Rolls-Royce plans nuclear reactor on moon that could sustain life

Clarification: An earlier version of this story incorrectly linked the reactor's development with Rolls-Royce automobiles.

As NASA continues its plans to send humans back to the moon, another country will be funding the effort to get humans living and working on the celestial body.

The British manufacturer Rolls-Royce announced its going to be taking its research out of the this world, as the company received funding from the UK Space Agency to develop a nuclear reactor on the moon, which could power a lunar astronaut base.

"Space exploration is the ultimate laboratory for so many of the transformational technologies we need on Earth," George Freeman, Minister of State at the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, said in a statement.

The moon could have its own time zone: Space officials push to create standard lunar time

What are the full moon dates for 2023?: The next full moon will be on April 6

Why is Rolls-Royce researching a nuclear reactor on the moon?

Rolls-Royce said it is working on a micro-reactor program to develop technology that will "provide power needed for humans to live and work on the moon."

A power source on the moon would support communication systems, life-support and science experiments while on the on the moon, which would "dramatically increase" the time spent working outside of Earth, the company added.

"This innovative research by Rolls-Royce could lay the groundwork for powering continuous human presence on the Moon," said Paul Bate, chief executive of the UK Space Agency.

Why a nuclear reactor?

The agency said a nuclear reactor is small and lightweight compared to other means of power, and could enable continuous power regardless of available sunlight or other environmental conditions.

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How much funding is Rolls-Royce getting?

Rolls-Royce will receive £2.9 million, which equals around $3.5 million, to research how a nuclear reactor could function on the moon.

In addition to bringing more jobs to develop the research, the company said the funding will allow it to strengthen its knowledge in:

The fuel used to generate heat

The method of heat transfer

Technology to convert that heat into electricity

"This funding will bring us further down the road in making the Micro-Reactor a reality, with the technology bringing immense benefits for both space and Earth," said Abi Clayton, director of future programs for Rolls-Royce.

When will a nuclear reactor be on the moon?

Rolls-Royce plans to have a nuclear reactor ready to send to the moon by 2029.

Future moon missions

The announcement from Rolls-Royce comes less than a month after the UK Space Agency announced funding for companies to develop communication and navigation services for future moon missions.

Meanwhile, NASA on Wednesday revealed the spacesuits astronauts will wear during the upcoming Artemis III mission, which plans to send humans back to the moon in 2025.

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Rolls-Royce gets £2.9m for 'James Bond' Moon project | The Week UK

Rolls-Royce has been awarded funding by the UK Space Agency to build a nuclear reactor to power a base on the Moon.

The idea “might sound like the setup of a James Bond film”, said Sky News, but is “part of a very real-world project that aims to see humans living and working on the lunar surface”.

Experts told The Guardian that nuclear power could “dramatically increase the length of lunar missions”, providing enough energy for communications, life-support and experiments.

Rolls-Royce plans to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029. The UK Space Agency has announced £2.9m of new funding for the project, which will deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor. The cash injection follows a £249,000 study funded by the UK Space Agency last year.

Dr Paul Bate, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “This innovative research by Rolls-Royce could lay the groundwork for powering continuous human presence on the moon, while enhancing the wider UK space sector, creating jobs and generating further investment.”

Work on the lunar base comes as humans prepare to return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. “As humanity begins to venture back into space”, said Gizmodo, the “technology that moves us throughout the solar system will be a pivotal part of that journey”.

With dozens of lunar missions due to launch over the next decade, the European Space Agency wants to give the Moon its own time zone and is collaborating with other space agencies including Nasa in a “joint international effort” to determine what a lunar time zone might look like, said Axios.

Across the Atlantic, Nasa recently announced funding for a nuclear-powered rocket that could “cut journey times to Mars from seven months to just 45 days”, the Independent reported.

Diving robot explores shipwrecks on the ocean's bottom | CNN ...

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A robot created at Stanford University in California is diving down to shipwrecks and sunken planes in a way that humans can’t. Known as OceanOneK, the robot allows its operators to feel like they’re underwater explorers, too.

OceanOneK resembles a human diver from the front, with arms and hands and eyes that have 3D vision, capturing the underwater world in full color.

The back of the robot has computers and eight multidirectional thrusters that help it carefully maneuver the sites of fragile sunken ships.

OceanOneK, here doing an experiment in a swimming pool at Stanford University, resembles a human diver. Andrew Brodhead/Stanford News Service

When an operator at the ocean’s surface uses controls to direct OceanOneK, the robot’s haptic (touch-based) feedback system causes the person to feel the water’s resistance as well as the contours of artifacts.

OceanOneK’s realistic sight and touch capabilities are enough to make people feel like they’re diving down to the depths – without the dangers or immense underwater pressure a human diver would experience.

Stanford University roboticist Oussama Khatib and his students teamed up with deep-sea archaeologists and began sending the robot on dives in September. The team just finished another underwater expedition in July.

So far, OceanOneK has explored a sunken Beechcraft Baron F-GDPV plane, Italian steamship Le Francesco Crispi, a second century Roman ship off Corsica, a World War II P-38 Lightning aircraft and a submarine called Le Protée.

The Crispi sits about 1,640 feet (500 meters) below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea.

“You are moving very close to this amazing structure, and something incredible happens when you touch it: You actually feel it,” said Khatib, the Weichai Professor in Stanford’s School of Engineering and director of the Stanford Robotics Lab.

“I’d never experienced anything like that in my life. I can say I’m the one who touched the Crispi at 500 (meters). And I did – I touched it, I felt it.”

OceanOneK could be just the beginning of a future where robots take on underwater exploration too dangerous for humans and help us see oceans in a completely new way.

Stanford University roboticist Oussama Khatib (second from left) was able to feel sensations in his hands using the robot's feedback system. Frederic Osada/DRASSM/Stanford

Creating an underwater robot

The challenge in creating OceanOneK and its predecessor, OceanOne, was building a robot that could endure an underwater environment and the immense pressure at various depths, Khatib said.

OceanOne made its debut in 2016, exploring King Louis XIV’s wrecked flagship La Lune, which sits 328 feet (100 meters) below the Mediterranean 20 miles (32 kilometers) off southern France. The 1664 shipwreck remained untouched by humans.

The robot recovered a vase about the size of a grapefruit, and Khatib felt the sensations in his hands when OceanOne touched the vase before placing it in a recovery basket.

The idea for OceanOne came from a desire to study coral reefs within the Red Sea at depths beyond the normal range for divers. The Stanford team wanted to create something that came as close to a human diver as possible, integrating artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and haptic feedback.

The robot is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, and its brain can register how carefully it must handle an object without breaking it – like coral or sea-weathered artifacts. An operator can control the bot, but it’s outfitted with sensors and uploaded with algorithms so it can function autonomously and avoid collisions.

While OceanOne was designed to reach maximum depths of 656 feet (200 meters), researchers had a new goal: 1 kilometer (0.62 miles), hence the new name for OceanOneK.

The team changed the robot’s body by using special foam that includes glass microspheres to increase buoyancy and combat the pressures of 1,000 meters – more than 100 times what humans experience at sea level.

