Blog

Fetus gender selection We used to be shocked to hear about gender selection in India (female feticide), while the same practice is now available globally through a gender test. A prick of your finger and you send it back to the company and they can tell you if your blood contains a Y chromosome, suggesting […]

The post Sex selection kits for embryos available in the US and Canada appeared first on Green Prophet.

Menopause isn’t a disease.

That was the first thing I thought when I saw questions women asked Google about menopause. One asked “how to prevent the horrors of menopause.” Another asked “what are the worst symptoms of menopause.” As if menopause were a disease.

Menopause is part of the human condition, like adolescence. We regard bodily changes and mood swings as normal in a teenage girl adjusting to womanhood. Books and articles discussing the female adolescent body and psyche abound. But an adult woman’s menopausal challenges often go unsupported, regarded as a lot of complaints that the busy doctor has heard a thousand times before, and quickly dismisses with a prescription for hormone or estrogen replacement therapy (HRT/ERT).

With 1.3 million American women entering menopause every year, it’s clear that medical support has to advance. And it is, slowly, becoming the issue of the moment, as an article published by the Yale School of Medicine discusses.

Still, modern medicine’s blanket remedy for the discomfort and stress of menopausal hot flashes is HRT or ERT. Here we offer alternative suggestions that can help a woman suffering  menopausal lightning strikes to go through her day and night more comfortably. Disclaimer: the following does not address deep health issues related to menopause and does not replace medical advice.

Clothes. Wear layers you can quickly remove and put back on as needed. Many women feel freezing when the hot flash passes and leaves them sweaty. Avoid cotton and petroleum-based fabrics, which either soak sweat up and stay damp, or trap sweat on the body. Search for clothes made from breathable fabrics like hemp. Or scour thrift shops for vintage silk clothing.

Modify your environment. Place an electric fan near or on your desk to turn on the second a hot flash starts. Keep the room temperature on the cool side. Keep an old-fashioned paper fan in your bag to relieve the heat when you’re in the bus, or the subway, or waiting in line somewhere.

Eat and drink well to treat yourself best. Don’t stress yourself with dieting (unless your health requires it). Eat small, frequent meals to stay energetic without loading your digestion and bringing on hot flashes. There are foods to avoid, and foods that help.

You might notice that a cup of coffee or a cocktail will drive hot flashes. A spicy curry might do the same. Do you get a hot flash after smoking? Decide if stopping  caffeine, booze, strong spices and nicotine is worth the deprivation if it reduces those hot flashes. Some women find that eating foods high in sugar or fats, and especially mass-produced salty snacks, make them flash for hours afterward. Pay attention to your body’s signals.

You hardly need reminding that fresh, hopefully organic foods contribute to all-over health. Go for whole grains, fresh leafy greens and colorful root vegetables, and fresh fruit. Unless there are issues like lactose intolerance, eat yogurt for its important calcium content. Look for yogurts that have “bio” on the label. If you choose to eat meat and poultry, avoid  “enhanced” products that likely contain salt you’re not counting on.

Sweating through hot flashes depletes minerals. This can make a woman dizzy, cause a big mood swing, or leave her shaky. Seek mineral-rich foods to support your liver and kidneys and reduce hot flashes. A menopausal woman does well consuming at least a cup daily, if not two, of cooked calcium- and iron-rich leafy greens such as broccoli, kale, chard and beet greens.

Wild greens are especially rich in minerals. Cook fresh or dry nettles. Spend a pleasant half hour outdoors on a spring day to forage them, or buy dry nettles at the health food store.

Other wild favorites are fresh chickweed in late winter or spring. It’s delicious as the main salad ingredient, or tucked into a sandwich instead of lettuce. Fresh chickweed is an especially soothing and cooling food for a menopausal woman. It’s easy to grow at home in a planter.

Summertime purslane is a treat in salads too, and contains a high amount of essential fatty acids. It tends to spring up where it shouldn’t – in flower planters and lawns, for example,. But that makes it easy to find.

Cooked dandelion roots and the tender young leaves nourish the liver and kidneys with a wealth of minerals.

Don’t see yourself going out to forage greens? Culinary herbs offer minerals too. Use them generously in your cooking. Scatter a good handful of parsley or cilantro over the stew before serving. Whizz up home-made pesto with fresh basil. Chop lots of chives up to add to a colorful salad.

Staying hydrated is key. Fill a thermos with cold water or iced herbal tea and keep it close by for a quick cooling drink. The simple infusion following offers refreshment for your overheated, perhaps stressed self.

Soothing Herbal Infusion
Per cup of boiling water:
1 teaspoon crumbled dry raspberry leaves
1 teaspoon dry chamomile flowers
1 teaspoon crumbled oat straw

Infuse the herbs in a closed jar for 1/2 hour or up to 2 hours (put a wooden spoon or chopstick in the jar before pouring the boiling water in, to prevent cracking). Strain. Sweeten if desired.

Best is to make 4 cups at a time and have it around to drink freely all day.

Sage Hot Flash Prevention Tea
Culinary sage (Salvia officinalis) has a strong estrogen precursor. For women losing estrogen in the menopausal process, sage tea can help reduce hot flashes and night sweats, also supplying minerals lost through heavy sweating.

Infuse 1 teaspoon dry, crumbled sage or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage in 1 cup of boiling water, covered. Leave it for 1/2 hour. It’s strong; you may want to sweeten it. Drink 1-2 tablespoons, no more, up to 8 times daily.

Sometimes you can’t control the circumstances. Something triggers anger, grief, or stress. There you go, a hot flash. You may be in a situation where you’re not comfortable reaching for the cold thermos or fanning yourself. Here you just have to close your eyes for a second and make up your mind to see it through. Remind yourself that it’s temporary. Endorse yourself for keeping your cool in a hot moment.

Taking responsibility for your menopausal discomfort requires more time and effort than taking a pill, true. Consider it  an act of self-worth. A thoughtful gift from yourself to your wonderful self.

:: The Yale School of Medicine

Photo of sage tea by Paulina S. on Unsplash

 

 

 

The post Natural Relief For Menopausal Hot Flashes appeared first on Green Prophet.

Menopause isn’t a disease. That was the first thing I thought when I saw questions women asked Google about menopause. One asked “how to prevent the horrors of menopause.” Another asked “what are the worst symptoms of menopause.” As if menopause were a disease. Menopause is part of the human condition, like adolescence. We regard […]

The post Natural Relief For Menopausal Hot Flashes appeared first on Green Prophet.

