If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Bluesky has recently expanded from its invite-only platform to a public one‚ opening itself up to global digital engagement. Originally initiated as an exclusive project inside Twitter under the patronage of Jack Dorsey‚ the co-founder of Twitter‚ it is among some of the rising alternatives to platforms like Elon Musk’s X. The initial restriction to invitees only resulted in 3 million sign-ups‚ but now that everyone can participate‚ Bluesky faces the important task of establishing its credibility among heavy-weight competitors like Mastodon. Breaking away from the superficial similarity with X‚ Bluesky distinguishes itself with distinctive mechanics powered by a transparent open-source code‚ called the AT Protocol. This decentralized structure of Bluesky allows not only an insight into their developmental process but also offers opportunities for developers to contribute to the platform. Developers are encouraged to write their own codes utilizing the AT Protocol‚ upscaling flexibility regarding what can be created‚ including custom algorithms or even a novel social platform. Bluesky’s decentralized system provides its users with increased autonomy in terms of social media experiences‚ in contrast to centralized platforms. As an existing open-source and decentralized social network‚ Mastodon’s presence raises some eyebrows. Despite the shared objectives‚ the divergence in protocols used prevents collaboration between the two platforms. And while the decentralized idea means that users can ultimately roll out their own free speech instances and operate with other users‚ the central instance which most people use is heavily pro-censorship and worth avoiding if freedom of expression is important to you. The post Bluesky Is Now Available for Anyone To Join appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

The Cold War was at its coldest in the 1960s‚ with the United States and the Soviet Union each engaged in massive military buildups to prepare for possible war with the other. Both superpowers wanted to develop production aircraft that had the potential to deliver advanced weapons systems to the enemy. Among many projects‚ the Soviets wanted to build a new strategic intercontinental bomber capable of supersonic speeds. This interest was‚ at least in part‚ due to the awareness that the United States was developing a successor to the Boeing B-52 bomber—the Rockwell B-1 Lancer—that would eventually fill this same role. The Soviets were also alarmed by the United States’ development of the hypersonic North American XB-70 Valkyrie prototype bomber‚ which first flew in 1964. Multiple design bureaus submitted proposals for the new Soviet bomber. Some of them looked very similar to the XB-70. Ultimately‚ the Tupolev design bureau received the assignment to create the new aircraft‚ which would become Tu-160‚ known in the West as the Blackjack. Early in the development process‚ Tupolev realized that wings with variable geometry (swing-wings) would be ideal‚ and that those wings should be blended into the airframe at their roots. The swing-wings would allow the Tu-160 to maximize its lift/drag ratio during all aspects of its mission‚ from takeoff‚ to climb and attack and back to landing. The design of the tail posed significant technical challenges given how thin it needed to be for such a high-speed aircraft. Ultimately Tupolev decided on a cruciform tail with a divided rudder. The aircraft was powered by four Kuznetsov NK-32 turbofan jet engines‚ each of which could produce 55‚000 pounds of thrust in afterburner mode. The American B-1 Lancer helped spur the Soviets to develop the Tu-160. In its final form‚ the Tu-160 looked strikingly similar to the B-1‚ but the two aircraft have significant differences. Although both have a crew of four‚ the Tu-160 is much larger‚ with more than double the wing area and almost twice the thrust of its American counterpart. The Tu-160 has a top speed of just over Mach 2 (similar to that of the original B-1A) while current B-1B models top out at Mach 1.25. The Tu-160 also has a higher rate of climb than the B-1. Critically‚ the Tu-160’s armament was limited to either twelve Raduga KH-15 or six KH-55 nuclear-capable cruise missiles in each of two internal bays‚ both on rotating launchers. The B-1‚ in contrast‚ has three internal bomb bays and six hardpoints on the wings to allow it to carry a wide array of conventional and nuclear armaments as well as air-launched missiles. Neither aircraft have stealth capabilities‚ technology that didn’t exist at the time of their design. Although both aircraft started out with analog instruments‚ the B-1 has since been updated to a glass cockpit. While many B-1s and almost all Tu-160s were originally painted white (to protect against the flash of a nuclear blast)‚ modern B-1s have a dark blue or dark gray color scheme. It should be noted that the current B-1B functions as a low-level penetrator‚ which is a different role than that for which the Tu-160 was designed. Overall‚ the Tu-160 is a faster aircraft with an extended range‚ but the B-1 is more maneuverable and harder to spot on radar.  