OceanOneK goes through a test of grasping an object in a Stanford pool. Andrew Brodhead/Stanford News Service

The researchers upgraded the robot’s arms with an oil and spring mechanism that prevents compression as it descends to the ocean depths. OceanOneK also got two new types of hands and increased arm and head motion.

The project comes with challenges he’s never seen in any other system, said Wesley Guo, a doctoral student at Stanford’s School of Engineering. “It requires a lot of out-of-the-box thinking to make those solutions work.”

The team used Stanford’s recreation pool to test out the robot and run through experiments, such as carrying a video camera on a boom and collecting objects. Then came the ultimate test for OceanOneK.

Deep dives

A Mediterranean tour that began in 2021 saw OceanOneK diving to these successive depths: 406 feet (124 meters) to the submarine, 1,095 feet (334 meters) to the Roman ship remains and ultimately 0.5 miles (852 meters) to prove it has the capability of diving to nearly 1 kilometer. But it wasn’t without problems.

OceanOneK reaches for cargo from an ancient Roman ship. Frederic Osada/DRASSM/Stanford

Guo and another Stanford doctoral student, Adrian Piedra, had to fix one of the robot’s disabled arms on the deck of their boat at night during a storm.

“To me, the robot is eight years in the making,” Piedra said. “You have to understand how every single part of this robot is functioning – what are all of the things that can go wrong, and things are always going wrong. So it’s always like a puzzle. Being able to dive deep into the ocean and exploring some wrecks that would have never been seen this close up is very rewarding.”

Students work to fix an issue with OceanOneK during an expedition. Frederic Osada/DRASSM/Stanford

During OceanOneK’s deep dive in February, team members discovered the robot couldn’t ascend when they stopped for a thruster check. Flotations on the communications and power line had collapsed, causing the line to pile on top of the robot.

They were able to pull in the slack, and OceanOneK’s descent was a success. It dropped off a commemorative marker on the seabed that reads, “A robot’s first touch of the deep seafloor/A vast new world for humans to explore.”

Khatib, a professor of computer science, called the experience an “incredible journey.” “This is the first time that a robot has been capable of going to such a depth, interacting with the environment, and permitting the human operator to feel that environment,” he said.

In July, the team revisited the Roman ship and the Crispi. While the former has all but disappeared, its cargo remains scattered across the seafloor, Khatib said. At the site of the Roman ship, OceanOneK successfully collected ancient vases and oil lamps, which still bear their manufacturer’s name.

The robot carefully placed a boom camera inside the Crispi’s fractured hull to capture video of corals and rust formations while bacteria feast on the ship’s iron.

The robot extends a boom camera inside the hull of Italian steamship Le Francesco Crispi. Frederic Osada/DRASSM/Stanford

“We go all the way to France for the expedition, and there, surrounded by a much larger team, coming from a wide array of backgrounds, you realize that the piece of this robot you’ve been working on at Stanford is actually part of something much bigger,” Piedra said.

“You get a sense of how important this is, how novel and significant the dive is going to be, and what this means for science overall.”

A promising future

The project born from an idea in 2014 has a long future of planned expeditions to lost underwater cities, coral reefs and deep wrecks. The innovations of OceanOneK also lay the groundwork for safer underwater engineering projects such as repairing boats, piers and pipelines.

One upcoming mission will explore a sunken steamboat in Lake Titicaca on the border of Peru and Bolivia.

But Khatib and his team have even bigger dreams for the project: space.

Khatib said the European Space Agency has expressed interest in the robot. A haptic device aboard the International Space Station would allow astronauts to interact with the robot.

“They can interact with the robot deep in the water,” Khatib said, “and this would be amazing because this would simulate the task of doing this on a different planet or different moon.”

South Korea bets on nuclear power, restarting construction on two ...

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

South Korea, one of the world’s most fossil fuel-reliant economies, is re-embracing nuclear energy, with the government announcing Tuesday it will restart construction on two nuclear reactors and extend the life of those already in operation.

By 2030, the Energy Ministry wants nuclear to make up at least 30% of the country’s power generation – a step up from its previous goal of 27%.

To meet this, South Korea is restarting construction on two new reactors at the Hanul Nuclear Power Plant on the country’s east coast. Construction on the two reactors has been stalled since 2017, when former President Moon Jae-in – who had pushed hard to phase out nuclear energy – took office.

But with a new President in office, South Korea’s nuclear industry is returning at full speed.

Yoon Suk Yeol, who assumed the role in May, criticized Moon’s stance on nuclear energy and expressed support for the flagging industry throughout his election campaign.

“Due to the excessive push on nuclear phase-out, our world’s best nuclear technology has been devastated,” Yoon said in a Facebook post in February ahead of the election, adding that he wanted to “build a nuclear powerhouse.”

The work on the new reactors follows “the highest decision-making procedures of the Yoon administration,” the Energy Ministry said Tuesday, adding it would investigate how to treat “high-level radioactive waste.”

The country will still work to phase out coal, the Energy Ministry said Tuesday, and aims to reduce fossil fuel imports to 60% of the country’s total energy supply by 2030 – compared to 81.8% in 2021.

But the investment pouring into nuclear power might come at the cost of other renewable energy efforts, with the ministry saying its renewable targets would be “re-established.” It did not give specific figures for new targets.

“The specific ratio of different sources of power, such as solar and wind (offshore) energy, must be determined for optimal outcome,” the ministry said. “Utilization of zero carbon power sources should take technological circumstances into account.”

It added that a “feasible and reasonable energy mix” must be created.

During his presidency, Moon vowed to take the country carbon-neutral by 2050, and shift the balance of energy away from nuclear power and fossil fuels toward renewables and natural gas. His raft of initiatives included boosting renewable energy production and the use of electric vehicles.

The use of nuclear power came into question around the world after the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Some nations, including Germany, pledged to do away with it altogether.

But in South Korea, nuclear power has long been big business. The country lacks natural resources and relies heavily on importing its energy supply from other countries.

According to the World Nuclear Association, 25 domestic nuclear power plants provide about a third of South Korea’s electricity needs.

The country is also a major exporter of nuclear technology to the world, and is involved in the construction of the United Arab Emirates’ first nuclear power plant.

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The hidden makers of Costco's Kirkland Signature and Trader Joe's ...

New York CNN Business —

Kirkland Signature. Two-Buck Chuck. Simple Truth. Cat & Jack. Great Value. Amazon Basics. Store brands have never been more popular.

They have become forces in their own right and make up around 21% of sales in the $1.17 trillion US grocery industry, according to IRI.

As prices surge, store brands – also known as private labels, white labels or generic brands – have become an even more attractive option for inflation-fatigued shoppers who are looking to switch from pricier name brands. Store brands can be anywhere from 10% to 50% cheaper.

But the origins of store brands remain largely secretive.

Retailers aren’t typically forthcoming about the companies that make their brands. And manufacturers, likewise, have little incentive to reveal that they’re creating similar products to their name brands under a different label sold on the cheap.

Many leading national brand manufacturers create private labels for multiple retailers. In the late 1990s more than half of brand manufacturers were estimated to make private goods as well.

