Where Unsold Wine Becomes Car Fuel

“In the wine industry, when your product outweighs your demand, there are few ways to legally dispose of it,” Quartz writer John Capone explains in his riveting story of Parallel Products, a California facility that turns spoiled beer, unsold wine, tainted liquor and soft drink surplus products into fuel-grade ethanol. Capone stakes out one of the brand’s two facilities, describing in detail the odors and …

Antarctica’s Extinct Forests

From November 2016 to January 2017 (in other words, summer in Antarctica) Erik Gulbranson and John Isbell found 13 fossil fragments from trees dating back more than 260 million years. This more than hints at the continent’s green past—with a landscape that would have been densely forested with a network of resilient plants and trees capable of withstanding uninterrupted sunlight and then months of darkness. …

Promises of Supreme Speed from Tesla’s 2020 Roadster

The stats behind Tesla’s forthcoming Roadster, due out in 2020, are quite remarkable: zero to 60mph in 1.9 seconds, and zero to 100 mph in 4.2. There’s a max speed predicted to be over 250mph—and a 400 mile ride on a 30-minute charge, with a maximum range of 620 miles. “The point of doing this,” Musk explains at a press conference, “is to give a …