The Download: Europe’s heat wave hits the grid, and IBM’s chip targets Moore’s Law

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Europe’s extreme heat is shutting down power plants Europe is in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave, and the grid is being pushed to its limits as people turn to fans and air-conditioning to try to stay cool. But some power plants won’t be online to help handle the load. The main source of stress is increased demand, largely driven by cooling. And the challenges are only expected to worsen as climate change brings more frequent and intense heat waves. Find out how rising temperatures are stretching power supplies—and how utilities can adapt. —Casey Crownhart What Europe’s heat wave means for the power grid Grid planning in the age of climate change generally means that we need a lot more supply, and quickly. But one interesting facet to this challenge is that in some places, seasonal patterns are shifting, compounding the difficulty of meeting demand.  Europe has historically seen its grid peak in the winter when electric heating is widespread. So some planned outages happen in the spring and into the summer, which is affecting the supply right now. But a growing need for air-conditioning will alter the balance. Read the full story on how climate change is reshaping electricity demand. —Casey Crownhart This story is from The Spark, our weekly giving you the inside track on all things climate. receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. IBM unveils chip technology that could help extend Moore’s Law another decade IBM has built a new prototype chip with around 100 billion transistors on an area the size of a fingernail. That’s twice the density of the company’s previous state-of-the-art technology announced in 2021. And the design could pave the way for faster and more energy-efficient computers for years to come. In the last fifteen years, transistors have been shrunk close to their limits. They can’t get smaller without their function deteriorating. IBM’s new chip resolves this with an approach familiar to urban planners: building up. One More Thing TONY LUONG The quest to learn if our brain’s mutations affect mental health For years, scientists searching for the roots of conditions like schizophrenia, autism, and Alzheimer’s have focused on single genes. But the real source may lie in a more complex genetic puzzle inside the brain.