Trader Joe's first private brand product in the 1970s was granola. As the grocer grew, it switched to mainly its own brands. Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Although store brands ostensibly compete with manufacturers’ national brands, manufacturers often have excess capacity on their production lines. To generate additional profit, some will use that extra capacity to make private labels.

Other brand manufacturers will produce private labels as an incentive for retailers, hoping they’ll be rewarded with better shelf space and placement for their own national labels.

“Most manufacturers aren’t open about it,” said Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp, a marketing professor at the University of North Carolina who studies private labels and branding. “Manufacturers don’t want it to be known because it undermines the power of their own brands.”

But there are some exceptions. Kimberly-Clark (KMB), the maker of Huggies diapers, produces Kirkland Signature diapers for Costco (COST)and Duracell produces Kirkland Signature batteries, Costco (COST)executives have said.

Georgia-Pacific, the maker of Brawny and Dixie, also produces store brands. So does Henkel (HENKY), the manufacturer of Purex and Dial.

Eight O’Clock Coffee and Kenmore

Store labels have been around since the early days of retail and the emergence of consumer brands in the 19th century.

Macy’s sold stoneware whiskey jugs under its own name. Customers could bring back the jugs for refills, according to Christopher Durham, the president of the Velocity Institute, a trade association for private brands.

Montgomery Ward developed its own line of aspirin in wooden containers, while the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (aka A&P) sold branded spices with the slogan “Take the Grandmother’s Advice, Use A&P Spices.” A&P later developed Eight O’Clock Coffee, one of the most famous private labels of the period.

Eight O'Clock Coffee sold at The Great Atlantic And Pacific Tea Company (A&P) in 1949. Joe Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Yet no US retailer was more successful developing its own brands than Sears, Roebuck.

In 1925, Sears created the Allstate brand for car tires. A few years later, Sears launched its first Craftsman wrench, according to Durham. Its Kenmore line, which started as a sewing machine brand in 1913 before branching into vacuums and other home appliances, became the leading home appliance brand in the United States.

These private labels were the exception, however.

For most of the 20th century, national brands such as Jell-O, H.J. Heinz, Campbell Soup (CPB) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) had power over stores. These manufacturers flooded the airwaves and newspapers with advertisements extolling the advantages of their products.

Most customers were fiercely loyal to specific brands, not retailers. A store that didn’t carry major labels would likely get crushed, which gave manufacturers immense leverage.

Additionally, many store brands were also considered dull, cheap knockoffs of national brands.

The low point of private label came during the 1970s, Durham said, when stores seeking to cut costs and rolled out generics with basic white backgrounds and black letters identifying the product – beer, soap, cola, beans and other staples.

Shopper loyalty

Retailers make private label brands for a variety of reasons, including to boost profitability and sometimes as a negotiating tool against brands.

Private brands often carry profit margins that are 20% to 40% higher than national brands because stores don’t have to pay the advertising, distribution or other markup costs that are embedded in major brands’ prices.

Great Value is Walmart's largest store brand. John Gress/Reuters

In the mid-20th century, many retailers started to develop their own labels to claw back bargaining power from dominant suppliers and keep their prices in check. As the US retail industry has consolidated in recent decades, the power dynamic between retailers and suppliers reversed. Now, stores have more leverage to introduce their own labels – whether name brands like it or not.

“Forty years ago, Walmart pissing off P&G would be a risky situation. Now, Walmart is much bigger than P&G,” said Steenkamp, the marketing professor.

Today, stores’ private brand operations are more sophisticated than ever and a much bigger focus for chains.

Stores are likelier these days to develop a distinctive private brand or product to stand out against competitors and create shopper loyalty, said Krishnakumar Davey, the president of client engagement at IRI.

Costco (COST), for example, will decide to make a Kirkland Signature product because a leading brand won’t sell to the retailer. Or Costco (COST) believes the name brand’s prices have gotten too high and it can make its own similar-quality product and sell it for 20% less.

Costco hasn’t lost any relationships with suppliers by launching its own Kirkland products, but those brands are not usually pleased when Costco introduces one, company CFO Richard Galanti said in an interview earlier this year.

Costco generates nearly one-third of its sales from its Kirkland Signature label. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Retailers have been sued for creating products that too closely resemble national brands. The owner of golf ball-brand Titleist sued Costco for patent infringement, while Williams-Sonoma (WSM) sued Amazon (AMZN) for selling “knockoffs” under its own brand. Both cases were settled.

The US House Judiciary Committee and other lawmakers and regulators around the world have investigated whether Amazon uses data from sellers to create its own brands and unlawfully favors its own brands on its website.

Amazon has said it doesn’t use the data from individual third-party sellers to inform the development of its own private brands and does not favor its own products on the site.

Most stores start small with their own brands. Grocers, for example, will often first introduce a shelf-stable product like pasta, flour, sugar or rice that’s easier to make and where brand loyalty within the category isn’t strong.

“You don’t start with the most difficult things,” Steenkamp said. “As stores build more experience and success, then they enter new categories.”

How to find out who makes store brands

So how do you tell who’s behind your favorite store brands?

Product recalls are often the most revealing way to find out which brand manufacturers are behind specific private labels.

Last year, for example, Dole recalled fresh salads and vegetables, including private brands for Walmart, Kroger and H-E-B.

J.M. Smucker (SJM) recalled certain Jif peanut butter products this year, as well as store-branded items it made for Giant Eagle, Wawa and Safeway. Large companies such as Conagra and McCain Foods have recalled products from Trader Joe’s.

Then there are the dedicated private label manufacturers, such as Treehouse Foods (THS), which makes snacks under the labels of supermarkets, big-box chains and other retailers. Nearly one-quarter of the company’s $4.3 billion in sales last year, for example, came from Walmart (WMT).

Target has dozens of its own brands, such as Cat & Jack, Universal Thread and up & up. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

James Walser, who led the launch of Target’s (TGT) up & up household basics and personal care brand in 2009, said that Target tried to move away from national brand manufacturers during up & up’s development to nimbler suppliers focused solely on making private labels.

Some large retailers also make their own private labels. Kroger, for example, makes about 30% of its own private products.

Perhaps the strangest store brand manufacturers are retailers that make private brands for their…competitors: Safeway-owned Lucerne Foods manufactures private labels for Safeway’s rivals.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the size of the US grocery industry. It is a $1.17 trillion industry, according to IRI.

Lunar eclipse: Beaver moon turns an eerie red this Tuesday | CNN

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Turning a coppery shade of red in the sky this Tuesday, November 8, the full moon kicked off Election Day with an early morning event of its own — a total lunar eclipse.

The second one of the year, the eclipse began at 3:02 a.m. ET, with the moon initially dimming for the first hour, and ended at 8:50 a.m. ET.

At totality, the stage at which the entire moon will be in Earth’s shadow, the moon turned a dark reddish hue, which is why a total eclipse is also called a blood moon. Sky gazers were able to see the striking effect beginning at 5:17 a.m. ET, according to NASA.

“They aren’t that common, so it’s always nice to get a hold of them when you can,” said Dr. Alphonse Sterling, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “I think they’re excellent learning devices for people who want to get into astronomy.”