Menopause isn’t a disease.

That was the first thing I thought when I saw questions women asked Google about menopause. One asked “how to prevent the horrors of menopause.” Another asked “what are the worst symptoms of menopause.” As if menopause were a disease.

Menopause is part of the human condition, like adolescence. We regard bodily changes and mood swings as normal in a teenage girl adjusting to womanhood. Books and articles discussing the female adolescent body and psyche abound. But an adult woman’s menopausal challenges often go unsupported, regarded as a lot of complaints that the busy doctor has heard a thousand times before, and quickly dismisses with a prescription for hormone or estrogen replacement therapy (HRT/ERT).

With 1.3 million American women entering menopause every year, it’s clear that medical support has to advance. And it is, slowly, becoming the issue of the moment, as an article published by the Yale School of Medicine discusses.

Still, modern medicine’s blanket remedy for the discomfort and stress of menopausal hot flashes is HRT or ERT. Here we offer alternative suggestions that can help a woman suffering  menopausal lightning strikes to go through her day and night more comfortably. Disclaimer: the following does not address deep health issues related to menopause and does not replace medical advice.

Clothes. Wear layers you can quickly remove and put back on as needed. Many women feel freezing when the hot flash passes and leaves them sweaty. Avoid cotton and petroleum-based fabrics, which either soak sweat up and stay damp, or trap sweat on the body. Search for clothes made from breathable fabrics like hemp. Or scour thrift shops for vintage silk clothing.

Modify your environment. Place an electric fan near or on your desk to turn on the second a hot flash starts. Keep the room temperature on the cool side. Keep an old-fashioned paper fan in your bag to relieve the heat when you’re in the bus, or the subway, or waiting in line somewhere.

Eat and drink well to treat yourself best. Don’t stress yourself with dieting (unless your health requires it). Eat small, frequent meals to stay energetic without loading your digestion and bringing on hot flashes. There are foods to avoid, and foods that help.

You might notice that a cup of coffee or a cocktail will drive hot flashes. A spicy curry might do the same. Do you get a hot flash after smoking? Decide if stopping  caffeine, booze, strong spices and nicotine is worth the deprivation if it reduces those hot flashes. Some women find that eating foods high in sugar or fats, and especially mass-produced salty snacks, make them flash for hours afterward. Pay attention to your body’s signals.

You hardly need reminding that fresh, hopefully organic foods contribute to all-over health. Go for whole grains, fresh leafy greens and colorful root vegetables, and fresh fruit. Unless there are issues like lactose intolerance, eat yogurt for its important calcium content. Look for yogurts that have “bio” on the label. If you choose to eat meat and poultry, avoid  “enhanced” products that likely contain salt you’re not counting on.

Sweating through hot flashes depletes minerals. This can make a woman dizzy, cause a big mood swing, or leave her shaky. Seek mineral-rich foods to support your liver and kidneys and reduce hot flashes. A menopausal woman does well consuming at least a cup daily, if not two, of cooked calcium- and iron-rich leafy greens such as broccoli, kale, chard and beet greens.

Wild greens are especially rich in minerals. Cook fresh or dry nettles. Spend a pleasant half hour outdoors on a spring day to forage them, or buy dry nettles at the health food store.

Other wild favorites are fresh chickweed in late winter or spring. It’s delicious as the main salad ingredient, or tucked into a sandwich instead of lettuce. Fresh chickweed is an especially soothing and cooling food for a menopausal woman. It’s easy to grow at home in a planter.

Summertime purslane is a treat in salads too, and contains a high amount of essential fatty acids. It tends to spring up where it shouldn’t – in flower planters and lawns, for example,. But that makes it easy to find.

Cooked dandelion roots and the tender young leaves nourish the liver and kidneys with a wealth of minerals.

Don’t see yourself going out to forage greens? Culinary herbs offer minerals too. Use them generously in your cooking. Scatter a good handful of parsley or cilantro over the stew before serving. Whizz up home-made pesto with fresh basil. Chop lots of chives up to add to a colorful salad.

Staying hydrated is key. Fill a thermos with cold water or iced herbal tea and keep it close by for a quick cooling drink. The simple infusion following offers refreshment for your overheated, perhaps stressed self.

Soothing Herbal Infusion
Per cup of boiling water:
1 teaspoon crumbled dry raspberry leaves
1 teaspoon dry chamomile flowers
1 teaspoon crumbled oat straw

Infuse the herbs in a closed jar for 1/2 hour or up to 2 hours (put a wooden spoon or chopstick in the jar before pouring the boiling water in, to prevent cracking). Strain. Sweeten if desired.

Best is to make 4 cups at a time and have it around to drink freely all day.

Sage Hot Flash Prevention Tea
Culinary sage (Salvia officinalis) has a strong estrogen precursor. For women losing estrogen in the menopausal process, sage tea can help reduce hot flashes and night sweats, also supplying minerals lost through heavy sweating.

Infuse 1 teaspoon dry, crumbled sage or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage in 1 cup of boiling water, covered. Leave it for 1/2 hour. It’s strong; you may want to sweeten it. Drink 1-2 tablespoons, no more, up to 8 times daily.

Sometimes you can’t control the circumstances. Something triggers anger, grief, or stress. There you go, a hot flash. You may be in a situation where you’re not comfortable reaching for the cold thermos or fanning yourself. Here you just have to close your eyes for a second and make up your mind to see it through. Remind yourself that it’s temporary. Endorse yourself for keeping your cool in a hot moment.

Taking responsibility for your menopausal discomfort requires more time and effort than taking a pill, true. Consider it  an act of self-worth. A thoughtful gift from yourself to your wonderful self.

:: The Yale School of Medicine

Photo of sage tea by Paulina S. on Unsplash

 

 

 

The post Natural Relief For Menopausal Hot Flashes appeared first on Green Prophet.

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.” ~Lucille Ball

The first time I experienced burnout, I was twenty-six.

I was at the height of my career in London, doing it all, and yet I somehow found myself back at my parents’ house, sobbing in my mom’s car, after signing myself off from work, not having a clue how I landed there.

Burnout isn’t just about being tired from overexertion. It’s when we reach physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion after pushing ourselves past our capacity for too long.

When we finally stop, often against our will, all the confusing …

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.” ~Lucille Ball

The first time I experienced burnout, I was twenty-six.

I was at the height of my career in London, doing it all, and yet I somehow found myself back at my parents’ house, sobbing in my mom’s car, after signing myself off from work, not having a clue how I landed there.