Of note‚ the Soviets did significant work to make the Tu-160 capable as a platform for air-launching space vehicles to put satellites into orbit‚ via a system known as Burlak. The idea was that the airplane could be flown to an air base in a country that had requested the service‚ and there a satellite of up to 850 kilograms could be fitted to a three-stage‚ liquid propellant launch vehicle. The mating of the rocket to the airplane would be done within the host nation’s borders to avoid the prying eyes of foreign governments. The Tu-160 could then air-launch the combined payload/rocket from altitude into any orbit desired. Despite some interest‚ the Burlak system appears to have been abandoned before it was ever used. Plans to use the Tu-160 as a launch platform for an aerial drone known as Voron also fell flat. The Tu-160 displays its heft at takeoff. At nearly 178 feet in length‚ it is considerably larger than the 146-foot-long B-1. The Tu-160 formally entered active service in 1987. Before the initial round of production stopped in the 1990s‚ a total of 37 Tu-160s had been completed‚ with nine of them serving as test models and the rest as operational aircraft. Critically‚ when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991‚ 19 Tu-160s (and their nuclear armament) became the property of the newly independent nation of Ukraine. While some of the aircraft were repainted in Ukrainian livery‚ their new owners had little use for them. The Tu-160s were extremely expensive to operate and maintain and the planes sat largely unused at Ukrainian military airfields. Russia soon found itself in the uncomfortable position of having to buy back its Tu-160s from Ukraine. Extensive negotiations ensued‚ mostly focusing on price‚ and by 1999 Ukraine finally agreed to sell back eight Tu-160s to Russia (along with their attendant nuclear-tipped cruise missiles) in exchange for debt relief. The Russians selected the eight aircraft they felt were in the best condition to return to their fleet. Of the remaining eleven Tu-160s in Ukraine‚ ten were scrapped (including at least one in a public demonstration) as part of the START II disarmament treaty. One Tu-160 was kept as a museum piece. Interestingly‚ during the time when the Russians were negotiating to buy back their Tu-160s‚ there was a brief period where it appeared that three of the aircraft would be sold to an American company‚ Platforms International Corp.‚ which wanted to use them for a private air-launched satellite venture. The Russians were outraged (and terrified) at the possibility of the planes being transferred to the West and pointed out that such a purchase would itself be a violation of START II. The deal subsequently collapsed.  The Tu-160 has only seen relatively limited operational use over its lifetime. Mostly used for patrols and as part of military exercises‚ several aircraft were briefly deployed to Venezuela in 2008 and again in 2013 as part of a show of force‚ and the planes first saw true combat in 2015 during the Syrian civil war. The aircraft have only been used in a very limited manner in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Recently‚ some Tu-160s have undergone extensive upgrades and modernization‚ and a small number of new‚ upgraded aircraft (so-called Tu-160M models) are being produced again after many years. A living relic of the Cold War‚ the Tu-160 remains one of the most striking and remarkable bombers ever to roll off an assembly line.  this article first appeared in AVIATION HISTORY magazine See more stories Subscribe now  

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The highlands of Northwestern Thailand are scattered with dozens of caves that house some extremely curious human burials from the ancient past. They consist of large wooden coffins – often several meters long and crafted from a single tree trunk – that are mounted above the floor on wooden stilts. The 40 or so burial sites are the work of a mysterious Iron Age culture that inhabited the Mae Hong Son province in northern Thailand between 2‚300 and 1‚000 years ago. In a new study‚ archeologists carried out a genetic profile of 33 ancient people buried at five Log Coffin culture sites and traced back their ancestries‚ illuminating the complex genetic landscape of mainland South East Asia after the Stone Age. Previous studies based on single individuals or single sites indicated that this culture were related to farmers from the Yangtze River valley in southern China and the local Hòabìnhian hunter-gather societies. This latest study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology provides a deep insight into that relationship by looking at dozens of individuals from numerous sites. Their analysis suggests that‚ in fact‚ the farmer side of their genome can be divided further into two groups: one connected to the Yangtze River Valley and another to the Yellow River Valley in China.The long log coffins are fashioned out of a single tree trunk.Image credit: © Selina Carlhoff“Our results contribute to the emerging picture of a complex genetic landscape in post-Neolithic mainland Southeast Asia; however‚ this study provides successful genetic results from samples in limestone caves from the northwestern highlands of Thailand. Future studies of samples retrieved from open-air archaeological sites in the lowlands seem promising. If possible‚ they can provide additional insight into the genetic history of Mainland Southeast Asia‚” Wibhu Kutanan‚ study author and biologist from Naresuan University in Thailand‚ said in a statement.Culturally speaking‚ it’s hard to know the precise significance of ancient Thailand's super-long log coffins. Why did an Iron Age culture go to such great lengths to raise the long trucks onto stilts? Was it a practical concern or did it hold some spiritual value? The new study doesn’t delve too deeply into these questions‚ it simply notes: “Coffins were cut from a single tree and feature distinct carvings at the head and foot ends‚ which may reflect societal beliefs‚ the status of the deceased‚ the skill of the coffin’s maker‚ or indicate family or clan cemeteries.”However‚ it is evident that other ancient cultures from mainland Southeast Asia have similar traditions. Over 170 boat-shaped coffins have been recovered from 44 different archaeological sites in nearby Vietnam‚ which are widely attributed to the Dong Son culture that lived in the region from 1000 BCE until the first century CE. The cultural relics from Vietnam are typically put in the same bag as Europe’s boat burials in which the deceased‚ usually those who have a high social status or warrior credentials‚ are laid to rest in the hull of a ship as if the dead are being sent on a voyage towards the afterlife. As shown by the new study‚ there was a vast amount of migration and intermingling in southeast Asia over 2‚000 years ago. Given this interconnectivity‚ it's no surprise that it wasn’t just genetic information that was passed on‚ but also cultural information.The study is published in the journal Nature Communications. 

“Mathematics‚” Carl Friedrich Gauss is said to have claimed‚ “is the queen of the sciences.” Of course‚ as one of history's most famous and influential mathematicians‚ he was a little biased; ask a physicist‚ and she may well reply with the famous observation that “physics is to mathematics what sex is to masturbation.”But whether or not math is the queen‚ she could certainly be called the doyenne of the sciences. The subject is way older than other forms of rational inquiry‚ stretching back tens of thousands of years at least; when Ibn al-Haytham was busy inventing science in the 10th century‚ he was already relying on millennia of mathematical knowledge and discovery to inform his inquiry.Which raises an intriguing question: who kicked it all off?Lead us not into temptationThe earliest “mathematicians” – that is‚ the first people referred to by that name in English – were way more badass than today’s number-crunching nerds.“Domicianus‚ the son of Vespasian‚ reignede xv. yere and v. monethes‚ the wife of whom was callede firste Augusta; and he commandede hym to callede god‚ and the lorde of all thynges […] puttenge in to exile mony mathematicions and philosophres.”So wrote the anonymous translator of Ranulf Higden’s magnum opus of world history‚ the Polychronicon. It was somewhere in the second quarter of the 15th century‚ and as far as anyone has been able to tell‚ it was the first time the word “mathematician” had ever been used in English.It tells the story of Domitian‚ Emperor of Rome between 81 and 96 CE and‚ historians have generally agreed‚ a Not Very Cool Guy. Even today‚ when we’re usually all about the rehabilitation of maligned historical figures‚ the best we can say is that Domitian was “efficient” and “good at burying Vestal virgins alive”. In his own time‚ he was even less popular‚ with the Roman Senate damning his memory – essentially‚ formally writing him out of the history books – pretty much as soon as he popped his clogs (or‚ to be more accurate‚ had his clogs popped for him by a couple of assassins).Most of the reason for that was due to Domitian’s approach to ruling – one traditionally summed up by the Latin phrase futue tu ipsum. The emperor’s philosophy on power was simple: he had it‚ and he could do what he liked with it‚ and everyone else could shut the hell up.Anyone who refused to do so – such as philosophers‚ whom Epictetus had famously declared would “look tyrants steadily in the face” – would be expelled from Rome. We can only speculate as to why mathematicians supposedly provoked Domitian’s ire – but they joined not just philosophers‚ but also adulterers (harsh) and mimes (understandable) in their status as enemies of the Emperor.While this level of controversy over sums might seem strange to us‚ it may not have been so odd to Higden. As an English monk writing in the 14th century‚ he would have been very familiar with the teachings of Saint Augustine of Hippo – a man whose views on math were something akin to a hyper-religious Malibu Stacy’s.“The good Christian should beware of mathematicians‚” reads De Genesi ad litteram‚ a 4th-century exegetical text by the beatified megaherbivore. “The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell”.Art in heavenNow‚ in fairness to Augustine‚ he almost certainly meant astrologers rather than mathematicians – and despite frequently being confused for each other‚ math and hokum are different things. But in this imperfect translation lies a clue to an even earlier chapter in mathematical history.Every ancient culture that studied math came to it via their own route: for the Greeks‚ it was harnessing geometry and logic to come up with theorems and proofs – concepts that there’s pretty much no evidence for before people like Pythagoras and Plato started teaching them after the 6th century BCE. In ancient China‚ on the other hand‚ math grew up primarily as a practical system for governance and provision; in India‚ texts as old as the 8th century BCE Shatapatha Brahmana used math as a way to commune with the gods.   