A total lunar eclipse occurs approximately once every 1 ½ years on average, with the next total lunar eclipse not taking place until March 14, 2025 — although partial and penumbral lunar eclipses will continue to occur in the meantime. A penumbral lunar eclipse happens when the moon moves through the outer shadow, or penumbra, of the Earth, so the visual effect is more subtle.

Those viewing the total lunar eclipse were able to see the curvature of Earth’s shadow as it began to slowly swallow the moon completely. At least a portion of the phenomenon was visible throughout eastern Asia, Australia, the Pacific, North America and Central America, according to NASA.

Every first full moon of November is called the beaver moon in honor of the semiaquatic rodents. This is the time of year when beavers begin to take shelter after storing their food for the winter, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The moon was at its brightest at 6:02 a.m. ET, the almanac notes.

Viewing a lunar eclipse

A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth and moon align so that the moon passes into Earth’s shadow. Because of this arrangement, unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse can be enjoyed from anywhere the moon is present during the night. Nearby stars are usually obscured by the moon’s glow, but the moon will be dimmed enough for the duration of the eclipse that they will be revealed, according to Sterling.

The blood moon is observed by astronomy enthusiasts during a total lunar eclipse viewing event in Manila, Philippines, on November 8. George Calvelo/NurPhoto/Getty Images The full moon sets during a total lunar eclipse, behind the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol dome, on the morning of the US midterm election, in Washington, DC, on November 8. Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images This month's full moon, known as the beaver moon, rises over buildings during a light show in Beijing on November 7. Fred Lee/Getty Images The full moon rises at Manly Beach in Sydney ahead of a total lunar eclipse on November 8. Australians experienced the first visible total lunar eclipse of the year on Tuesday. Brook Mitchell/Getty Images The Earth's shadow passes in front of the moon during the lunar eclipse, as Lady Liberty atop the Liberty Building in Buffalo, New York, does her part to light up the early morning sky on November 8. Derek Gee/AP The full moon rises behind the Edge NYC observation deck ahead of a lunar eclipse in New York City on November 7, as seen from Hoboken, New Jersey. Gary Hershorn/Corbis News/Getty Images The beaver blood moon is seen during its partial eclipse from the Antipolo Cathedral, in Antipolo, Philippines, on November 8. Ryan Eduard Benaid/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/AP The blood moon sets behind the US Capitol on November 8, in Washington, DC. In a total lunar eclipse, the Earth's atmosphere disperses sunlight, causing the moon's rusty red appearance. Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images The beaver moon is seen rising behind Gran Sasso d'Italia peaks from L'Aquila, Italy, on November 7. Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto/Getty Images The full moon rises behind the Çamlica mosque in Istanbul on November 8. Emrah Gurel/AP The full moon rises over the cooling towers of the Trillo Nuclear Power Plant in Guadalajara, Spain, on November 7. Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket/Getty Images The full moon is seen on the beach of Jurerê Internacional in Florianópolis, Brazil, on November 8. Amauri Nehn/NurPhoto/Getty Images A passenger plane flies past the full moon before landing at San Francisco International Airport, as seen from Foster City, California, on November 7. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images The lunar eclipse is seen over Tawi bridge in Jammu, India, on November 8. Channi Anand/AP The last total lunar eclipse for 2.5 years stunned viewers on November 8. This view is from Albany, New York. Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto/AP The Earth's shadow starts to cover the moon during a lunar eclipse, as seen past Christmas lights at a public square in Caracas, Venezuela, early on November 8. Matias Delacroix/AP A young boy gazes at the moon on Manly Beach in Sydney as a partial eclipse begins on November 8. Brook Mitchell/Getty Images In pictures: November's total lunar eclipse Prev Next

“With solar eclipses, you have to be at the right place, but for lunar eclipses, it’s not nearly as sensitive to location,” Sterling said.

“The whole half of the earth that is in night during the period when the moon falls into the shadow can see it. So basically, it’s available to half the world.”

The same phenomenon that colors the sky blue and sunsets red is what causes the moon to turn its rusty red during a lunar eclipse, according to NASA. During a lunar eclipse, Earth’s atmosphere disperses sunlight, allowing red, orange and yellow light to pass through, and scattering away the blue light that is typically seen with the moon.

In the eastern United States and Canada, the moon set before the eclipse was over, so it was best to look toward the western horizon to see its entirety. Viewing a solar eclipse requires eye protection, but you can safely enjoy a lunar eclipse without any gear — though your view can be enhanced with binoculars.

“This is a really nice thing about lunar eclipses, in particular. You really need nothing except your eyes. The moon is a bright object, so you don’t need a particularly dark place to view the event,” Sterling said. “And the shadings, the beautiful red color that you see during the eclipse, you can see anywhere, even in the middle of a city.”

Remaining events in 2022

After the beaver blood moon, this year has one more full moon event, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The cold moon takes place on December 7.

The US Election Day blood moon lunar eclipse is seen behind the US Capitol dome on Tuesday morning, November 8. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images

As for meteor showers, right now, you can view the South Taurids in the night sky. Catch the peak of these upcoming meteor shower events later this year, according to EarthSky’s 2022 meteor shower guide:

• North Taurids: November 12

• Leonids: November 17-18

• Geminids: December 13-14

• Ursids: December 22-23

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Japan turns back to nuclear power as fuel prices soar | CNN Business

Tokyo CNN —

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday Japan will restart idled nuclear plants and consider developing next-generation reactors, in a policy reversal that will see the nation turn back toward atomic energy as fuel prices soar worldwide.

Kishida told reporters he had instructed officials to come up with concrete measures by the end of the year.

The move is a significant shift for Japan, which has dialed back its use of nuclear power since 2011, when a tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake sent water crashing into the Fukushima Daiichi power plant – leading to the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Since then, the public has been skeptical about nuclear power and Japan has made strict safety updates at plants throughout the country.

In recent years the country has also imported greater amounts of natural gas and coal to meet its energy needs.

But Kishida has renewed calls to reduce its dependency on these fuels, and outlined plans for Japan to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 while at the Cop 26 summit last year.

More recently, increases in fuel prices, partly due to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, have prompted the government to announce more energy-saving measures.

In late June, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry urged residents to conserve electricity.

As of July 26, Japan had seven operating nuclear reactors, with three others offline due to maintenance, according to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

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Photos: November's total lunar eclipse | CNN

The blood moon is observed by astronomy enthusiasts during a total lunar eclipse viewing event in Manila, Philippines, on November 8.

The moon turned a coppery shade of red Tuesday during the second total lunar eclipse of the year.

The eclipse began at 3:02 a.m. ET and ended at 8:50 a.m. ET. At totality, the stage at which the entire moon was in Earth's shadow, the moon turned a dark reddish hue.

A total lunar eclipse occurs approximately once every 1 ½ years on average, with the next total lunar eclipse not taking place until March 2025.

Here are some stunning images that show the moon in all its glory.

India Independence Day 2022: Modi pledges to turn India into a ...

CNN —

Standing in front of the historic Red Fort in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday pledged to transform India into a developed country in the next 25 years.

“The way the world is seeing India is changing. There is hope from India and the reason is the skills of 1.3 billion Indians,” Modi said. “The diversity of India is our strength. Being the mother of democracy gives India the inherent power to scale new heights.”