Burnout isn’t just about being tired from overexertion. It’s when we reach physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion after pushing ourselves past our capacity for too long.

When we finally stop, often against our will, all the confusing symptoms surface. We feel overwhelmed, out of control, like we’re going mad. That was me at twenty-six, right when I thought I should have been thriving.

To give you some background, I was managing several boutique fitness studios in London, working under a highly demanding boss whose mood could swing and affect the whole office. I wasn’t much of a party girl, but I was still burning the candle at both ends, socializing with friends on the weekend and running around meeting demands during the week.

The burnout crept in slowly, starting with crying over the smallest things, gaining weight despite all the exercise I was doing, never being able to switch my mind off, and feeling constantly wired and overwhelmed with emotions I didn’t understand.

Burnout shows up differently for everyone, and I believe many of us live with a chronic, low-level version we don’t even notice until our well-being starts to fall apart.

At the time, I thought burnout was just about long hours and stress. But over the years, I realized there were deeper, less obvious reasons behind mine.

So, let’s get into the three not-so-obvious causes of burnout that most people miss.

The Hidden Pressure to Prove Your Worth

One of the biggest things I’ve learned about myself in the last ten years is that I’ve always had a need to prove myself. I’ve never quite felt good enough, and it’s always affected my confidence.

I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. We all struggle with our confidence and worth, wanting to prove ourselves—to the people we work for, to our parents, to our partners, and to the world.

However, I wasn’t conscious of this when I was younger. I knew I had a strong drive within me to work hard and meet other people’s demands, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with needing to prove myself.

I’ve come to see that many of us have a core wound around self-worth, even the most confident among us, and we all need to work on accepting, embracing, and loving ourselves exactly as we are.

But when we’re not conscious of our inner drivers, we can blindly rush into life, not understanding what’s really motivating our actions. For me, my lack of confidence played out in my need to please my boss, to the point where I was no longer conscious of my needs or desires.

Her disapproval terrified me. I dreaded missing her calls or not replying to her emails fast enough. I anticipated her demands constantly, beating myself up if I misjudged a situation or fell short.
It was a constant strain on my nervous system.

I pushed myself harder and harder until I simply couldn’t cope with the pressure. I couldn’t bear to let her down in any way, and if I did, I chastised myself for not doing better, for not being better.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I had to leave work early, to her great annoyance, to meet my mom, who’d booked a mother-daughter photoshoot (something I definitely wasn’t looking forward to, given the state of stress I was in).

All I remember is crying on the subway on my way there and not stopping even as the concerned makeup artist was trying to sort out my puffy eyes. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, and it was too much.

That’s when I began to understand that burnout isn’t just about physical overwork. It can come from the emotional pressure we place on ourselves, such as the pressure to meet expectations, to keep people happy, and to prove our worth to those that we feel we constantly need to impress.

It’s only when we realize that our well-being is far more important than our productivity that we can start to recognize how our need for approval is driving our actions and start to gently and lovingly address the deeper root cause.

Why Burnout Thrives Without Boundaries

One of the worst things about this need to prove myself was that my boss also recognized it and took advantage of it.

At the time, I didn’t even know what boundaries were. I wanted to keep everyone happy, spinning plates and spreading myself thin.

We’re conditioned to believe that it’s wrong to be selfish, that we shouldn’t say no, and that we need to put others’ needs before our own, but at what cost? Well, the cost is often our own happiness and well-being.

We often think of boundaries as physical, but they are also mental and emotional.

We may have shut our computer, but are we still thinking about the meeting tomorrow morning? We may have left the office, but are we anxious that we’ll forget to send that important email?

I used to feel this dread in the pit of my stomach every morning on my way to work as I wondered what I might have gotten wrong or forgotten to do. It was like my mind couldn’t switch off, and it drove my stress levels higher and higher.

One of the reasons why boundaries can feel so challenging is when we attach ourselves to the thing that we do, making it our identity, our purpose, and all that we are.

Whether our burnout comes from being a parent, being a caregiver, being an employee or entrepreneur, or any other roles we hold, we need to remember to create a sense of healthy separation from what we “do,” because that is not all that we are.

This is such an important boundary for us to create.

We are human beings, not human doings. When we mistakenly attach our worth, our identity, or our purpose to what we do rather than who we are, that boundary becomes blurred.

How Denial Keeps Us Stuck in Burnout

Another major cause of my burnout was my inability, or unwillingness, to be honest with myself.

I wasn’t conscious of how much I was struggling, and even if I had been, I wouldn’t have admitted it. To do so would have meant facing changes I wasn’t ready to make.

While change is a constant in all of our lives, it is still something that most of us fear. After all, it’s messy, unpredictable, and uncomfortable.

Yet, it’s always needed, especially when we suffer from burnout.

If we don’t change our circumstances, our attitude, or our boundaries, then nothing will change. So, we have to be willing to be honest about what’s not working and start making those all-important changes.

We can also struggle to be honest about our motivations for staying in burnout.

I’ll admit that at the time I really liked my life. Or rather I should say, I liked how my life looked. When I turned up late to dinner with friends due to work, I used to complain about work always making me late, but secretly I felt busy, important, and special.

There’s always a deeply unconscious part of us that becomes attached to the things that hurt us. It’s almost as if we become a martyr in our suffering. Yet, this is just reflective of the deeply unconscious desire to be seen, recognized, and taken care of.

That’s the tricky thing: when we’re in burnout, we often crave recognition and care from others. But waiting for someone else to rescue us keeps us stuck.

When I was struggling with burnout, I just wanted someone to notice and tell me what was wrong. I complained about my job to anyone who would listen, but I refused to take any advice. I just kept pushing myself, secretly hoping that one day someone, anyone, might notice.

Burnout isn’t a cry for help, but it is a cry from within to be taken care of, supported, and nourished. And first and foremost, we need to start looking after ourselves.

This Is Where Burnout Ends

If you’re struggling with burnout, please know that you’re not alone. Start by being honest with yourself. Recognize where you’re needing to prove yourself and where you need better boundaries so you can start taking care of yourself.

These subtle causes may not look like overwork, but they take just as much out of us, sometimes even more.

The turning point for me was when I admitted I wasn’t coping, signed off from work, and sought support from a holistic practitioner. That was the first time I began to listen to myself, and it opened the door to healing and growth I never could have imagined at twenty-six.

Ten years later, I’m so grateful for what it taught me. As cheesy as it sounds, it was the breakdown that became my breakthrough. While I still struggle with setting boundaries, feeling “enough,” and being honest with myself at times, on the whole those lessons have made me who I am today.