But for the Ancient Babylonians‚ working as far back as 1600 BCE‚ it was astronomy that set their mathematical tradition apart from all the others. Their observations form some of the earliest known examples of ancient math: “Scribes systematically began documenting celestial phenomena (e.g. eclipses) in about the eighth century BC‚” wrote mathematician Chris Linton in his 2004 book From Eudoxus to Einstein: A History of Mathematical Astronomy. “In order to carry out their work‚ astrologers needed tables of the future positions of heavenly bodies […] and this desire was the driving force behind the production of such tables for over 2000 years.”The oldest Babylonian math‚ such as that seen on Plimpton 322‚ is a weird mix of rudimentary and impressive. It’s incomplete and contains mistakes; there’s no evidence of any technique being applied‚ and it probably wasn’t even written by a mathematician at all. But at the same time‚ it’s evidence of an extremely ancient mathematical tradition that some say rivaled Renaissance Europe in its sophistication.But were they the first?The first named mathematicianIn fact‚ we can go quite a bit further back than Plimpton 322 before we run out of examples of written math. Over in Egypt‚ people had been using – and‚ more importantly for our purposes‚ recording – mathematics for as long as they’d been writing at all‚ with evidence of a base-10 number system being found on artifacts from over five millennia ago.“By 3000 BC […] agriculture had been developed making heavy use of the regular wet and dry periods of the year‚” wrote John Joseph O'Connor and Edmund Robertson‚ both researchers at the University of St Andrews School of Mathematics and Statistics. “Knowing when the rainy season was about to arrive was vital and the study of astronomy developed to provide calendar information.”On top of that‚ “the large area covered by the Egyptian nation required complex administration‚ a system of taxes‚ and armies had to be supported‚” they added. “As the society became more complex‚ records required to be kept‚ and computations done as the people bartered their goods. A need for counting arose‚ then writing and numerals were needed to record transactions.”And for the best evidence of Egyptian mathematical prowess‚ look no further than the most iconic of the civilization’s achievements: the pyramids. “The Great Pyramid at Giza was built around 2650 BC and it is a remarkable feat of engineering‚” the pair point out. “This provides the clearest of indications that the society of that period had reached a high level of achievement […] some of the measurements of the Great Pyramid […] make some people believe that it was built with certain mathematical constants in mind.”So‚ were the Ancient Egyptians the first mathematicians? Well‚ in one rather important way‚ yes‚ they were: the earliest known named author of a math textbook – known as the Rhind Papyrus‚ and containing some 84 practice problems covering arithmetic‚ geometry‚ and primitive algebra – came from the so-called Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. His name was Ahmes‚ and he almost certainly wasn’t actually a mathematician. The papyrus‚ according to his own introduction to the work‚ “was copied in the year 33‚ in the fourth month of the inundation season‚ under the majesty of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt‚ ‘A-user-Re’‚ endowed with life‚ in likeness to writings of old made in the time of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt‚ Ne-ma’et-Re” – in regular numbers‚ that translates to having been written in around 1650 BCE and copied from work dating roughly two centuries earlier than that.Other than that‚ though‚ we know virtually nothing about Ahmes – a pretty much random scribe who probably never knew he’d end up such a seminal figure in the history of math.In the beginningWe’ve gone back more than 5‚000 years at this point – past the point where we can even put names to figures‚ even – and it’s tempting to think we must have found the first mathematician by now. Honestly‚ though‚ we’re nowhere near. For that‚ we have to go back not a few thousand years‚ but tens of thousands – all the way back to the stone age.