Modi’s words came as millions celebrated 75 years of Indian independence since the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947 that ended nearly 200 years of British colonial rule.

At the time, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said the country was on a path of revival and renaissance.

“A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new,” Nehru said. “When an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”

Seventy-five years later, the India of today is almost unrecognizable from that of Nehru’s time.

Since gaining independence, India has built one of the world’s fastest growing economies, is home to some of the world’s richest people, and according to the United Nations, its population will soon surpass China’s as the world’s largest.

But despite the nation’s surging wealth, poverty remains a daily reality for millions of Indians and significant challenges remain for a diverse and growing nation of disparate regions, languages, and faiths.

Women in traditional attire participate in a rally to mark the 75th anniversay of India's Independence Day in Mumbai, India, on August 14, 2022. Pratik Chorge/Hindustan Times/Getty Images

Rise of an economic power

Following independence, India was in chaos. Reeling from a bloody partition that killed between 500,000 and 2 million people, and uprooted an estimated 15 million more, it was synonymous with poverty.

Average life expectancy in the years after the British left was just 37 for men and 36 for women, and only 12% of Indians were literate. The country’s GDP was $20 billion, according to scholars.

Fast forward three-quarters of a century and India’s nearly $3 trillion economy is now the world’s fifth largest and among its fastest growing. The World Bank has promoted India from low-income to middle-income status – a bracket that denotes a gross national income per capita of between $1,036 and $12,535.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, with independence activists during the Dandi March -- a non-violent act of civil disobedience on April 6, 1930. Gandhi would become widely known as the man credited with securing India's independence. PA Images/Reuters Burned shops line a street in Calcutta -- now known as Kolkata -- after Hindu-Muslim rioting killed more than 4,000 people in August 1946. The Muslim League provincial government had made a call to Muslims for a "Direct Action Day" -- ostensibly a day of strikes to support the creation of Pakistan. Keystone/Getty Images Leader of the All-India Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (center), arrives in London on December 3, 1946, with viceroy and governor-general of India Lord Wavell, Liaquat Ali Khan, Sardar Baldev Singh and Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, for talks with Britain about the autonomy of Muslims in India, which culminated in the creation of the state of Pakistan. Douglas Miller/Getty Images A nurse holds a crying orphaned child, as she stands beside her wounded sibling, following communal violence in Amritsar, Punjab. The children's mother was stabbed to death in March 1947 during communal riots in the months leading up to Partition. Keystone Features/Getty Images Hundreds of Muslim refugees crowd on top of a train leaving New Delhi for Pakistan in September 1947. Partition led to millions being forced to migrate across the subcontinent. It's estimated that 500,000 to 2 million people perished in partition. AP The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, holds a mace of gold on the eve of India's independence in New Delhi, India, on August 14, 1947. AP Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan's Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, during the signing of the agreement between India and Pakistan in New Delhi, 1947. The agreement would safeguard the rights of minorities in both nations. Photo12/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Indians celebrate the first independence day on August 15, 1947, in Bombay, now known as Mumbai. Dinodia Photos/Getty Images A civil commission of Pakistanis presents the flag of the nation during a ceremony at Lancaster House in London, on August 15, 1947. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images Hindu and Sikh women arrive in Bombay, now Mumbai, with their children on a British-India liner after leaving from Pakistan on October 9, 1947. Keystone/Getty Images The funeral for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is held on January 30, 1948, following his assassination. Gandhi is credited for leading India to independence and inspiring civil rights movements around the world. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images A Pakistani soldier aims his rifle, while a fellow soldier runs for cover during Indian shelling of Pakistani positions in East Pakistan on December 2, 1971. A third war between India and Pakistan in East Pakistan ends with the creation of Bangladesh. AP Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi welcomes Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Calcutta -- now Kolkata -- airport in India on February 6, 1972. AP Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 28, 1972 in Shimla, the former summer capital of British India, while his daughter Benazir Bhutto (second from the right) and Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh look on. Bhutto visited India to meet Gandhi and negotiated a formal peace agreement and the release of 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war. The two leaders signed the Shimla Agreement, which committed both nations to establish a Line of Control in Kashmir. Punjab Press/AFP/Getty Images The body of assassinated Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is covered with flowers on a pyre as it is set afire on November 3, 1984, after she was shot by her own security guards. Don Mell/AP Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's son and Nehru's grandson, speaks from inside a bullet-proof glass container at the historic Red Fort during Independence Day ceremonies in New Delhi, August 15, 1985. AP Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Pakistan's first female Prime Minister in December 1988. Norbert Schiller/AFP/Getty Images Hindu activists climb on top of the Babri Masjid, five hours before the mosque was demolished by Hindu fundamentalists in 1992. More than 2,000 people -- mostly Muslims -- were killed in nationwide rioting following the demolition, some of the worst violence seen in India since independence. Douglas E. Curran/AFP/Getty Images School children in Mumbai celebrate 50 years of India's independence on August 9, 1997. Sherwin Crasto/AP A man bows before a shrine to Mahatma Gandhi and other independence leaders on August 13, 1997, ahead of India's 50th independence day celebrations. Ajit Kumar/AP Police fire tear gas during Hindu-Muslim riots in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, in India on March 3, 2002. Kalpit Bhachech/Dipam Bhachech/Getty Images Mourners pay their respects to the slain former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi in Pakistan on December 30, 2007, following her assassination. Mian Khursheed/Reuters An Indian soldier takes cover as the Taj Hotel burns during gun battle between Indian military and militants inside in Mumbai, India on November 29, 2008. Ten Pakistani men associated with the terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba stormed buildings in Mumbai, killing 164 people. David Guttenfelder/AP India's first female president Pratibha Patil waves to photographers in New Delhi on July 25, 2012. Adnan Abidi/Reuters Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai during the awards ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, 2014. Two years earlier, she was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban for her efforts to promote girls' education in the country. Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images Women mourn their relative Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, a student who was killed during an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School, at his house in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen in Pakistan killed 145 children during an attack on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Zohra Bensemra/Reuters People fly kites from roof tops in Delhi as they celebrate Independence Day, India, August 15, 2017. Cathal McNaughton/Reuters Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout anti-Indian slogans during a demonstration against attempts to revoke Kashmir's special status, in Srinagar on August 24, 2018. A year later, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Article 370, which was in place since 1949 and gave the states of Jammu and Kashmir the power to have their own constitution, flag and autonomy over all matters, save for certain policy areas such as a foreign affairs and defense. Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images Bhopal gas tragedy survivors and activists from various groups take part in a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Bhopal gas disaster on December 2, 2020, calling for justice over the 1984 leak at a US-run chemical plant that killed thousands. Gagan Nayar/AFP/Getty Images A woman looks at Indian national flags ahead of the 75th Independence day on August 4, 2022 in Pune, India. Pratham Gokhale/Hindustan Times/Sipa/Reuters Students carry an Indian national flag ahead of the country's 75th independence day celebrations in Ahmedabad, India, August 8, 2022. Amit Dave/Reuters India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on July 24, 2022. Arvind Yadav/Hindustan Times/Getty Images 75 years of independence: India and Pakistan, in photos Prev Next

Literacy rates have increased to 74% for men and 65% for women and the average life expectancy is now 70 years. And the Indian diaspora has spread far and wide, studying at international universities and occupying senior roles in some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Twitter boss Parag Agrawal.

