A $22-billion project will share Australian sunshine with Singapore

South Korea's new 3,000-ton ballistic missile submarine goes active in 2024, a new study helps reveal how life came from lifelessness Sep 29, 2021 # Good morning! We’re tackling the big question today: How can life come from lifelessness? Scientists still rack their brains over this maddening question. And today, we might be one step closer to answering it. In this edition, there is also a massive $22-billion infrastructure plan which is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious renewable energy projects ever attempted. Then, we'll enter the fray of military service and examine the launch of South Korea’s new 3,000-ton submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles. This is The Blueprint. Keep reading. Help us make your reader experience better by [taking this survey](. It takes just 2 minutes. INNOVATION [The World's Largest Clean Energy Infrastructure Will Power Singapore]( [A render of Sun Cable's in-development solar farm.]( Singapore is one of Asia's biggest per capita carbon dioxide emitters, but it’s trying to change that. The island nation [has already invested in floating solar farms]( to help meet its energy needs, but scarce space and surging real estate prices aren’t helping. On the other hand, Australia has plenty of space and sun, which is why the two will soon share sunlight like a match made in heaven. [A colossal $22-billion infrastructure project]( will send Australian sunshine roughly 3,100 miles (5,000 km) to Singapore in one of the most massive and ambitious renewable energy projects ever attempted. - Led by the Australian firm Sun Cable, the project aims to activate its high-voltage undersea cable in 2027. But first, it needs to build the world's largest solar farm and battery storage facility, with construction set to begin in 2023. You can see it from space. The infrastructure project will create the "Powell Creek Solar Precinct" in Australia's Northern Territory on 12,000 hectares of unused land roughly 500 miles (800 km) south of Darwin. It'll generate 17 to 20 GW of peak solar electricity and will house a 36- to 42-GWh battery storage facility. This is 10 times larger than the largest solar farm today, [the roughly 2.2-GW Bhadla Solar Park in India](. The bright side. Without sacrificing environmental benefits, Sun Cable says the project will generate up to 15% of Singapore's electricity, enough to power about 3 million homes while reducing CO2 emissions by 11.5 million tons, or the equivalent of clearing 2.5 million cars off the road. [Read More]( SCIENCE [A New Study Helps Reveal How Life Came From Lifelessness]( [A 3D illustration of a DNA molecule.]( Scientists from the University of Hiroshima in Japan believe [they may have solved one of science's most enduring mysteries]( — how life came from non-living matter in the Earth's early days. The background. The chemical evolution hypothesis, which was first proposed in the 1920s, says "life first originated with the formation of macromolecules from simple small molecules, and those macromolecules formed molecular assemblies that could proliferate." The team specifically set out to investigate the origin of the molecular assemblies that spawn from small molecules, which have remained a mystery since the chemical evolution scenario was first hypothesized. The experiment. The goal of the study was to replicate these proliferating protocells in the lab. The researchers first created a new small molecule out of amino acid derivatives that would self-assemble into primitive cells. This was then placed in room-temperature water at normal atmospheric pressure for further observation. - The molecules were rearranged into peptides and then spontaneously formed droplets. By adding more amino acids, the scientists observed these droplets grow in size and then divide, a process comparable to the self-reproduction of biological cells. Some of the droplets also assembled nucleic acids, which carry genetic information. The verdict. While this discovery doesn’t guarantee that this is definitely how life arose on Earth, it does lend credence to the theory. And the researchers will further explore how amino acid derivatives might evolve into living cells by way of self-replicating droplets. [Read More]( CULTURE [South Korea's New 3,000-Ton Ballistic Missile Submarine Goes Active in 2024]( [The new ballistic missile submarine.]( Major powers of the world are rearming: [South Korea has launched]( a new 3,000-ton submarine that can fire ballistic missiles, in the third locally-built major addition to the powerhouse nation. The new submarine is 31.5 ft (9.6 m) wide and 274 ft (83.5 m) long and can carry 50 crewmembers underwater for 20 days without surfacing. This means it’s almost certainly not nuclear-powered. - The new boat was named after a Korean independence activist, Shin Chae-ho, and it represents the third and final of three Changbogo-III Batch-I submarines the country has developed without outsourcing technologies, in a project that cost roughly $2.77 billion. It will be delivered to the Navy in 2024, following extensive test operations. Watch out. All three of the new boats can fire submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). The first one of its class was launched in 2018 and was deployed in August. The second one, called the Ahn Mu, left port in November 2020 for tests and will be received by the Korean navy next year. Global ramifications. Earlier in September, South Korea revealed its [first-ever self-built SLBM]( while North Korea is also beefing up its SLBM and submarine capabilities, revealing a slew of new SLBMs in recent months. This comes roughly a week after [the U.S. and Australia struck a deal]( for the former to supply nuclear-powered submarines to the latter, and it's hard not to note the growing military might of China, seeking to increase its presence and influence in the Indo-Pacific region, as a primary motivation for the U.S., Australian, and now South Korean advancements. [Read More]( [Video]VIDEO OF THE DAY [This Flying Boat Can Travel 345 Miles on a Full Tank]( [This Flying Boat Can Travel 345 Miles on a Full Tank]( AND ANOTHER THING... - China will no longer build coal power plants overseas, ushering in a new era of low-carbon development, [so what energy projects will it invest in]( (The Conversation) - The 5G revolution is fast approaching, but [will it kill us all or make our lives infinitely better]( - The military’s satellites excel at spotting new blazing fires, but for decades they have been mostly off-limits to civilian firefighters. Here's [the secret war over Pentagon aid in fighting wildfires](. (New York Times $) - There is a shipping container shortage, and [this is the $14-trillion reason]( you should care about it. (Fast Company) - The U.S. military [is planning to build a mobile nuclear reactor]( in Idaho, and two companies are already in the running to build the prototype. - In the race to build a cheaper and longer-range electric car, auto companies are pouring more money into a technology long considered a moonshot: [solid-state batteries](. (Wall Street Journal $) - Adults sleep less than babies. Sperm whales sleep even less than us. [A new mathematical theory unlocks the mysteries of slumber](. (Aeon) QUOTE OF THE DAY “ Failure is central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation. Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail. ” Henry Petrosky, in The New York Times. Prepared by Derya Ozdemir and Brad Bergan Enjoy reading? Don't forget to forward to a friend! Was this email forwarded to you? [Subscribe]( [About Us]( | [Advertise]( | [Contact Us]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( You are receiving this email because you have subscribed to our newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( to manage your newsletter subscriptions. © Copyright 2021 | The Blueprint is by Interesting Engineering, Inc. 201 Spear Street, Suite 1100 San Francisco, CA 94105 | All Rights Reserved [Interesting Engineering]