“It is taking an unnecessarily restrictive view of the history of mathematics to confine [the] study to written evidence‚” writes mathematician‚ and specialist in the history of math‚ George Gheverghese Joseph in his 2010 book The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics. “Mathematics initially arose from a need to count and record numbers‚” he explains. “If we define mathematics as any activity that arises out of‚ or directly generates‚ concepts relating to numbers or spatial configurations together with some form of logic‚ we can then legitimately include […] protomathematics‚ which existed when no written records were available.”The first mathematician‚ by this metric‚ wasn’t some Roman or Greek writing down abstract theorems‚ and it wasn’t a Babylonian recording the stars. It wasn’t even Ahmes‚ or the students dutifully working through the problems he had set. It was whoever created the Ishango bone.It’s a small thing‚ only about 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) in length‚ and at first glance‚ you might not suspect it has anything to do with math at all. The key is in the notches that have been scraped into its sides: four groups in this row; four in that; eight in another; all in different amounts and with varying spacing between them.The Ishango Bone on display at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.Joeykentin‚ CC BY-SA 4.0‚ via Wikimedia CommonsIt sounds haphazard‚ but it’s not. “Certain underlying numerical patterns may be observed within each of the rows‚” Joseph points out. “The markings on rows (a) and (b) each add up to 60 […] Row (b) contains the prime numbers between 10 and 20. Row (a) is quite consistent with a numeration system based on 10‚ since the notches are grouped as 20 + 1‚ 201‚ 10+ 1‚ and 10- 1. Finally‚ row (c)‚ where subgroups (5‚ 5‚ 10)‚ (8‚ 4)‚ and (6‚ 3) are clearly demarcated‚ has been interpreted as showing some appreciation of the concept of duplication or multiplying by 2.”Exactly why the Ishango bone was created is a mystery – some believe it was used for mathematical games; others that it functioned as a calendar for religious or meteorological purposes. There’s even speculation that the Ishango people eventually bequeathed their number system to the Egyptians – making the bone not just evidence of some ancient calculator‚ but the closest thing the math world has to a Last Universal Common Ancestor. With an age of between 20‚000 and 25‚000 years‚ it’s true that other potentially mathematical artifacts have been found that predate it – the Lebombo bone‚ for example‚ beats it by 20‚000 years or so‚ and might be the earliest known period tracker. But for now‚ it’s the Ishango bone that takes the crown as the oldest confirmed mathematical object in existence – and its creator‚ whoever they were‚ is undoubtedly the world’s first known mathematician.

A row of about 20 Mancala game boards has been discovered in a Kenyan wildlife conservancy‚ suggesting local herders may have whittled their days away playing the popular strategy game thousands of years ago. The boards were found carved into a rock ledge‚ and while it’s impossible to determine their age‚ researchers say the discovery transforms our understanding of ancient life in East Africa.“People tend to look at early life as brutish‚ nasty‚ and short‚” explained Yale archaeologist Veronica Waweru in a statement. “But perhaps life was not all about survival‚” she adds‚ referring to the apparent popularity of Mancala back in the day.Still played across the world today‚ Mancala is a two-player strategy game in which participants attempt to capture as many of their opponent’s pieces as they can. The oldest known playing boards were found in a Neolithic dwelling in Jordan and have been dated to between 7‚500 and 8‚000 years ago.It’s thought that the game was later introduced to East Africa by Arabian traders‚ with Mancala boards from around 700 CE having been identified in Eritrea and Ethiopia.Waweru came across the row of game boards while visiting a site known for its prehistoric hand axes in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Nearby‚ archaeologists had previously discovered an ancient burial complex consisting of 19 stone cairns.Noticing a row of shallow pits carved into the rock‚ Waweru recognized that the indents were deep enough to hold a handful of stones and were a suitable shape and size for playing Mancala. “It’s a valley full of these game boards‚ like an ancient arcade‚” she says.“Given the erosion of some of the boards‚ I believe people were playing these games there a very long time ago‚” continues Waweru. However‚ because the rock into which the boards were carved is around 400 million years old‚ it’s not possible to say with any certainty how long ago the pits were made.What’s clear‚ though‚ is that some of the boards were touch-up or re-dug over time‚ suggesting that they were in use across a long period. “Was there some ritual going on there on a regular basis over long periods of time?” Waweru ponders.Despite a lack of solid evidence regarding the identity of the ancient Mancala players‚ Waweru speculates that the game boards were probably used by shepherds in the distant past. “Modern people in the region tend to play games like Mancala when they are out herding‚” she notes. “That’s probably what they were doing here.”The first herding societies appeared in the region around 5‚000 years ago‚ so the boards could potentially have been carved at any time since then.Overall‚ life for these prehistoric pastoralists appears to have been rather pleasant‚ with evidence suggesting that when they weren’t gaming‚ they enjoyed dining on grilled meat. According to Waweru‚ marks found on nearby rocks indicate that they were used for sharpening metal knives.“If they are sharpening knives there‚ they are probably feasting and performing butchery and barbecuing‚” she said.