Much of this transformation was prompted by the “pathbreaking reforms” of the 1990s, when then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and his Finance Minister Manmohan Singh opened the country to foreign investment after an acute debt crisis and soaring inflation forced a rethink of socialist Nehru’s model of protectionism and state intervention.

The reforms helped turbocharge investment from American, Japanese and Southeast Asian firms in major cities including Mumbai, the financial capital, Chennai and Hyderabad.

The result is that today, the southern city of Bengaluru – dubbed “India’s Silicon Valley” – is one of the region’s biggest tech hubs.

At the same time, India has seen a proliferation of billionaires – it is now home to more than 100, up from just nine at the turn of the millennium. Among them are infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani, whose net worth is more than $130 billion, according to Forbes, and Mukesh Ambani, founder of Reliance Industries, who’s worth about $95 billion.

But critics say the rise of such ultra-wealth highlights how inequality remains even long after the end of colonialism – with the country’s richest 10% controlling 80% of the nation’s wealth in 2017, according to Oxfam. On the streets, that translates into a harsh reality, where slums line pavements beneath high-rise buildings and children dressed in tattered clothes routinely beg for money.

But Rohan Venkat, a consultant with Indian think tank Centre for Policy Research, says India’s broader economic gains as an independent nation shows how it has confounded the skeptics of 75 years ago.

Slums line the shore near the up-market neighborhood of Cuffe Parade, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

“In a broad sense, the image of India (post independence) was that it was an exceedingly poor place,” said Venkat.

“Certainly the image of India (to the West) was heavily overlaid by Orientalist tropes – your snake charmers, little villages. Some of these were not entirely off the mark … but a lot of it was simple stereotyping.

Since then, India’s trajectory has been “exceptional,” Venkat said.

“To witness the largest transfer (of power) from an elite ruling the state, to now becoming a complete universal franchise … we are looking at an incredible political and democratic experiment that is unique.”

Rise of a geopolitical giant

For years after independence, India’s international relations were defined by its policy of non-alignment, the Cold War era stance favored by Nehru that avoided siding with either the United States or the Soviet Union.

Nehru played a leading role in the movement, which he saw as a way for developing countries to reject colonialism and imperialism and avoid being dragged into a conflict they had little interest in.

That stance did not prove popular with Washington, preventing closer ties and marring Nehru’s debut trip to the US in October 1949 to meet President Harry S. Truman. During the 1960s the relationship became further strained as India accepted economic and military assistance from the Soviets and this frostiness largely remained until 2000, when President Bill Clinton’s visit to India prompted a reconciliation.

Today, while India remains technically non-aligned, Washington’s need to balance the rise of China has led it to court New Delhi as a key partner in the increasingly active security grouping known as the Quad.

Indian Border Security Force soldiers hold the national flag during a motorbike rally ahead of the 75th anniversary of country's independence at the India-Pakistan border outpost in Panjgrain, about 60km from Amritsar on August 10, 2022. Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

The grouping, which also includes Japan and Australia, is widely perceived as a way of countering China’s growing military and economic might and its increasingly aggressive territorial claims in the Asia Pacific.

India, meanwhile, has its own reasons for wanting to counterbalance Chinese influence, not least among them its disputed Himalayan border, where more than 20 Indian troops were killed in a bloody battle with Chinese counterparts in June 2020. In October, the US and India will hold a joint military exercise less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from that disputed border.

As Happymon Jacob, an associate professor of diplomacy and disarmament at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, put it: “India has been able to assert itself on the world stage because of the nature of international politics today and the political and diplomatic military capital that has been put in place by previous governments.”

Part of India’s growing geopolitical clout is due to its growing military expenditure, which New Delhi has ramped up to counter perceived threats from both China and its nuclear-armed neighbor, Pakistan.

Following their separation in 1947, relations between India and Pakistan have been in a near constant state of agitation, leading to several wars, involving thousands of casualties and numerous skirmishes across the Line of Control in the contested Kashmir region.

In 1947, India’s net defense expenditure was just 927 million rupees – about $12 million in today’s money. By 2021, its military expenditure was $76.6 billion, according to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute – making it the third highest military spender globally, behind only China and the US.

Ambitions on the world stage

Outside economics and geopolitics, India’s growing wealth is feeding its ambitions in fields as diverse as sport, culture and space.

In 2017, the country broke a world record when it launched 104 satellites in one mission, while in 2019, Prime Minister Modi announced that India had shot down one of its own satellites in a military show of force, making it one of only four countries to have achieved that feat.

Later that year, the country attempted to land a spacecraft on the moon. Though the historic attempt failed, it was widely seen as a statement of intent.

A child touches a model of Indian mission to the moon. Pallava Bagla/Corbis News/Getty Images

Last year, the country spent almost $2 billion on its space program, according to McKinsey, trailing the biggest spenders, the US and China, by some margin, but India’s ambitions in space are growing. In 2023, India is expected to launch its first manned space mission.

The country is also using its growing wealth to boost its sporting prospects, spending $297.7 million in 2019 before the spread of Covid-19.

Neeraj Chopra at the medal presentation ceremony after winning the gold medal in the men's javelin competition during Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games on August 7th, 2021. Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty Images

The Indian Premier League – the country’s flagship cricket tournament launched in 2007 – has become the second most valuable sports league in the world in terms of per-match value, according to Jay Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, after selling its media rights for $6.2 billion in June.

And Bollywood, India’s glittering multibillion dollar film industry, continues to pull in fans worldwide, catapulting local names into global superstars attracting millions of followers on social media. Between them, actresses Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone have almost 150 million followers on Instagram.

“India is a strong country. It’s an aggressive player,” said Shruti Kapilla, a professor of Indian history and global political thought at Cambridge University.

“In the last couple of decades, things have shifted. Indian culture has become a major story.”

Challenges and the future

But for all of India’s successes, challenges remain as Modi seeks to “break the vicious circle of poverty.”

Despite India’s large and growing GDP, it remains a “deeply poor” country on some measures and that, consultant Venkat said, is a “tremendous concern.”

As recently as 2017, about 60% of India’s nearly 1.3 billion people were living on less than $3.10 a day, according to the World Bank, and women still face widespread discrimination in the deeply parochial country.

Violence against women and girls has made international headlines in a country where allegations of rape are often underreported, due to the lack of legal recourse for alleged attackers through a legal system that’s notoriously slow.

“Many of India’s fundamental challenges remain what they were at the time of independence in some ways, at different parameters and scale,” Venkat said.

India is also on the front line of the climate crisis.

Recent heat waves – such as in April when average maximum temperatures in parts of the country soared to record levels and New Delhi saw seven consecutive days over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) – have tested the limit of human survivability, experts say.

And it’s the country’s poorest people who are set to suffer the most, as they work outside in oppressive heat, with limited access to cooling technologies that health experts say is needed to contend with rising temperatures.

