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The Molecular Love Story That Could Help Power the World | Olivia Breese | TED

The key to revolutionizing the world’s energy landscape may lie in an unlikely love story, says energy innovator Olivia Breese. She details the fateful marriage of a green electron and a water molecule — a powerful source of carbon-free, sustainable energy — and calls for universal investment in this potentially transformative resource. “A world which…

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The key to revolutionizing the world’s energy landscape may lie in an unlikely love story, says energy innovator Olivia Breese. She details the fateful marriage of a green electron and a water molecule — a powerful source of carbon-free, sustainable energy — and calls for universal investment in this potentially transformative resource. “A world which runs entirely on green energy, it’s not a luxury. It’s a necessity,” she says.

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33 Comments

33 Comments

  1. Daniel Rose

    August 23, 2023 at 11:53 am

    The kool aid is swallowing that human activity is to blame for all or most of these changes. What we may be seeing is a reversion back to “normal” from a period of abnormal stability in temperature and weather. In any event we need to return to a more sustainable lifestyle. That does not include electric SUVs I would guess, or 8 to 10 billion people. All of this will come out in the wash eventually. The plants really like the extra CO2 Mother Gaia has given them. NASA has confirmed that from space, 15% increase in green. Humans have served their purpose here. So far we are still burning more oil / gas than EVER, right now. So all this solar / wind stuff so far has not put much of a dent in our consumption. But the plan has taken this all into account. Gaia’s plan that is. Enjoy the ride while it lasts.

  2. thewefactor1

    August 23, 2023 at 11:55 am

    It really is going to take a decrease in population by controlling the birth rate so as the natural death rate surpasses. Capitalism will not allow for this as far as I understand it, the choice is ours, sink to the bottom of the sea with your pockets full of gold or throw it overboard, so to speak. Less people is the immediate rational response to the opulence of capitalism and its overpopulation of the planet that followed it, like it or not… and your God will not save you from this global catastrophe that was self-created.

  3. Christian Soldier

    August 23, 2023 at 11:55 am

    I can make energy without any fuel at all.
    I’ve done it and will give it to the world freely.
    It is portable and anyone can maintain it.
    I just turned the elements and physics upsidedown and inside out.
    It’s amazing that in 2400 years nobody thought of it….
    The problem is , it cannot be allowed to be patented because it will be looked at as perpetual motion. And as such, the department of defense and under the guise of national security, it would never see the light of day. So I’m going to make a video and give it to a lot of people who will load the internet with it. Believe me, it’s way simpler than what you may think.

  4. 8BitZ0mbie

    August 23, 2023 at 12:02 pm

    I feel like Ted talks are now talking for talkings sakes. They’re like a parody of themselves, or they are just complete charlatans. The last good one was Sam Hyde – 2070 paradigm shift

    • Calabi Yau

      August 24, 2023 at 7:43 pm

      you should unsubscribe so you can use your time for better things

  5. M

    August 23, 2023 at 12:02 pm

    What are her qualifications?? I cant stand when material science is watered down with cringe edgy poetry that has no meaning.

    Chill with the highschool protest of fossil fuels.

    Just present the science like a man would and let intelligent minds deduce the rest.

    • M

      August 23, 2023 at 12:03 pm

      Had to skip past half the “talk” to even hear one drop of science. Then she dwindles back into her love story narrative 🤪

  6. Willful Mystic

    August 23, 2023 at 12:03 pm

    The population has to decrease to pre-industrial levels. That’s the ONLY way to solve this problem with the new kinds of energy available.

    • Ghislain Bugnicourt

      August 23, 2023 at 10:49 pm

      I used to believe in that myth of overpopulation too, seems logical at first glance. But I think it originates (Malthus) from before we improved agriculture enough to feed everybody (although it still needs to evolve), and we also realised that many populations seem to be stabilising instead of following exponential growth.
      You say “ONLY way” but there are others, including rethinking our power usage.
      Ironically, if the population was decreased that much you’d disrupt production so much that our quality of life would be reduced much more than by only reducing our energy consumption.
      Also I wonder how exactly you’d do that, the joke being that those that think there’s overpopulation should be the first to go. Just a joke though.

  7. Zak W

    August 23, 2023 at 12:19 pm

    Not before billions of people die to climate change first.

  8. Pond Hollow Orchards

    August 23, 2023 at 12:37 pm

    My plants love co2

  9. The Cress of Learning

    August 23, 2023 at 12:40 pm

    Green energy is the future of the fuel…Rather it should be👍

  10. THEANPHROPY

    August 23, 2023 at 12:47 pm

    Need a multitier approach whereby different energy transforming & utilisation technologies are used to supply the human civilisation including recycled carbon in the short term for ICE based transportation systems: nuclear fusion & nuclear fission are but a few examples of the technologies we need to continue to develop!