It all began with the simple realization that I needed to learn how to take care of myself with the same urgency I once gave to everyone else. And maybe you do too.

See more posts

Get in the conversation! Click here to leave a comment on the site.

The Connect-One Study will initially enroll two participants—with impaired speech and limited extremity movement (upper and lower) due to severe loss of voluntary motor control—who live within four hours of three clinical sites, UC Davis in Sacramento, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and Harvard Medical School.‍University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI – led by Investigator Matthew Willsey, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon with dual faculty appointments in Neurosurgery and Biomedical Engineering. 

The post Neuralink rival gets FDA approval for brain implant device appeared first on Green Prophet.

Neuralink, developed by Elon Musk, promises to help people who are paralyzed operate a computer with their thoughts. While first trials are being sought in humans with mobility issues we can imagine a future, (or not!), where humans are interlinked through our brains. It takes a massive amount of funding to build such a dream and now Neuralink is getting some competition, usually a good thing.

Paradromics, a US neurotechnology company says they have developed the highest data-rate brain-computer interface (BCI) platform, announced the US FDA has granted Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) approval to begin a feasibility study with their implant called Connexus BCI.

As the first company to receive IDE approval for speech restoration with a fully implantable BCI, Paradromics is excited to give participants the opportunity to control a computer and communicate via text or synthesized speech to recover connection.

Related: Womb implant is a success

The Connexus BCI is designed to record and decode brain signals at unprecedented rates of information transfer. “In Q1 next year we are launching a clinical study with the best engineered brain computer interface in the world,” said Paradromics’ CEO and founder, Matt Angle, Ph.D. “This is the device that patients deserve.“

The Connect-One Study will initially enroll two participants—with impaired speech and limited extremity movement (upper and lower) due to severe loss of voluntary motor control—who live within four hours of three clinical sites, UC Davis in Sacramento, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and Harvard Medical School.‍University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI – led by Investigator Matthew Willsey, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon with dual faculty appointments in Neurosurgery and Biomedical Engineering.

This FDA approval builds on key milestones for Paradromics, including three years of stable preclinical recordings, the first successful acute Connexus BCI implantation at the University of Michigan by Dr. Willsey, and the release of a scientific preprint demonstrating that the Connexus BCI delivers an industry-leading 200+ bits per second rate of information transfer in pre-clinical models. Paradromics has a Connect-One Study roadmap to add more sites, include more participants, and explore new BCI applications.

The Connect-One Study is the first in a series of clinical applications planned for the Paradromics BCI platform. Those interested in participating in this or future studies are encouraged to join the Paradromics Community.

The first study will look at restoring speech by Paradromics sees the future in enabling AI-powered treatments for motor impairment now and chronic pain, addiction, depression, and other neurological conditions in the near future.

 

The post Neuralink rival gets FDA approval for brain implant device appeared first on Green Prophet.

Sortera Technologies, founded in 2020 by Nalin Kumar and Manuel Garcia, is emerging as a major U.S. circular-industry player. Led by CEO Michael Siemer, the company uses AI and advanced sensors to turn scrap metal into high-value aluminum alloys. Its new ~$45 million funding round signals investor appetite for industrial decarbonisation—where emissions cuts come not from PR-friendly solar installs, but from upgrading the materials that power EVs, solar frames, and construction.

The post Urban miner Sortera raises $45 million USD to pull aluminum from the scrap pile appeared first on Green Prophet.

I remember the day in 2007 as a young environment and cleantech reporter when I went to my first clean tech conference. I was expecting solar panels and robots, new wind turbines to turn wind into washing machines, and hightech greenhouses that grows food on water. The reality was different: most cleantech companies in the business and making money (not just promising dreams) are industrial builds, companies that pull in pipes, valves, software and cables, sometimes linked together by software. There weren’t any golden bullet solutions that could change the world but rather they were companies that assembled solutions like the telecom industry.

The cleantech industry in all areas of reuse, new fabrics and materials, and in energy are not glamorous companies with runway models. They are factories and tools that help us make the most from least. And that’s why the most exciting cleantech companies we are seeing today look like Torus (improves the grid with a wheelwheel); BioProcessH20 (cleans effluent from food waste) and Regenx (which pulls minerals from catalytic converters) are the ones to watch.

Recycling or upcycling, I learn from my dad (a scrapper and water witch) metals is like finding free money. He was an avid metals recycler and could make a few thousand dollars at the scrap yard with every haul –– much of the metals found on the side of the road. When you take metals recycling as an industry, it’s literally like free money from garbage, and this is the business model of an AI-powered Tennessee company that is recycling aluminum. The company just raised $45 million USD to expand its operations. The solution poltentially diverts millions of tons of metals waste to other countries and keeps it local to the US economy. The metals will be earmarked for the automotive industry.

The deal was advised by by T. Rowe Price Associates and VXI Capital, with participation from Yamaha Motor Ventures and Overlay Capital; with an additional equipment funding from Trinity Capital. This funding fuels Sortera’s next phase of growth as a major domestic supplier of metals upcycled from waste.

In addition to the funding, Sortera is announcing plans for a second aluminum processing facility in Lebanon, Tennessee. This expansion—driven by overwhelming demand and success at the flagship Markle, Indiana facility—will bring Sortera’s innovative recycling solutions closer to its growing customer base.

Using artificial intelligence and advanced sensors, the company sorts mixed aluminum scrap into specific alloys that can replace imported primary aluminum. Sortera brings new life to old metal. Since launching operations at its 200,000 sq. ft. Markle facility in Q1 2023, Sortera has experienced significant customer demand for its high-quality recycled aluminum alloys.

For those in the metals business Sortera is now the only company producing end-of-life recycled aluminum products, including 380, 356, 319, and wrought (3105 and others) aluminum. Each product is specifically designed to match the chemistry of common casting and rolling alloys.

The Markle facility demonstrates Sortera’s technological success at transforming mixed alloy scrap—historically downgraded or shipped overseas—into high-value materials for critical applications in the automotive, construction, and aerospace industries.

“The performance of our Markle facility and the enthusiastic response from our customers have made it clear: the domestic market is hungry for sustainable, high-quality recycled aluminum,” said Michael Siemer, CEO of Sortera Technologies. This expansion allows us to significantly increase our capacity and establish a presence closer to many of our key customers—particularly in the automotive sector—further streamlining supply chains and enhancing our service capabilities.”

