Unbound: No 189
Asset owners look to artificial intelligence for better climate reporting
by Richard Newell | AsianInvestor
As investors continue to grapple with the complexities of carbon emissions reporting, it is becoming clear that artificial intelligence has a crucial role to play in improving the quality of the core data.
The problem of reliable and consistent emissions data was highlighted in the move last month by the $330-billion US pension fund Calstrs to delay publication of its 2023 carbon footprint report, after discovering significant data issues.
In Asia Pacific (APAC), New Zealand Super is already considered to be using one of the more advanced climate management approaches, but even it is forced to qualify its reporting thus: “Due to our reliance on external data, and external data providers’ controls in producing the data, there are risks regarding the lack of completeness of data, unverified data sources, and complexity and judgement involved when the emissions data is sourced.”
Radical Quantum Breakthrough Could Charge Batteries in a Snap
By MIKE MCRAE | ScienceAlert
Batteries based on the wave-like nature of charged particles could revolutionize energy storage, potentially cramming in more power at a faster rate than conventional electrochemical cells could ever hope to manage.
A new protocol developed by a team of physicists from National Cheng Kung University could transform the basic principles of a fast-charging quantum battery into a practical system, demonstrating ways the superposition of a battery may be used to store energy quickly and efficiently.
How Many Consumers Have Tried VR?
by AR Insider | AR Insider
New Study Reveals 25 Percent of U.S. Adults Have Tried Virtual Reality
Survey research from Thrive Analytics & ARtillery Intelligence reveals who’s using VR, how often, and on what devices.
Thrive Analytics and ARtillery Intelligence have released a new report entitled VR Usage & Consumer Attitudes, Wave 8. ARtillery Intelligence authored survey questions and a narrative report while Thrive Analytics administered the survey through its established survey engine and ongoing Virtual Reality Monitor research.
Highlights include the fact that 25 percent of consumers have used VR, and 80 percent of those users do so at least monthly. Non-VR users report low interest, with only 26 percent signaling a desire to try the technology. On the bright side, this figure is up six points from the previous year’s study, indicating that marketing investments from Meta and others may be working.
🌙 NASA - Best Photo from Last Week
Hubble Views the Dawn of a Sun-like Star
Looking like a glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The triple-star system is made up of the variable star HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3. HP Tau is known as a T Tauri star, a type of young variable star that hasn’t begun nuclear fusion yet but is beginning to evolve into a hydrogen-fueled star similar to our Sun. T Tauri stars tend to be younger than 10 million years old ― in comparison, our Sun is around 4.6 billion years old ― and are often found still swaddled in the clouds of dust and gas from which they formed.
Learn more about HP Tau.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Duchene (Universite de Grenoble I); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
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