One of the challenges of clean energy like wind or solar is that they fluctuate. And they're unreliable. So finding a better way to store this energy for dark seasons and doldrum days is the next hurdle to reaching goals for decarbonization. In this episode, we explore options that are already being used, and some new methods still in beta. WSJ Senior Energy Correspondent Sarah McFarlane joins host Janet Babin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WSJ’s The Future of Everything

Zero Carbon Future 2: How to Store Renewable Energy For a Rainy Day

A small Scottish community is perfecting new technologies that could help to power the green energy industry. Advances in wind and tidal power have turned the Orkney Islands into an exporter of renewable energy, instead of a fossil fuel importer. Rochelle Toplensky reports, Janet Babin hosts.

An Archipelago Leads the Way on Clean Energy

Student loan debt is now around $1.6 trillion. Some economists fear that debt is irreparably harming the U.S. economy. But over the past 50 years, the availability of federal student loans has changed higher education. It's led to higher attendance rates, but also higher tuitions and higher expectations from the college experience. In this episode of The Future of Everything: what structural changes could improve the lending program going forward - and how that could change what college looks like in the future. With WSJ reporters Melissa Korn and Josh Mitchell. Janet Babin hosts.

Paying for College and Curbing Student Debt

A recent surge in high-profile cyber attacks has companies playing defense. Some are turning to ethical hackers to find software bugs before the bad guys do. But as Ava Sasani reports, researchers are also developing new hardware - to try and stop hackers in their tracks. Janet Babin hosts.

Outhacking the Hackers: The Future of Cybersecurity

Materials scientists are getting creative in the quest to quiet our increasingly noisy world. Using metamaterials - man made materials with special properties not found in nature - researchers could soon reduce or eliminate unwanted industrial sounds.

No More Noise 2: Metamaterials Can Make the World a Quieter Place

The America's Cup, the world's oldest sailing competition, has a reputation for fostering innovation. In 2013, contestants began to use hydrofoils-underwater wings on the hull-to lift their boats out of the water during the race, allowing them to reach highway speeds and revolutionizing the sport. An Olympic sailor and a billionaire oil trader are now reimagining the technology to make passenger ferries faster and more eco-friendly.

Traveling With Tech Made for the World's Fastest Sailboats

The coronavirus pandemic led to blood-donation shortages across the world, outlining the fragility of the pipeline. That has brought fresh urgency to research that has been decades in the making but is only now starting to become a reality: The production of artificial blood. Last year, researchers began a pioneering clinical trial, and more are on the way, bringing us closer to a world where blood factories augment supplies.

The Blood of the Future Could be Made in a Lab

For the vast majority of humans, earth is our home. But that could soon change. Global efforts are underway to build sustainable habitats on the moon within the next decade or two. But beyond covering the necessities in an otherwise uninhabitable environment, we'll also need to consider the psychological effects of living in space, and what it will take to make the moon feel more like home.

Making a Home on the Moon

What if we could alert whales to stay away from oil spills? Or hear from dolphins directly when they want treats? Seamless conversation between animals and humans is still a far-off goal. But scientists think that machine-learning tools could open the door to communication with marine mammals. Listen to the first part of this two-part series, Google AI Tries to Save the Whales.

How to Talk to Animals (and Know What They're Saying Back)

Trains that run from New York to California in a few hours, laptops that never overheat, and rockets that fly to Jupiter: These are some of the possibilities of superconductivity. After decades of failed experiments, a new discovery may have just gotten us a step closer.

Metals That Work Like Magic

The hallucinogenic compound psilocybin is undergoing a renaissance-not as a recreational drug but as a potential treatment for mental health conditions. We follow the journey of one participant of a scientific study into the psychedelic drug's effect on depression.

How Psychedelic Drugs Are Making a Comeback to Treat Depression

In the Pacific Northwest, an increase in shipping traffic is further threatening the orca population, which has already seen its numbers drop in the face of food shortages and climate change. One of the biggest threats from the boats is noise pollution, which interferes with the whales' ability to communicate. Engineers at a unit of Google may have an answer: An alert system that relies on artificial intelligence.

Google AI Tries to Save the Whales

As the U.S. gets ready for an election during a pandemic, we report on in-person voting options and review the security threats inherent in mobile or blockchain assisted voting. In a previous version of this podcast released on Oct. 2, we said that Bradley Tusk was funding mobile voting apps, including the Voatz app. Tusk Philanthropies has given funding to voting precincts to launch mobile voting pilot programs - not to the apps themselves.

Mobile Voting's Future

When Chinese researchers published the draft genome of the virus that causes Covid-19 early last January, it altered the course of the pandemic--and possibly changed science forever. Will this spirit of information-sharing and collaboration persist beyond the current crisis?

How the Pandemic Fueled Scientific Discovery and Collaboration

After years of being a museum novelty, digital art is starting to sell like hotcakes--and in some cases for millions of dollars--because of a crypto asset called nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. And it isn't just art--sales of digital collectibles of all kinds are benefiting from these blockchain-based certificates of authenticity. NFTs are making the market more accessible for artists, but in the future, they also could disrupt the entire economy of the art market.

How NFTs Could Disrupt the Art Market

Discover what comes next with this in-depth look at how science and technology are revolutionizing the way we live, work and play. Join our award-winning team of journalists as we crisscross the country to interview the leaders and luminaries reshaping our world.

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WSJ’s The Future of Everything

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