• DARPA crowd-source next-gen UAV design

    DARPA has announced its UAVForge competition for the design of a user-intuitive, backpack-portable UAV which is also quiet, can stay aloft for at least three hours, and can fly in harsh condition; in addition to the $100,000 prize, the winning team will have the opportunity to showcase its design in an overseas military exercise

  • Global carbon emissions at record high

    Global carbon emissions are at their highest ever levels, increasing fears of a global temperature rise over the “dangerous” two degrees Celsius threshold; unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency revealed that the world economy’s return to growth in 2010 coincided with a 1.6 gigaton rise in carbon dioxide emissions, the highest ever recorded jump

  • Global warming: Arctic access by land will diminish, but improve by sea

    Global warming over the next forty years will cut through Arctic transportation networks like a double-edged sword, limiting access in certain areas and vastly increasing it in others in absolute terms; winners are expected to be coastal communities, coastal resource-extraction operations, tourism, fishing, and shipping concerns; potential losers include inland mining and timber operations, inland oil and gas drilling, and smaller inland communities, often inhabited by indigenous peoples; Canada and Russia stand to lose the most winter-road potential as rising temperatures will prevent up to 400,000 square miles from hardening into potential roadways

  • Making high-speed rail tracks safer

    High-speed rail requires prestressed concrete railroad ties, as wooden cross ties are too flexible; for these ties to be effective, prestressing forces must be applied at a considerable distance before the rail load is applied; this is called the transfer length; to resist the heavy impacts the concrete ties utilize about twenty steel wires, each stressed to around 7,000 pounds; if the prestressed force is not properly transferred, failures can occur in the track

  • Smartphone apps help thousands in latest storms

    In the recent string of natural disasters to hit the Midwest, emergency communication smartphone apps have proven invaluable for contacting family members and first responders; during these natural disasters, telephone lines and cell phone towers are often inundated with traffic, leaving individuals unable to contact their loved ones or even reach 911; thanks to smartphone apps like Life360, individuals have been able to contact family members to let them know they are okay, or alert emergency workers if they are in trouble; during the floods that left Memphis, Tennessee under water, more than 2,400 families used the app to share their locations and confirm their safety

  • More tornadoes headed to Joplin, Missouri

    As emergency responders pick through the wreckage from Sunday’s massive tornado in Joplin, Missouri, residents are preparing for another monstrous storm that could generate more deadly tornadoes; meteorologists anticipate that thunderstorms will hit Joplin once again on Tuesday night; rescue workers raced to sift through the rubble in search of survivors before the next storm hits; it is estimated that 30 percent of the city has been destroyed after the tornado carved a three-quarter mile wide path of destruction; so far officials have confirmed that at least 117 people are dead, more than 600 injured, and approximately 1,500 are still missing from one of the country’s deadliest tornadoes in over sixty years; initial projections rate the monstrous tornado as an EF-4 with wind speeds of 166 to 200 miles per hour; it is reported that the mile-wide funnel contained two cyclones inside; President Obama is currently overseas in the United Kingdom, but plans to visit Missouri this weekend after returning from Europe

  • China admits to critical flaws at world’s largest dam

    Last week, the Chinese government made a rare announcement and publicly admitted that there were critical problems at the Three Gorges dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, lending support to the growing opposition to future dam projects; with the approval of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the country’s second in command, last Thursday the State Council announced that the Three Gorges dam had been plagued by a series of problems “urgently in need of resolution”; problems include ecological deterioration, geological disasters, and the lingering uncertain status of more than one million people displaced by the dam; this is the first time such a high-ranking government official has publicly acknowledged the dam’s problems

  • Online university announces Master’s in homeland security program

    An online university recently announced that students can now enroll in its online degree program to obtain a Master’s of Science in Homeland Security; the online degree can be earned through Capella University, an accredited online university with nearly 40,000 students currently enrolled; courses will focus on topics like emergency preparedness, management, infrastructure protection, threat analysis, media communications, and cyber security

  • Western states could face disastrous floods from record snowpacks

    Western states could soon face disastrous floods like the Midwest due to record snowpacks; heavy winter storms and an abnormally cold and wet spring have resulted in record snow levels for May in states across the west including Montano, New Mexico, Colorado, and California; officials worry that if June is particularly hot and sunny, the snow could melt too quickly and inundate the region’s rivers with torrents of water; officials are particularly concerned about flash floods as they can occur with little warning; officials are bracing for the worst holding emergency drills and releasing thousands of gallons of water to make room in reservoirs
    Western states could soon face disastrous floods like the Midwest due to record snowpacks

  • Tornado kills at least 116 in Joplin, Missouri

    Residents and emergency responders are searching for survivors in Joplin, Missouri after a tornado tore through the town Sunday evening; the tornado tore a 6-mile-long, half-mile wide path through the middle of town; much of the city’s south side was leveled, with churches, schools, businesses, and homes reduced to ruins by winds of up to 165 mph; so far 116 people have been found dead, and officials expect the death toll to rise; officials have estimated 2,000 buildings were damaged; among the ruined buildings is St. John’s Regional Medical center, the city’s major hospital; the hospital was struck directly by the tornado and lost portions of its roof, façade, and windows; the Joplin twister was one of 68 reported tornadoes across seven Midwest states over the weekend

  • Hydropower gaining traction around the world

    As more nations turn to renewable energy sources, wind and solar have often grabbed all the attention, but hydropower has been steadily making quiet gains. While hydroelectricity is becoming more prevalent, its future is riddled with uncertainty and difficult questions; in 2008, hydroelectricity generated more than 250 billion kilowatthours of electricity, roughly 67 percent of all renewable energy produced that year; new dam projects are also generating a lot of criticism from environmentalists and local residents who worry about the people who will be displaced as well as the dams’ environmental impacts; ironically hydroelectric dams will be affected by climate change, the very thing it is designed to combat

  • Risk of wetland habitat loss in southern United States

    Between 1992 and 1997, more than 500,000 acres of wetlands were lost in the United States; 75 percent of those losses were attributed to development or agriculture; the greatest loss during this period occurred in the southern United States, with development as the main reason for wetland habitat loss; wetlands are important not only as a habitat for wild life, but as a line of defense against catastrophic floods and intense storms

  • Using river sediment to repair the coast

    The water of the Mississippi River swells beyond levees and flood-control barriers, flooding large areas, destroying costly infrastructure assets, and inflicting economic harms; not all is bad, though: large floods like the current one carry huge quantities of sediment that eventually deposit on the riverbed, making the river shallower, or are carried out to the Gulf of Mexico; the vast amount of water going south will replenish Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, and the sediment carried by the water will restore long stretches of eroding coastline and rebuild barrier islands in the Gulf

  • Following Fukushima: how much radioactivity in the Oceans?

    A result of the loss of electricity at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan on 11 March, overheating led to significant releases of iodine, cesium, and other radioisotopes to the environment; Japanese officials recently raised the severity of the nuclear power plant incident to level 7, the highest level on the international scale and comparable only to the Chernobyl incident twenty-five years ago; the National Science Foundation awards rapid-response grants to establish ocean radionuclide levels from Fukushima

  • Forensic science to foiling fakers of Chinese art

    The field of Chinese art has become one of the hottest sectors of the global art market in recent years, and nowhere more so than in the demand for fine antique porcelain; prices for the finest Imperial porcelain have soared, but so have the ambitions of accomplished fakers, seeking to infiltrate exquisite new fakes into a market eager for top quality material; a joint effort by university researchers and an auction house will see the application of forensic science in the authentication of Chinese artifacts