Explore a gallery of Bill Nye's energy-efficient home

Home energy performance can be boosted through home orientation and shading

When designing a home, placing living areas to the north maximizes sun exposure during winter, while eaves and awnings can limit excessive summer heat. Breezeways and entry air locks can also reduce the dependence on heating and cooling costs.

The solar noon clock outside Rhodes Hall at Cornell is named after Bill Nye

In addition to displaying the analog time, the clock's face features an indicator disc that illuminates, even on cloudy days, whenever the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. Nye developed the initial apparatus designs, which were later co-engineered and built by Cornell staff and students.

View an interactive chart of energy conversion efficiencies for various photovoltaics

This National Renewable Energy Laboratory visualization provides maximum confirmed efficiencies for nearly 30 research PV cell technologies from August 1975 to today. Concentrator multi-junction cells have led the field since 1993. (Desktop recommended site.)

View a colorful gallery of solar features curated by the National Solar Observatory

Many of the images are captured at different nonvisible wavelengths, such as UV, and then colorized into the visible range to illuminate the sun's magnetic field and magnetism-driven solar activity, including coronal loops and filamentary prominences. Close-up imaging also reveals solar granules—Texas-sized cells of material that bubble to the surface from the convection zone.

Watch every episode of 'Bill Nye the Science Guy'

Each features one scientific topic alongside demonstrations, fake commercials, a song parody with science-themed lyrics, and bloopers. Other segments include conversations with experts, exhibiting experiments that can be done at home, and trips to locations beyond "Nye Laboratories" to highlight real-world applications.

Enough sunlight hits Earth in just 90 minutes to power the planet for an entire year

Despite this, in 2023, only 5.1% of electricity in the US came from solar energy. Solar panel technology has nonetheless made significant advancements since the 19th century, largely due to NASA's efforts in the space race.

Many of Wright's buildings used radiant heating

Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings weren’t just radical because of how they looked, but many of them also incorporated stunning technological innovations. Radiant heating is one of Wright’s most popular heating systems, offering the comfort of walking on warm floors on a cold day.

Check out this interactive 3D animation of a virtual renewable energy-powered island

The US Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Discovery (REDi) Island invite explorers to discover clean, renewable energy options by navigating a virtual island filled with energy efficient power generation and desalinization technologies.

Sand 'batteries' can store excess electricity from the power grid as thermal energy

Energy collected from solar or wind power is used to heat insulated silos full of sand to temperatures as high as 450 degrees Celsius (842 degrees Fahrenheit), which can be retained for long periods. These thermal energy storage systems can be designed to boil water and generate electricity when needed.

This online magazine runs on a solar panel, sometimes going offline

The publication's solar-powered server in Barcelona means the site goes dark when clouds roll in. It's designed as an intentional statement about energy and digital infrastructure. The magazine features essays advocating for the adoption of pre-industrial or low-energy solutions to modern problems.

Take a virtual tour of a Usonian home

Wright's Usonian homes might have been more economical, but they didn't lack any of the inventive design of his other projects. That's evident throughout this tour of one of the homes in Pleasantville, New York's Usonia community.

Breaking down sunlight and why the sun appears yellow despite emitting green light the most

This peak intensity is produced alongside a spectrum of other colors, which, when combined, make the sun appear white in space. Since Earth's atmosphere scatters bluer and greener wavelengths of light more than red and orange wavelengths, sunlight reaching Earth's surface appears yellow, while the sky appears blue. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Energy Star certifies efficiency to help Americans save energy and cut emissions

Launched by the EPA in 1992, the Energy Star program identifies appliances, buildings, and electronics that meet high efficiency standards. It has helped consumers save over $500B in energy costs and prevent 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Thermodynamics makes building data centers in space to cool equipment impractical

Rather than cooling via interactions with flowing cold air or water, data centers in space would dissipate energy primarily by radiation, in which an object at any temperature above absolute zero emits light. This method is much less efficient at cooling and would require hyperscale data centers to have radiator panels thousands of times larger than those on the International Space Station.

Explore a simulation of the greenhouse effect

Investigate how cloud cover, surface albedo—a measure of a surface's reflectiveness—greenhouse concentrations, and atmospheric layers affect the energy balance on a simulated planet. Using either the wave or particle models of light, users can also explore how changes in solar intensity affect planetary surface temperature.

Bill Nye believes a World War II-level mobilization is needed to end climate change

As part of his science advocacy efforts, Nye has argued that existing technologies, including electric vehicles and renewable energy, can already significantly reduce emissions. However, switching to these technologies requires a more expansive awareness of the problem and a greater sociopolitical willingness by policymakers and the general public.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Meet a 90-year-old who built his own hobbit-inspired house

A retired carpenter built himself a kind-of Hobbit house, and is living comfortably off the grid at 90 years old, tourists notwithstanding. Learn how he did it with this video.

Bioluminescence may provide a sustainable alternative to electric lighting

French start-up Glowee is experimenting with lights made from bioluminescent microorganisms in public spaces to reduce energy use. While the technology shows promise, challenges remain with brightness, maintenance, and scaling it for widespread use.

Why Nevada is home to a real-life 'Simpsons' house

The home, a strikingly accurate recreation of the cartoon family's home on Evergreen Terrace, was built for a 1997 promotional contest. Back then, it was painted to look exactly like it did on TV, but the contest winner declined to move in, choosing a $75,000 cash prize instead.

Ranking the most expensive appliances on your electricity bill

Energy costs have gone up amid war and inflation. Here's a breakdown on the cheapest and most expensive appliances in your home to help you lower your bill.

Explore a gallery of O'Neill cylinder space settlements

The structures consist of a pair of cylinders with a total enclosed land area of 500 square miles and can house several million people. Each is approximately 20 miles long, 4 miles in diameter, and contains three mirrors that open and close to form a day-night cycle inside.

Geothermal heat pumps have the greatest upfront cost of any home heating system

As of 2025, installations of these systems can range from $15,000 to over $40,000, significantly more than for furnace-air conditioner and air-source heat pump systems. However, they are up to 50% more efficient than these alternative systems, making them able to pay for themselves within 15 years.

Exposed concrete led to oxygen depletion within Biosphere 2

Instead of being absorbed by plants through photosynthesis to produce oxygen, significant amounts of carbon dioxide were taken up by the calcium hydroxide in the concrete, trapping the oxygen in calcium carbonate and water. This concrete was sealed before the start of the second B2 mission.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Watch a visualization of New York City's greenhouse gas emissions

About 1.72 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases are released into the atmosphere every second in the Big Apple, enough to fill a balloon 33 feet across at standard pressure and 59 degrees Fahrenheit. After a day, the spheres would pile up into a pyramid whose base spans from the bottom of Manhattan to the south of Central Park.

Massive blooms of microscopic plankton called dinoflagellates produce the neon blue light seen in glowing tides.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'