturing and solving the issues that the EV industry faced in recent years.

Throw your comment on how the mineral content differs for various battery chemistries with a 60kWh capacity.

Germany: Cologne / Bonn region gets the world's largest hydrogen bus fleet

The regional bus operator Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH (RVK) has received almost 34 million in subsidy from the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport for the purchase of 108 hydrogen-powered buses. The carrier is already running 40 buses with a fuel cell. In total, the 160 hydrogen buses will form the largest H2 bus fleet in the world by 2025.

In the first purchasing phase, RVK is now purchasing 79 normal hydrogen-powered buses and 29 extra-long concertina buses in the second phase. The first deliveries will take place in December 2022. All 108 buses should be in service by 2025. 

The RVK, located in Cologne, provides public transport in the Cologne and Bonn region. The company has been using buses with hydrogen fuel cell drives since 2011, increasing in intensity in recent years. The current hydrogen procurement project with 108 buses is the largest for the RVK to date and is funded under the bus/rail financing guidelines of the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport. The total investment amount is 33.9 million euros.

Hydrogen buses with fuel cells score points in many respects: they cause hardly any emissions locally. In addition to the greatly reduced noise emission, this means No NOx and CO2 emissions. With the 108 new buses running on hydrogen, 9.96 tons of NOx and 5777.45 tons of CO2 will be saved or avoided by 2025. The bus company RVK is also very pleased with the operational efficiency, especially in regional transport, with the very good range and their short refueling time, comparable to that of a diesel bus.

RVK director Dr. Marcel Frank: “With a total of 160 fuel cell buses, we will soon be able to offer emission-free public transport for a large part of our traffic area. Our thanks go to the Federal Ministry for this.”

Photo: dozens of hydrogen-powered buses are now running in the Cologne region, produced by the Belgian bus manufacturer Van Hool.

California runs on 100 percent renewables, briefly, for the first time ever

Less than two weeks after notching up a record 97.6% of instantaneous renewables on its grid, California has passed a major new milestone, with 100% of the state’s electricity supplied by renewable sources for a short period over the weekend.

According to the California Independent System Operator, the milestone was achieved within a 15-minute period between 2.45 pm and 3 pm on Saturday, April 30, California time, marking the first time ever the massive state has been powered entirely by renewables.

Such levels have become common in smaller grids such as South Australia, but the milestone in California – one of the world’s biggest economies and biggest grids – is hugely significant.

As illustrated in the charts below, when state electricity demand passed 18GW at around 2.50pm, renewable energy was supplying around 18.6GW, compared to just over 2GW each from nuclear and gas, and a measly 9MW from coal.

At that time, the vast majority of the renewable energy supply was coming from California’s solar power resources, around 12.4GW, while another 4.7GW was being supplied by wind power. Geothermal, small hydro, biogas, and biomass filled out the remainder.

The state has been edging towards the 100% milestone for weeks, hitting a previous high of 97.6% on April 03, which had, in turn, beat the previous record of 96.4 percent set on March 27.

The milestone was celebrated on social media platforms including Twitter and LinkedIn as the first, but definitely not last time for a state that is shooting for 60% renewables by 2030 100% “carbon-free” by 2045.

“Twenty years ago no one thought we could get to 100% renewable energy. But bit by bit, bill by bill, and solar panel by the solar panel we did it,” said Dan Jacobson, a senior advisor to Environment California.

“This is a great day for California and the rest of the world. 100% clean energy is ready for prime time. The future is here today in California,” Jacobson said.

“Now we need to get our state running on 100% clean energy for the whole day, the whole week, and the whole year. It’s time to move to 100% clean energy, 100% of the time.”

The milestone comes as California debates the future of nuclear power in the state, with Governor Gavin Newsom under pressure to prolong the operating life of the state’s last remaining nuclear plant.

The state government has been planning since 2016 to replace the Diablo Canyon facility this decade with solar, battery storage, and wind, but is considering applying for a federal grant to extend its life.

Meanwhile, the addition of new renewable capacity in the state is cracking on, with 600MW of solar and 200MW of wind scheduled to be added to the grid by the beginning of June, along with 1.3GW worth of new battery storage capacity, which is expected to grow from 2,700MW to 4,000MW by June 1.

Source: reneweconomy