Their process diverts billions of pounds of material from going overseas and dramatically reduces the energy required for aluminum production by approximately 95% compared to manufacturing from virgin materials. This translates into a substantial reduction in CO₂ footprint for Sortera’s customers, supporting their ambitious sustainability and circular production goals.

When we interviewed a company in this space called Regenx, they called themselves “urban miners.”

The investment in Sortera is to create a new facility to increase the company’s annual production capacity to ~240 million pounds. This will ultimately help manufacturers lower costs and pollution while strengthening the domestic supply chain.

Sortera expects that the new facility will be operational by the summer of 2026, and further details regarding the specifics will be communicated in the coming months.

Notable investors include RA Capital Management-Planetary Health, certain funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., the Mineral Resources Group, a part of Mitsubishi Corporation’s Business Incubation Unit, Macquarie GIG Energy Transition Solutions (“MGETS”), Assembly Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Chrysalix.

Sortera was founded in 2020 by Nalin Kumar (listed as Founder & Chief Innovation Officer) and Manuel Garcia (listed as Co-Founder & Vice President of Applied Science). Michael Siemer is the President and Chief Executive Officer.

::Sortera

The post Urban miner Sortera raises $45 million USD to pull aluminum from the scrap pile appeared first on Green Prophet.

“Come back to yourself. Return to the voice of your body. Trust that much.” ~Geneen Roth

I may be showing my age, but here goes… It has come to my attention that I’m like a paddle ball.

To anyone born in the 21st century: for context, before handheld devices ruled the world, kids entertained themselves with simple analog toys—such as the paddle ball.

Picture a small flat paddle (like a small ping-pong paddle) with a rubber ball attached to the center by an elastic string. The goal was to hit the ball with the paddle, watch it fly out and …

“Come back to yourself. Return to the voice of your body. Trust that much.” ~Geneen Roth

I may be showing my age, but here goes… It has come to my attention that I’m like a paddle ball.

To anyone born in the 21st century: for context, before handheld devices ruled the world, kids entertained themselves with simple analog toys—such as the paddle ball.

Picture a small flat paddle (like a small ping-pong paddle) with a rubber ball attached to the center by an elastic string. The goal was to hit the ball with the paddle, watch it fly out and then back, and keep this going for as long as possible, until the ball returns wildly and goes rogue, missing the paddle altogether.

Recently, while I was flossing my teeth, much to my surprise, my dental crown popped off in my mouth. (I’ll connect these things together; stay with me.) I was fortunate enough that my dentist was able to get me in to fix it the next day, but this unexpected mishap added to an already incredibly hectic month.

Other notable events this month included a vacation with a six-hour time change (I find that the older I get, the more challenging it becomes to travel across time zones), a broken (on the second day of vacation) phone that the day after returning home required an entire day of driving back and forth all over town to resolve, my son’s new used car (that we just purchased a month prior) broke down and required towing, and now my errant crown, just to name a few.

Like I said, it’s been quite a month.

I arrived at the dentist’s office half an hour early (because I had other unavoidable obligations that morning as well) and decided to use this time for my daily meditation. I could feel that the gentle tug to slow down had turned into a more forceful pull.

Side note: I’ll admit that even though I have a daily meditation practice, I go through periods where I successfully carve time out earlier in the day for longer, more intentional practices, and other times when I barely squeeze in a quickie at the last minute of the day. If it’s not obvious, this was a last-minute-meditation kind of month.

Once in the office, while reclining in the long black chair waiting for the dentist, I resisted the urge to distract myself with my phone and instead did some box breathing to give myself space to slow down. And again, while waiting for the anesthetic to take effect, I decided to just be with myself.

There was no rushing this. I had nothing else to do, nowhere else to go. It was a welcomed pause.

With my mouth pried open, I reflected on all the life stuff I’ve been trying to keep up with and wondered if I would ever find balance. Why don’t I come back to myself more often? Why don’t I just stay put, centered all the time?

Well, as the saying goes, everything in moderation, right? If all I did was sit and meditate or pause indefinitely, I wouldn’t be dealing with these stressors, but I also wouldn’t be able to fulfill my purpose, help others, connect with family, or enjoy all the incredible experiences life has to offer.

Just “being” feels nice, but “doing” also has its advantages and is required for me to be the person I want to be.

So then it requires balance, yes? Coming back to myself often but also going out in the world to “do life.”

And that’s when my likeness to a paddle ball dawned on (or hit?) me. I am the paddle, and the rubber ball is all the stuff I’m doing—chasing lofty ambitions, checking off long to-do lists, slogging through mundane obligations, cherishing time with family, and so on… and taking time to center myself.

Just as the ball springs back to the paddle when the elastic stretches too far, I keep getting pulled back to myself, which then gives me the energy I need to catapult myself out into the world again, and off I go to do all the meaningful (and not so meaningful) things again.

In reflecting on this (my mouth is still pried open, but they’re close to finishing up), I realize that at least now in my forties, my ball keeps coming back to lightly tap the paddle, and that’s a win. In contrast, my earlier years were mostly spent with the ball flying around erratically, rarely making contact with the paddle at all.

These days, there’s a gentler rhythm to it—although I do still find myself going off course more often than I would like. But even this is softer, as I’m at peace with this truth, and I have confidence that I’ll continue to learn and adjust in ways that serve my highest self.

Driving home, I reflect on how grateful I am to have my crown re-cemented and that I took this opportunity to slow down and center. And I vow to keep making time to return to myself in a steady rhythm amid the chaos of a meaningful life.

You see, the key with paddleball is to maintain an even force and steady pace to keep the game going. If you slow down too much, it loses momentum, and if you try to go too fast or hit the ball too hard, you’re sure to lose control of it.

Similarly in life, a steady, balanced flow is achieved by keeping a gentleness and returning to yourself consistently, methodically even. When we push ourselves too fast or too hard or just against the natural grain of our being, we lose control, and it becomes harder to return to ourselves.

The crown is back in place, and so am I (for the moment). Tomorrow will bring its own pull outward, in the form of opportunity, lessons, and/or chaos. But I’ll approach it with confidence in my elastic tether, knowing that I’ll keep coming back to center myself when needed. After all, it’s not about staying centered all the time but rather always returning home.

See more posts

Get in the conversation! Click here to leave a comment on the site.

“True self-love is not about becoming someone better; it’s about softening into the truth of who you already are.” ~Yung Pueblo

One morning, I sat at my kitchen table with my journal open, a cup of green tea steaming beside me, and a stack of self-help books spread out like an emergency toolkit.