And as the heat rises on the land, political pressure has grown with fears that the secular fabric of the country and its democracy are being eroded under the leadership of Modi, whom critics accuse of fueling a wave of Hindu nationalism that has left many of the country’s 200 million Muslims living in fear.

Many states run by his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have introduced legislation critics say is deeply rooted in Hindutva ideology, which seeks to transform India into the land of the Hindus. And there has been an alarming rise in support for extremist Hindu groups in recent years, analysts say – including some that have openly called for genocide against the country’s Muslims.

At the same time, the arrests of numerous journalists in recent years have led to concerns the BJP is using colonial-era laws to quash criticism. In 2022, India slipped to number 150 on the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders – its lowest position ever.

“The challenges now are about India’s nature of democracy,” Kapilla said. “India is going through a major, contentious change at the fundamental political level.”

Seventy-five years on, Nehru’s observation that “freedom and power bring responsibility” continue to ring true.

India’s first 75 years ensured its survival, but in the next 75 years it needs to navigate immense challenges to become a truly global leader, and not just in terms of population, said Venkat, from the Centre for Policy Research.

“Although (India) may end up being the world’s fastest growing major country over the next few years, it will still be miles behind its neighbor in China, or getting close to what it had hoped to achieve at this point, which was double digit growth.”

“So the challenges are immediate and all over the place, chief among them being how to ensure its prosperity,” Venkat said.

2020 predictions from decades ago: Self-driving cars, Mars, voting

Jetpacks, disintegrator rays, nuclear energy, Mars.

Decades ago, academics, futurists and government agencies cast their predictions of what would happen by the year 2020. Would submarines reach historic depths? Who would lead nations, and which ones would be global superpowers? Would Planet Earth even exist as we knew it?

"I shall not be surprised if on my 92nd birthday I am able to go for a ride in an antigravity car," mathematician and scientist D.G. Brennan wrote in 1968.

Some, like Brennan, were overly optimistic. Others were spot-on. Here's what happened, what didn't and what was just plain crazy.

1. Life expectancy will rise past 100

Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted in 1999 that human life expectancy would rise to "over one hundred" by 2019.

"Computerized health monitors built into watches, jewelry, and clothing which diagnose both acute and chronic health conditions are widely used. In addition to diagnosis, these monitors provide a range of remedial recommendations and interventions," he wrote in "The Age of Spiritual Machines."

Nope: While Kurzweil may have accurately predicted health-related gadgets (such as fitness watches, BioScarves and EKG apps for your smartphone), he jumped the gun on life expectancy.

In 2019, the average life expectancy of the global population was 72.6 years, according to the United Nations. That average is slightly higher in the USA, at 78.6 years in 2017, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Though life expectancy in many industrialized nations continues to inch up, it has been going in the opposite direction in America. The United Nation predicts the average global life expectancy to rise to 77.1 years by 2050.

Life expectancy:What countries have the longest?

2. Computers will be invisible

Kurzweil had several other prophecies for the year 2019, including invisible computers.

"Computers are now largely invisible. They are embedded everywhere – in walls, tables, chairs, desks, clothing jewelry and bodies. People routinely use three-dimensional displays built into their glasses or contact lenses. ... This display technology projects images directly into the human retina."

Keyboards and cables would become rare, he said.

It's true: Computers are embedded everywhere these days. We have smart homes, smart tables, smart chairs, smart desks and more. Though we may not project images directly into our retinas, Google Glass comes pretty close.

(Per Kurzweil's prediction, scientists are developing smart contact lenses capable of monitoring the physiological information of the eye and tear fluid that could provide "real-time, noninvasive medical diagnostics." Several groups are testing smart lenses that would measure glucose levels in the tears of people with diabetes.)

3. Books will be dead

"Paper books and documents are rarely used or accessed. Most twentieth-century paper documents of interest have been scanned and are available through the wireless network," Kurzweil predicted.

Wrong: Though the net revenue of the U.S. book publishing industry has decreased since 2014, the industry still sold 675 million print books and brought in nearly $26 billion in 2018, according to the Association of American Publishers' annual report.

4. Your every move will be tracked

Kurzweil predicted that privacy would be a huge political and social issue and that "each individual’s practically every move (will be) stored in a database somewhere."

True, most say: Your TV watches you. Your smartphone follows you. Your web browser traces your digital trail. In an era when some populations worldwide live under 24/7 high-tech surveillance, most U.S. adults say they do not think it is possible to go through daily life without having data collected about them by companies or the government, according to a survey of U.S. adults by Pew Research Center.

More than 80% say the potential risks they face because of data collection by companies outweigh the benefits.

5. World's population will reach 8 billion

In 1994, the International Food Policy Research Institute projected the world population would increase by 2.5 billion to reach 8 billion by 2020. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the continent of Africa would add 1.5 billion people, the institute predicted.

Close, but no cigar: The world's population is 7.7 billion, according to a report in June from the United Nations. The report expects the population to grow by 2 billion in the next 30 years. Around 2027, India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, the report says.

6. China will be the world's largest economy

Speaking of China... in a 1997 article titled "The Long Boom," futurists Peter Schwartz and Peter Leyden said China would be on top.

"By 2020, the Chinese economy has grown to be the largest in the world. Though the U.S. economy is more technologically sophisticated, and its population more affluent, China and the United States are basically on a par," they said.

Close: In 2019, China still trailed the United States as the world's second-largest economy, by nominal GDP. Recent reports predict that China and India will overtake the United States by 2030.

7. We'll have self-driving cars

"Self driving cars are being experimented with in the late 1990s, with implementation on majors highways feasible during the first decade of the twenty-first century," Kurzweil wrote.

Kind of: Dozens of companies – including Tesla, Google spinoff Waymo and ride-sharing giants Uber and Lyft – are testing self-driving vehicles in select locations, such as Boston, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Columbus, Ohio.

Widespread use of a truly autonomous vehicle is not yet here: Experts say it might still be decades before we see a car that can drive anywhere it pleases.

Self-driving shuttle:Why a Rhode Island police officer pulled it over

In April, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company would have fully self-driving cars ready by the end of the year and a "robotaxi" version – one that could ferry passengers without anyone behind the wheel – ready for the streets next year. Tesla owners can "summon" their cars, which can drive themselves from parking spots to the curb, where the owner is standing.

What about flying cars? Porsche and Boeing partnered to create "premium urban air mobility vehicles," and Uber plans to launch a flying taxi service in 2023.

(Planes are landing themselves.)

8. It will be normal to retire at 70

In his 1994 book "The World in 2020," British commentator and editor Hamish McRae foresaw retirement ages reaching 67 to 70.

"The main motive for this in Europe is cost to the state. Governments feel that if retirement ages are not raised, the burden of paying pensions will be so high that working people will not be prepared to pay the tax levels necessary to fund them," McRae wrote.

No: In the USA, the average retirement age in 2016 was 65 for men and 63 for women, according to the Center for Retirement Research. That number has stayed relatively steady for men over the past few decades but has increased for women. For full Social Security benefits, the age is slowly climbing and depends on the year that you were born.

Some European countries set 67 as retirement age, the earliest age when citizens can start withdrawing pensions, and several plan to raise the age in the next few years, according to the Finnish Center for Pensions. For many Europeans, the topic is a matter of fierce debate.