    No good will come of putting all of your eggs in one basket!!!

  11. maikel0245

    August 23, 2023 at 1:35 pm

    Foolish opening statement. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. 0.03% of the air we breathe is co2. Less than 0.02% and plants die. The Earth is actually greening due to a slight increase in human caused co2 not burning up. There are no “climate crises”. There are however, plans to transfer more wealth to the elite class.
    “Eat ze bugs!”

  12. sys . exe

    August 23, 2023 at 1:48 pm

    You introduce with engery keep in mind but not on your neck!!!
    THINK ABOUT amalgamation GOLD !!! WILL CREATRE!!HOW MUCH AMOUNT OF CARBON to make that necklase can you imagine for molecular level of use!!!

  13. minj4ever

    August 23, 2023 at 2:18 pm

    None of this is trivial. You can’t color hydrogen green meaning they are free to greenwash. Hydrogen is hard to store and even harder to transport. Making amonia is also non trivial and requires a lot of energy besides, not to mention its intrinsic toxicity. Justifyable in fertilizer production but maybe not much else

    • Andy Cordy

      August 24, 2023 at 3:30 am

      An historic talk which, I am sure will be much quoted.

      Yes we must overcome the problems in production and transportation of de-fossilized hydrogen.

      I applaud Toyota as the only car manufacturer interested in this essential industrial revolution. Battery cars are an expensive anachronism to the vast majority of car users, the industry has its head in the sand as the huge problems of charging loom ahead. It’s a global farce.

      I would say that there are other routes to renewable sources of ammonia, for example from fish farming, as demonstrated in the aquaponics cycle.

    • Samuel Zev

      August 24, 2023 at 9:41 am

      The problems we have with the current green energy system will soon be solved as scientists are working nonstop for solutions. It’s no different than the internet where it was once unstable and unreliable needing wires to connect to now being wireless

  14. Dia Doodio

    August 23, 2023 at 2:33 pm

    Eh? It doesn’t matter if its derived from hydrolysis, the combustion of methanol is still combustion!
    I can see the benefits of a cleaner form of shipping fuel, and I can see the benefits of scaled up electrolysis, but can (as a holder of a degree in environmental science) am worried that this a pretty substantial act of, what I suppose I can call, greenwashing.
    In this case, the use of the terminology commonly used by those fighting for the rights of our planet, for sustainability and for everyone affected by climate change (ie: everyone who happens to live here) aggressively and with the intent to blindside those with good intentions.
    Is she playing on the fact that many wouldn’t know that methanol still releases CO2?
    Am I missing something here?
    Forgive me and explain if that is the case, I am open to hearing any thoughts!

    • Trace Smith

      August 23, 2023 at 3:10 pm

      I haven’t a clue how it all works…just appalled at Human selfishness. The planet doesn’t NEED any more clothes. Or take out for that matter. Electric cars are not the answered…neither is throwing ourselves in front of needed pipelines…a million or more trees (of every kind) should be planted every day…my country Canada is losing tons of trees for toilet paper…European countries are here illegally steeling wood chips for their citizens to keep warm…WTF?
      WE waste way too much…people won’t change unless you take it ALL away from them and they need to re-use re-purpose recycle
      Re-think what they DON’T need…the next stupid talking skeleton for Halloween…etc.
      Pkg in every company in the world has to change. I guess I could go on forever…but even I’m too much. faaak.
      I’m so very happy I’ll be dirt soon…it’s difficult to hear the world’s survival depends on what she and her cohorts think.

    • Alan H

      August 24, 2023 at 1:29 am

      It’s okay to combust and create CO2. Because the earth recycles it continuously. The problem is burning fossil fuels which releases carbon stored eons ago into the air. So you put out an excess of carbon in a short period of time.

  15. Jay Headley

    August 23, 2023 at 4:12 pm

    Unfortunately we are dealing with the love story of green energy vs the hate story of greed energy already set in motion. That is all you need to know to understand why no one will live happily ever after…

  16. alexos8741

    August 23, 2023 at 5:26 pm

    The Brazilian president called “climate change” green neocolonialism, and he is correct. I prefer to consider it the pretty face that the United States and its satellite countries use to hide their old and ugly protectionism.