The sunlight was spilling across the counter, but I didn’t notice. My eyes kept darting between the dog-eared pages of a book called Becoming Your Best Self and the neatly written to-do list in my journal.

Meditation.
Gratitude journaling.
Affirmations.
Ten thousand steps.
Hydration tracker.
“Inner child …

“True self-love is not about becoming someone better; it’s about softening into the truth of who you already are.” ~Yung Pueblo

One morning, I sat at my kitchen table with my journal open, a cup of green tea steaming beside me, and a stack of self-help books spread out like an emergency toolkit.

The sunlight was spilling across the counter, but I didn’t notice. My eyes kept darting between the dog-eared pages of a book called Becoming Your Best Self and the neatly written to-do list in my journal.

Meditation.
Gratitude journaling.
Affirmations.
Ten thousand steps.
Hydration tracker.
“Inner child work” … still unchecked.

It was only 9:00 a.m., and I’d already meditated, journaled, listened to a personal development podcast, and planned my “healing workout” for later.

By all accounts, I was doing everything right. But instead of feeling inspired or light, I felt… tired. Bone-deep tired.

When Self-Improvement Becomes Self-Criticism

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had turned personal growth into a job I could never leave.

Every podcast was a strategy meeting. Every book was an employee manual for a better me. Every quiet moment became a chance to find another flaw to address.

And if I missed something, a day without journaling, a skipped meditation, a workout cut short, I felt like I had failed. Not failed at the task itself but failed as a person. I told myself this was dedication. That it was healthy to be committed to becoming the best version of myself.

But underneath, there was a quieter truth I didn’t want to admit:

I wasn’t growing from a place of self-love. I was hustling for my own worth.

Somewhere along the way, “self-improvement” had stopped being about building a life I loved and had become about fixing a person I didn’t.

Self-Growth Burnout Is Real

We talk about burnout from work, parenting, and caregiving, but we don’t often talk about self-growth burnout. The kind that comes when you’ve been “working on yourself” for so long it becomes another obligation.

It’s subtle, but you can feel it.

It’s the heaviness you carry into your meditation practice, the quiet resentment when someone tells you about a “life-changing” book you have to read, the way even rest feels like you’re falling behind in your own healing.

The worst part? It’s wrapped in such positive language that it’s hard to admit you’re tired of it.

When you say you’re exhausted, people tell you to “take a self-care day,” which often just becomes another checkbox. When you say you’re feeling stuck, they hand you another podcast, another journal prompt, another morning routine to try.

It’s exhausting to realize that even your downtime is part of a performance review you’re constantly giving yourself.

The Moment I Stepped Off the Hamster Wheel

My turning point wasn’t dramatic. No breakdown, no grand epiphany. Just a Tuesday night in early spring.

I had planned to do my usual “nighttime routine” … ten minutes of breathwork, ten minutes of journaling, reading a chapter of a personal growth book before bed. But that night, I walked past my desk, grabbed a blanket, and went outside instead.

The air was cool, and the sky was streaked with soft pink and gold. I sat down on the porch steps and just… watched it change. No phone. No agenda. No trying to make the moment “productive” by mentally drafting a gratitude list.

For the first time in years, I let something be just what it was.

And in that stillness, I realized how much of my life I’d been missing in the chase to become “better.” I was so focused on the next version of me that I’d been neglecting the one living my actual life right now.

Why We Keep Fixing What Isn’t Broken

Looking back, I can see why I got stuck there.

We live in a culture that profits from our constant self-doubt. There’s always a “next step,” a new program, a thirty-day challenge promising to “transform” us.

And there’s nothing inherently wrong with learning, growing, or challenging ourselves. The problem comes when growth is rooted in the belief that who we are today is inadequate.

When every action is motivated by I’m not enough yet, we end up in an endless loop of striving without ever feeling at peace.

How I Started Shifting from Fixing to Living

It wasn’t an overnight change. I had to relearn how to interact with personal growth in a way that felt nourishing instead of punishing. Here’s what helped me:

1. I checked the weight of what I was doing.

I started asking myself: Does this feel like support, or does it feel like pressure? If it felt heavy, exhausting, or like another form of self-criticism, I paused or dropped it completely.

2. I let rest be part of the process.

Not “rest so I could be more productive later,” but real rest—reading a novel just because I liked it, taking a walk without tracking my steps, watching the clouds without trying to meditate.

3. I stopped chasing every “should.”

I let go of the belief that I had to try every method, read every book, or follow every guru to heal. I gave myself permission to choose what resonated and ignore the rest.

4. I practiced being okay with “good enough.”

Instead of asking, “How can I make this better?” I practiced noticing what was already working in my life, even if it wasn’t perfect.

What I Learned

Healing isn’t a ladder you climb to a perfect view.

It’s more like a rhythm—one that includes rest days, quiet seasons, and moments where nothing changes except your ability to notice you’re okay right now.

I learned that sometimes the most transformative thing you can do is stop. Stop chasing, stop fixing, stop critiquing every part of yourself like you’re a never-ending renovation project.

Because maybe the real work isn’t fixing yourself into a future you’ll finally love. Maybe the real work is learning to live fully in the self you already are.

See more posts

Get in the conversation! Click here to leave a comment on the site.

Arab normalization resistance — unchallenged by EU and UN bodies — ensures they remain politically sanitized and technically shallow.
The Mediterranean cannot solve climate change, migration pressures, or food insecurity if it continues to sideline the very countries with the expertise to contribute. And the more the UfM, the EU, and UN bodies appease political vetoes, the more they reinforce the exact divisions they were created to heal.

The post How the Mediterranean’s most hopeful UN green organizations fail at peace-building appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) was created to be the great bridge between Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East — a place where shared challenges like climate change, water scarcity, youth unemployment, and clean energy could be tackled together.

Instead, the UfM has become a textbook case of consensus paralysis: a structure where 43 countries must agree before anything moves forward. In practice, this means that the long shadow of the Arab–Israeli conflict still shapes what can be said, who can be present, and which countries are allowed to lead. For an institution whose sole purpose is regional cooperation, the result is tragically predictable: the Mediterranean’s biggest tools for healing rifts are the ones most consistently left unused.

Below are recent, documented examples of how Arab political pressure — often reinforced by the EU’s own risk-aversion and the UN’s quiet compliance — creates sins of omission that undermine progress in women’s empowerment, climate cooperation, cleantech, and cultural diplomacy. I’ve even seen it in forest fire prevention.

