Last 8 Items of Vital Vocabulary

Last 8 items of vital vocabulary you’ll need to know in 2023

Excerpts from the Economist Nov. 14th 2022

TWaT city

"Instead many workers have fallen into a pattern of travelling to the office only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays."

Doughnut effect

"The Economist, have identified a “doughnut effect” in large cities. As workers move away from city centres, suburban rental values have shot up, creating a ring of growth."

Battery Belt

"Ford is investing $50bn to expand production of electric vehicles, its rival gm is investing $35bn, and an estimated $40bn is going into new or expanded battery production in this new “Battery Belt”. Will the name catch on in 2023?"

YIMBY

"Whereas nimbys want nothing built in their backyards, yimbys say “yes” to development. Preferring high-density development to car-driven sprawl"

Virtual power plant

"When used together in large numbers, and co-ordinated via internet commands, hundreds or thousands of these small-scale generation and storage systems can act in concert"

Vertiport

"But evtols (electric, vertical takeoff and landing) can’t take off and land just anywhere. Instead, they will need designated places to do so—so-called vertiports—that are half-airport, half-subway station"

Space solar power

"The idea of capturing energy in space using huge solar arrays attached to orbiting satellites, and then beaming it down to Earth as microwaves, has been around since Isaac Asimov proposed it in a science-fiction story in 1941"

Cislunar

"A series of preparatory robotic missions to the Moon will blast off in 2023. Things are hotting up in “cislunar” space—as the space between Earth and the orbit of the Moon is known.■

Written by Martin Adams, Aryn Braun, Joel Budd, Tom Standage and Vijay Vaitheeswaran