  17. Marcus Knight

    August 23, 2023 at 8:10 pm

    To the fiery place with the WEF, and all of the Al Gore’s, and the wasteful billionaires that will try and dictate to the masses What Will Be for ‘us’, but not for ‘them’.

  18. jamal jmes

    August 23, 2023 at 10:24 pm

    i dont agree lol

  19. Report Sport

    August 24, 2023 at 6:23 am

    perfect

  20. Wayne P

    August 24, 2023 at 7:18 am

    “U-233 is a fissile isotope of uranium that is bred from thorium-232 as part of the thorium fuel cycle. Uranium-233 was investigated for use … as a reactor fuel. It has been used successfully in experimental nuclear reactors and has been proposed for much wider use as a nuclear fuel. It has a half-life of 160,000 years. Uranium-233 is produced by the neutron irradiation of thorium-232.” — Uranium-233. (2023, August 13). In Wikipedia.
    She did not mention the best man, the thorium fuel cycle.

  21. Jawn Explores

    August 24, 2023 at 7:21 am

    so what – we just mine the ocean?

  22. King Al

    August 24, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    It’s called centrifical force

  23. Igor Shchipanov

    August 24, 2023 at 4:48 pm

    We will because we Love. That’s root target and then specific solutions will become possible to manifest

  24. Erima Yukina[Yu]

    August 24, 2023 at 8:23 pm

    Điểm danh VN nào!

  25. Suat Furkan IŞIK

    August 25, 2023 at 9:39 am

    #### Özet
    Olivia Breese’in “Dünyayı Güçlendirebilecek Moleküler Aşk Hikayesi” başlıklı TED konuşmasının özeti aşağıda bulunmaktadır.

    #### Öne Çıkanlar
    – 💡 Elektron ve su molekülü arasındaki aşk hikayesi, dünya enerji sistemini dönüştürme gücüne sahiptir.
    – 💡 Elektronlar ve moleküller, enerji üretimi ve depolamada önemli rol oynamaktadır.

    #### Noktalar
    – 💧 Elektronlar ve moleküller arasındaki aşk hikayesi, enerji üretimi ve depolama alanında devrim yapma potansiyeline sahiptir.
    – ☀ Elektronlar, 19. yüzyıldan beri dünyanın enerjisini sağlamaktadır.
    – 🔌 Günümüzdeki enerji ihtiyaçlarının büyük bir kısmı fosil yakıtların yakılmasıyla karşılanmaktadır ve bu da CO2 emisyonlarına yol açmaktadır.
    – 🌿 Yeşil elektronlar, güneş, rüzgar ve gelgit gibi yenilenebilir kaynaklardan elde edilen enerjiyi temsil eder.
    – 💨 Elektronlar, dünya enerji üretiminin yaklaşık %30’unu oluşturan yeşil enerji kaynaklarından geliyor.
    – 🌊 Elektrifikasyon ve yeşil enerji kaynaklarının daha geniş ölçekte kullanılması, iklim değişikliğiyle mücadelede önemlidir.
    – 💡 Enerji üretiminde kullanılan moleküller, özellikle endüstriyel süreçlerde ve uzun mesafe taşımacılığında etkilidir.
    – ⚙ Fosil yakıtlara dayalı sektörlerin CO2 emisyonlarına alternatif olarak yeşil moleküller kullanılabilir.
    – 🌊 Su molekülü (H2O), elektronlarla etkileşime geçerek enerji depolayabilen yeşil molekülü oluşturabilir.
    – 🔥 Elektroliz ile suyun bileşenlerine ayrılması, yeşil hidrojen (H2) üretimine olanak tanır.
    – 🚢 Yeşil hidrojen, yüksek sıcaklık gerektiren endüstriyel süreçlerde enerji kaynağı olarak kullanılabilir.
    – 🛢 Metanol ve diğer moleküllerin üretiminde yeşil hidrojen kullanılabilir, bu da CO2 emisyonlarını azaltabilir.
    – 🚀 Yeşil hidrojenin sentezlenmesiyle havacılık sektöründe karbon salınımını azaltmak mümkündür.
    – 💰 Fosil yakıtların gerçek maliyeti yansıtılmalıdır ki alternatif enerji kaynakları geliştirilebilsin.
    – 🌍 Enerji dönüşümü için bireyler, şirketler, ülkeler ve toplum bir araya gelmelidir.
    – 🌱 Yeşil enerji kaynaklarına geçiş, ekonomik bir gereklilik ve lüks değil, zorunluluktur.

  26. Bharat l.

    August 26, 2023 at 9:03 am

    world leader should listen this carefully.

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