I have reached out to the spokesperson and leadership at the UfM about their exclusionary practices, which I touch on below. Nasser Kamel, a general from Egypt who heads the organization didn’t reply. His spokesperson answered the phone but then refused to send feedback about the exclusionary policies we pointed out. Green Prophet then received this:

“The participation of representatives, experts, and citizens from any Member State, including Israel, in UfM activities is at the discretion of the respective national authorities and stakeholders. As an intergovernmental organisation, the UfM does not have the mandate to compel participation although it actively encourages and welcomes the engagement of all its members in its initiatives. There is no pattern of exclusion in either pre-activity communications or post-activity follow-ups related to water or any other sector. Israel is an active and engaged Member State that regularly participates in UfM Senior Officials Meetings as well as UfM Regional Platforms and Working Groups focused on water policy dialogue and related initiatives in the Mediterranean.”

This is the pattern in groups like this. Nice words, but they practice something else entirely. As someone who works in cleantech, and as a champion for women and the environment in the region I couldn’t help but notice exclusionary policies to Israelis. They may be “there” on paper but the reality is something else.

Case Study 1 (2023–2024): Women & Climate Leadership Without Israelis
UfM officials regularly state that “women, youth, and climate” are the safest and most promising spaces for Euro-Mediterranean cooperation. Yet the institution’s own events tell a different story. Across the Women4Mediterranean, Women Innovators, Climate Adaptation, and Women Entrepreneurs conferences held in Barcelona, Cairo, and Brussels (2023–2024), not a single Israeli woman innovator or climate leader was featured on panels or in official delegations. They will publish data that will not include Israeli women.

This is despite Israel being:

• A global top-tier country for women in STEM
• A regional leader in climate adaptation, water reuse, and desert agriculture
• Home to Arab-Jewish women-led climate ventures that embody the cooperation the UfM claims to champion. The Arava Institute is a prime example.

Women’s innovation is the softest of soft diplomacy tools — the very space where the region should be building trust. Yet because a handful of Arab governments routinely reject anything that looks like normalization, the UfM quietly complies. This is the politics of omission, which is harder to expose than outright exclusion, but just as damaging.

The excuse: Muslim Arabs, a majority by far in the region, don’t feel comfortable around Israelis. Israeli Arabs are invited through a back door when they register as Palestinians. Read below to how it’s been perfected.

Case Study 2 (2022–2024): UN Bodies Reinforcing the Same Patterns

The UN’s regional arms — especially ESCWA, but also UNDP and FAO in the Gulf — hold major climate, cleantech, and development gatherings in Doha, Dubai, Cairo, and Riyadh. And the pattern repeats: Israeli experts are excluded, or invited only as “online observers.” Joint research groups are formed that include Arab states and European academics, but not Israeli institutions — even when the topic is water scarcity, desalination, agriculture, or desertification, where Israel is a global leader.

Behind closed doors, European officials will admit the reason: “We avoid confrontation. Arabs would walk out.” In other words, UN bodies — which preach inclusiveness — reinforce the same consensus paralysis as the UfM.
Again, the tools for healing rifts exist — and they are deliberately not used.

If you see the front page of ESCWA’s website they are calling the Hamas-Israel conflict, started by Hamas “a War on Gaza.”

Palestine is intentionally framed as a regional development priority, while Israel is framed as irrelevant — except as a geopolitical antagonist. Here is a UN-funded Med conference that paints Israel as a villain.

Case Study 3 (2020–2023): Cleantech, Climate Finance & Qatar’s Influence

Many UfM and EU-Mediterranean climate programs are now co-funded or co-branded with Gulf partners (Qatar Foundation, Masdar, ADQ, Saudi Green Initiative, etc.). These sponsors bring money — but also political red lines. The last meeting was in Doha, Qatar. Why are Mediterranean peace and climate leaders meeting in the Gulf?

High-visibility participation of Israelis, they will say, becomes “too sensitive.”

EU-backed research networks omit Israeli nodes even when the science requires them (e.g., micro-irrigation, solar thermal storage, grid-stabilizing technologies). This is not an accidental oversight. This is structural. Arab sovereign wealth funds are now key financiers in Mediterranean climate cooperation — and they leverage their position to enforce old regional politics inside ostensibly neutral EU frameworks.

Case Study 4 (2020): COVID-19 Recovery Programs Without Israeli MedTech
During the COVID-19 recovery period, the UfM launched major programs for digital health, medtech, and emergency response.  Yet none of its flagship recovery initiatives visibly integrated Israeli: Remote diagnostics, AI health systems, First-responder innovations, Arab–Jewish hospital cooperation models. Israel’s medtech sector could have been a perfect bridge — especially for women in health, startups in the periphery, or cross-Mediterranean humanitarian partnerships.

Instead, the UfM defaulted to the lowest common denominator: keep it technical, keep it vague, avoid political discomfort so the Arab world and natural gas and oil money stays happy.

Why This Matters Now

The tragedy of consensus paralysis is not simply that Israelis are marginalized. It is that the region loses access to the best available tools for peacebuilding:

• Women’s entrepreneurship
• Climate adaptation
• Water reuse
• Digital health
• Desert agriculture
• Cleantech innovation
• Youth exchanges

These should be the spaces where cooperation flourishes beyond politics. Instead, Arab normalization resistance — unchallenged by EU and UN bodies — ensures they remain politically sanitized and technically shallow.
The Mediterranean cannot solve climate change, migration pressures, or food insecurity if it continues to sideline the very countries with the expertise to contribute. And the more the UfM, the EU, and UN bodies appease political vetoes, the more they reinforce the exact divisions they were created to heal.

The call mechanism for inclusion is broken

One way EU and UN organizations exclude Jewish Israelis, and I see this all the time in areas of cleantech and eco-events, is by limiting “eligibility” to Palestinians, not Israelis, by defining participants through population categories, not citizenship. And this is what you will find.

Many calls for participation use criteria such as:

• Arab youth
• Women from the Arab region
• West Asian populations
• Participants from conflict-affected Arab communities
• Stakeholders from the State of Palestine

Because Israeli Arabs (Muslim or Christian) share language, culture, and geographic identity with Palestinian populations, they technically qualify for these categories. But Israeli Jews — even if regionally relevant, even if experts in the exact domain — do not qualify.