9. Americans will vote electronically from home

As the millennial generation comes of age, they'll be able to vote electronically from home, Schwartz and Leyden predicted – possibly as soon as the presidential election of 2008.

Not yet: Amid fears of foreign interference in U.S. elections, lawmakers aren't about to let you vote in next year's presidential election on your iPhone. Proponents of online voting say it could improve turnout and prevent voter suppression at polling stations.

Startups are developing solutions for online voting, such as the Voatz mobile voting platform, which has used biometric/facial recognition in at least four public election pilots in the USA. Last year, West Virginia began using Voatz for absentee voting for military personnel stationed overseas. In one Utah county, citizens with a disability were able to vote electronically on their smartphones in a 2019 municipal general election.

10. China will be on a path to democracy

Schwartz and Leyden predicted that, despite taking "draconian measures" to avoid an internal crisis in the first decade of the new century, China "is generally acknowledged to be on a path toward more democratic politics – though not in the image of the West."

Not really: China faces scrutiny over human rights abuses against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and against nearly 1 million Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim population, members of which have been arbitrarily detained and imprisoned in "reeducation" camps in China's Xinjiang region.

11. We'll have 'personal companions'

In his 1999 book, "Business @ the Speed of Thought," Bill Gates predicted personal devices that "connect and sync all your devices in a smart way, whether they are at home or in the office, and allow them to exchange data."

"The device will check your email or notifications, and present the information that you need. When you go to the store, you can tell it what recipes you want to prepare, and it will generate a list of ingredients that you need to pick up. It will inform all the devices that you use of your purchases and schedule, allowing them to automatically adjust to what you're doing," Gates wrote.

Hey, Alexa: Add milk to my shopping list.

Though Alexa isn't sorting through your emails (that we know of) and your smart thermostat isn't tracking your purchases, Gates isn't far off. Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and an array of smart tech in the Internet of Things readily exchange data with your other devices and respond to commands.

12. Cars will be able to go months without refueling

Schwartz and Leyden predicted that by 2010, "hydrogen would be processed in refinery-like plants and loaded onto cars that can go thousands of miles – and many months – before refueling."

By 2020, they said, almost all new cars would be hybrid vehicles, mostly using hydrogen power.

What's the future of the auto industry? Hydrogen cars appear to give way to electric

Not yet: Toyota and Honda lead the hydrogen-powered car market, but it's an uphill battle against competitors peddling battery-powered electric vehicles. In 2018, 2,300 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles were sold in the USA – less than 1% of the number of electric cars sold, according to InsideEVs, which covers electric vehicle news.

In other green transportation news: Last year, European railway manufacturer Alstom launched the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell train, and next year, London is likely to roll out double-decker hydrogen-powered buses.

13. Heart disease, depression will be world's top diseases

In 1996, the Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization predicted that by 2020, the world's top two causes of the global burden of disease – a measurement of the number of healthy life years lost because of sickness, disability or early death – would be ischemic (coronary) heart disease and unipolar major (clinical) depression.

At the time, the leading causes were lower respiratory infections (such as pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases, the study said.

Close: In 2017, the most recent year that the data set was published, the five leading causes of the global burden of disease were neonatal disorders, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

14. Global surface temperature will increase

(Climate predictions tend to have a longer range, but here's a snapshot of where 2020 stands.)

A report in 1995 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that the average global surface temperature could increase by about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

The report predicted that sea level could increase by about 20 inches by the same year.

On track: With 80 years to go, both predictions appear possible. The global average temperature has risen a tad more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since the mid-90s, according to NOAA. Since 1992, the global sea level has risen a total of more than 3 inches, according to NOAA.

More:Were the predictions we made about climate change 20 years ago accurate? Here's a look

15. Humans will set foot on Mars

A report in 1996 by the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council said NASA would launch "possible human exploratory missions to the moon and Mars within the next quarter century," predicting that humans would land on Mars by 2018.

Schwartz and Leyden envisioned a similar scenario: "In 2020, humans arrive on Mars. ... The four astronauts touch down and beam their images back to the 11 billion people sharing in the moment. The expedition is a joint effort supported by virtually all nations on the planet, the culmination of a decade and a half of intense focus on a common goal."

Not quite: Though we haven't set foot on Mars, we've landed eight unmanned spacecraft on the planet's surface.

16. Boris Johnson would lead Brexit

In 1997, British news organization The Independent forecast that in 2020, Boris Johnson would become a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, a decision-making body composed of the prime minister and a team of handpicked members of Parliament.

At the time, Johnson, 32, was an outspoken editor and columnist but had not held public office. "Not shy in clashing with party lines, Boris would 'renegotiate EU membership so Britain stands to Europe as Canada, not Texas, stands to the USA,' " the journalists wrote.

Pretty close: Have you heard of Brexit? Johnson became prime minister in July. He served in the Cabinet, starting in 2016 as foreign secretary under Theresa May. In December, Johnson led his Conservative Party to victory in a national election on the promise to "get Brexit done."

17. Antigravity belts will revolutionize warfare

Imagine a world where battles are fought a few feet above the ground, as soldiers hover in midair. In 1968, mathematician and scientist D.G. Brennan predicted that antigravity belts would "revolutionize the tactics of land warfare," writing that "even if the antigravity mechanism did not itself provide horizontal propulsion, relatively modest sources of thrust could easily be provided."

He suspected that by 2018, humans would have antigravity cars and jetpacks capable of operating for 30 minutes.

No: (Unless you're Luke Skywalker or Buzz Lightyear.)

18. Nuclear will replace natural gas

In 1968, Stanford University professor Charles Scarlott predicted that nuclear breeder reactors would make up the majority of U.S. energy production by 2018 as natural gas faded.

"Energy from water power, solar radiation, the wind, tides, or earth heat will not figure large in the totals. Power from nuclear power plants should be available in large amounts at low cost," Scarlott wrote.

Wrong: In 2018, fossil fuels – petroleum, natural gas and coal – accounted for about 79% of total U.S. primary energy production in 2018, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. About 12% was from renewable energy sources, and about 9% was from nuclear electric power.

For the electrical power sector, in particular, nuclear creates 19% of energy.

19. Americans will work 26 hours a week

In 1968, physicist Herman Kahn and futurist Anthony J. Weiner said that by 2020, Americans would work 1,370 hours a year (or 26 hours a week), instead of the 1,940 hours (37 hours a week) that was average at the time.

Unlikely: Though we work less than we did in 1968, the average American worked nearly 1,800 hours in 2018 (35 hours a week), according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

20. Nationalism will wane

In 1968, Ithiel de Sola Pool, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, predicted that better communication, easier translation and greater understanding of the nature of human motivations would make it easier for people to connect across ethnic and national lines.

"By the year 2018 nationalism should be a waning force in the world," he wrote.

The opposite is true: Fueled by backlash against immigration, globalization and the political establishment, populist nationalism was a driving force behind Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and the rise of right-wing politicians in France, Austria, Italy, Hungary and Poland, among other countries, academics said.

"Everywhere one looks, in fact, one sees nationalism at work in today’s world," Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, wrote in Foreign Policy Magazine.