Plants Make Sound When They're Stressed & Carbon Absorbing Concrete | WEF | Top Stories of the Week

This week's top stories of the week include:

0:15 Plants make sound when they're stressed - Scientists at Tel Aviv University have found that plants emit ultrasonic clicks. They sound like popcorn popping when adjusted for human ears. When a plant is well, it emits less than one click an hour. But when it is dehydrated, cut or sick it emits a sound every few minutes. Each click is associated with a type of stress and the sounds differ between species.

1:29 Carbon absorbing concrete - Traditional concrete has a carbon footprint of up to 300kg CO2 per m3. Most of this is emitted during the manufacture of cement. the binding material used in concrete. 3.5 billion tonnes of cement are produced every year. It accounts for 8% of all human-made emissions. The Finnish researchers have done away with cement altogether. They have worked out how to inject CO2 into powdered blast furnace slag. When mixed with the ash residue from burning biomass this material becomes a binder that can replace cement. It has been developed by Finnish start-up Carbonaide.

3:05 England is growing meadows on its historic sites - Over the next decade, English Heritage aims to return the meadows to how they would once have looked go mark the coronation of King Charles III in May 2023. England has lost 97% of its meadows since the 1930s, largely because of postwar modern farming methods. English Heritage calls this a ‘biological and cultural disaster’. As well as restoring the botanical diversity that was once commonplace, the wildflower-rich grasslands will support bees, butterflies, birds and mammals, absorb pollution and lock away carbon beneath the ground.

4:30 North America's first hydrogen powered train - The Train de Charlevoix will start running in June 2023 after trial journeys in Sweden. It will be powered entirely by green hydrogen and will emit only water vapour. The train will follow a 90-minute route from the centre of Québec, stopping at 7 towns along the banks of the St Lawrence River. It was built by French rail firm Alstom. Its technology is already up and running in Europe, including the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train, in Germany.
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