Calling for Arabs from the region, it allows organizers to include “Arab citizens of Israel” without acknowledging Israel as a state; claim inclusivity (“we included Arab voices from the region”); avoid dealing with Israeli ministries, embassies, or universities; preserve the diplomatic fiction that “all Arabs” participate while Israel does not. This results in Israeli Muslim and Christian professionals being welcomed only as Arabs, not as Israelis, effectively erasing their national identity in international fora.

The Path Forward

If institutions like the UfM want to be relevant in 2030 and beyond, and stay funded, they must protect technical cooperation from political vetoes. Guarantee representation for all regional innovators, including Israelis. Elevate women, climate, and youth programs as de-politicized peace platforms. Stop outsourcing Mediterranean cooperation to Gulf funders with political conditions. Publicly acknowledge sins of omission instead of hiding behind “neutrality”

Because the greatest danger in Euro-Mediterranean cooperation today is not conflict — it is the cowardice of institutions unwilling to use the tools that build peace.

 

The post How the Mediterranean’s most hopeful UN green organizations fail at peace-building appeared first on Green Prophet.

Beaked whales are among the least understood mammals on Earth. There are 24 known species, most of them rarely seen because they dive deeper and stay underwater longer than any other marine mammal. Many species have only been described from stranded carcasses, and new species continue to be identified, including one as recently as 2021.

The post Rare whale species spotted for the first time appeared first on Green Prophet.

Your friends are posting their best Northern Lights pics on Facebook and Instagram, and you want to try it too. How can you get the best shot on a camera that isn’t a cell phone?

Capturing a strong photograph of the Northern Lights depends on using the right equipment, settings and technique, and on adapting to changing light and movement in the sky. A full-frame digital camera mounted on a tripod offers the best results because it can collect more light with lower noise during long exposures. Jessica Fridrich uses a Nikon Z7 for her aurora work.

“I must say that, until recently, I have always considered the Northern Lights to be a phenomenon that is only visible from polar regions. Last year, I realized that I had been missing out on a lot of fun.”

What settings does she use? She typically sets the white balance to 4000K and exposes for about six seconds at ISO 1600 to 4000 with an f/2.8 lens. These choices come from practical considerations: long exposures and relatively high ISO values allow the sensor to gather enough faint light from fast-changing auroral structures, while an aperture of f/2.8 lets in more light during each exposure.

Environmental conditions change the settings. When the Moon is out or when there is light pollution, the ISO should be reduced so the sky does not overexpose. If the aurora begins to move quickly, the exposure needs to be shortened to avoid motion blur in the structures. In that case, increasing the ISO compensates for the reduced exposure time; Fridrich shortens the exposure to four seconds or even two seconds when needed. Some auroral displays change shape rapidly, so adapting exposure length in real time is important.

Correct focus is essential. Autofocus is unreliable in darkness, so the camera must be switched to manual focus. The best way to achieve sharpness is to focus on a bright star. This ensures that both the sky and the auroral structures will appear crisp. Lenses with large apertures, meaning low f-stop values, work particularly well for night photography because they allow more light into the camera. Fridrich says she often uses a 24–70 mm f/2.8 lens, keeping it wide open. The zoom capability helps capture specific details within the display. For exceptionally large or bright auroras, especially those that stretch overhead, a wide-angle lens is preferred because it can capture the full extent of the scene.

Moisture is another practical concern. Dew often condenses on lenses during long sessions outdoors, so a simple lens cloth is important to keep the glass clear.

Phones can also record auroras. Using night mode is generally sufficient, as modern phones automatically lengthen exposure time and increase sensitivity in low light. For both cameras and phones, saving images in RAW or another uncompressed format provides more flexibility for later editing, though JPEGs are acceptable for those who do not plan to process their images.

Sites like Space Weather can help you find the right nights

The post Shooting Northern lights? Here are the best camera settings appeared first on Green Prophet.

A bread-sized satellite developed by students Talk about an amazing science fair opportunity! A multidisciplinary team of undergraduate students led by the University of New Hampshire designed and built a mini satellite, known as a CubeSat, that will launch into space to gather data in collaboration with NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission. […]

The post American students build “bread-loaf sized” satellite they will send to space appeared first on Green Prophet.

Your friends are posting their best Northern Lights pics on Facebook and Instagram, and you want to try it too. How can you get the best shot on a camera that isn’t a cell phone?

Capturing a strong photograph of the Northern Lights depends on using the right equipment, settings and technique, and on adapting to changing light and movement in the sky. A full-frame digital camera mounted on a tripod offers the best results because it can collect more light with lower noise during long exposures. Jessica Fridrich uses a Nikon Z7 for her aurora work.

“I must say that, until recently, I have always considered the Northern Lights to be a phenomenon that is only visible from polar regions. Last year, I realized that I had been missing out on a lot of fun.”

What settings does she use? She typically sets the white balance to 4000K and exposes for about six seconds at ISO 1600 to 4000 with an f/2.8 lens. These choices come from practical considerations: long exposures and relatively high ISO values allow the sensor to gather enough faint light from fast-changing auroral structures, while an aperture of f/2.8 lets in more light during each exposure.

Environmental conditions change the settings. When the Moon is out or when there is light pollution, the ISO should be reduced so the sky does not overexpose. If the aurora begins to move quickly, the exposure needs to be shortened to avoid motion blur in the structures. In that case, increasing the ISO compensates for the reduced exposure time; Fridrich shortens the exposure to four seconds or even two seconds when needed. Some auroral displays change shape rapidly, so adapting exposure length in real time is important.

Correct focus is essential. Autofocus is unreliable in darkness, so the camera must be switched to manual focus. The best way to achieve sharpness is to focus on a bright star. This ensures that both the sky and the auroral structures will appear crisp. Lenses with large apertures, meaning low f-stop values, work particularly well for night photography because they allow more light into the camera. Fridrich says she often uses a 24–70 mm f/2.8 lens, keeping it wide open. The zoom capability helps capture specific details within the display. For exceptionally large or bright auroras, especially those that stretch overhead, a wide-angle lens is preferred because it can capture the full extent of the scene.

Moisture is another practical concern. Dew often condenses on lenses during long sessions outdoors, so a simple lens cloth is important to keep the glass clear.

Phones can also record auroras. Using night mode is generally sufficient, as modern phones automatically lengthen exposure time and increase sensitivity in low light. For both cameras and phones, saving images in RAW or another uncompressed format provides more flexibility for later editing, though JPEGs are acceptable for those who do not plan to process their images.

Sites like Space Weather can help you find the right nights

The post Shooting Northern lights? Here are the best camera settings appeared first on Green Prophet.