Documents suggest that in more than 80 U.S. locations, the failure of an aging dam could flood a major toxic waste site.
infrastructure & hardware
A New Tool May Make Geological Microscopy Data More Accessible
PiAutoStage can automatically digitize and send microscope samples to students and researchers on the cheap and from a distance.
Ocean Sensors Record Rare Triple Tsunami near New Zealand
A new suite of DART buoys in the South Pacific Ocean spotted waves set in motion by three tsunamigenic earthquakes that occurred within hours of one another.
Beast of the Central Arctic
Feast your eyes on Beast, the first remotely operated vehicle to brave the Arctic for 1 year.
A Floating Buoy Fleet Could Help Scientists Track Rising Seas
A new observing system to track mean sea level could piggyback on infrastructure already in place and extend the geographic area over which sea level is monitored.
Fibers Pick Up Silicon Valley Traffic Changes During Quarantine
Fiber-optic cables measured a 50% decline in Sand Hill Road traffic in March.
Using Dirt to Clean Up Construction
The construction industry is one of the world’s largest emitters of carbon dioxide. Whether it can reduce those emissions depends on replacing its most common building material.
East Africa Invests in Strategies to Manage E-Waste
As Uganda develops its e-waste policy, neighboring Rwanda establishes a broad-based plan involving incentives and high-tech facilities.
Remaking a Planet One Atom at a Time
When is a planet not a planet? Where does helium rain? How can water be solid and liquid at the same time? For answers, scientists put common planetary materials under extreme pressure and watched what happened next.
Venus Exploration Starts in the Lab
Most technology would not last a day on our planet’s evil twin. By creating Venus’s surface and atmospheric conditions here on Earth, a team of engineers is designing spacecraft technology that will last for months.