New research is showing that the population of wolves living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) is genetically different from their counterparts outside of the region. Remarkably‚ the irradiated wolves appear to have developed protective mutations that increase their odds of surviving cancer. Populations of wolves‚ as well as other animals‚ have boomed in the CEZ of Ukraine since the area was abandoned following the infamous 1986 nuclear disaster. In the absence of people‚ wildlife has been allowed to thrive without disruption of human activity. However‚ to enjoy this freedom‚ animals must confront the glaring problem of radiation. After all‚ that is why humans left in the first place. To understand how these animals survive against the odds‚ Cara Love‚ an evolutionary biologist and ecotoxicologist at Princeton University‚ has been studying the wolves of Chernobyl for a decade. In 2014‚ Love and her colleagues headed to the CEZ and took blood samples from the wolves to understand their responses to cancer-causing radiation. Some were also fitted with radio collars to gather information on their locations and their exposure to radiation.“We get real-time measurements of where they are and how much [radiation] they are exposed to‚” Love said in a statement.The research showed that wolves in the CEZ are exposed to more than 11.28 millirem of radiation every single day for their entire lives – that’s over six times the legal limit for human workers.The researchers also noted that the wolves have altered immune systems‚ similar to patients undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. Furthermore‚ genetic analysis suggests that parts of the wolves’ genome have developed some resilience to cancer.Similar findings have been seen among the hundreds of semi-feral dogs that live in the CEZ. In 2023‚ scientists found the free-wheeling dogs of Chernobyl were genetically different from pet dogs living elsewhere in the world.Love’s discovery could have implications for human health too. Love hopes to use the findings to identify protective mutations that increase people’s odds of surviving cancer. Unfortunately‚ the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war with Russia have prevented Love and her collaborators from returning to the CEZ. There’s no telling if and when they will be able to return.“Our priority is for people and collaborators there to be as safe as possible‚” said Love.The new research was presented last month at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology’s Annual Meeting in Seattle‚ Washington.

One of the deepest metal mines in Europe – the Pyhäsalmi Mine in central Finland – is to be turned into an enormous gravity battery capable of storing 2 megawatts of energy.As the planet moves towards renewable energy‚ we are faced with the problem of storage. The problem is that the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine at precisely the time when people want to consume their power. On particularly windy or sunny days‚ too much electricity can be generated‚ leading to a situation where consumers are paid to consume electricity rather than overload the grid. But power that isn't used becomes lost.It would be better‚ of course‚ if we could store that energy away for later use. Gravity batteries are one way of doing that.Despite the cool name‚ the idea behind gravity batteries is really simple. During times when energy sources are producing more energy than the demand‚ the excess energy is used to move weights (in the form of water or sometimes sand) upwards‚ turning it into potential energy. When the power supply is low‚ these objects can then be released‚ powering turbines as our good friend (and deadly enemy) gravity sends them towards the Earth. Though generally gravity batteries take the form of reservoirs‚ abandoned mines moving sand or other weights up when excess power is being produced have also been suggested. Scottish company Gravitricity created a system of winches and hoists that can be installed in such disused mineshafts. The company will install the system in the 1‚400-meter-deep (4‚600 feet) zinc and copper mine in Pyhäjärvi‚ Finland.“As the world generates more electricity from intermittent renewable energy sources‚ there is a growing need for technologies which can capture and store energy during periods of low demand and release it rapidly when required‚” Gravitricity co-founder Martin Wright said of the technology late last year.“Our GraviStore underground gravity energy storage uses the force of gravity to offer some of the best characteristics of lithium-ion batteries and pumped hydro storage – at low cost‚ and without the need for any rare earth metals."