The world’s largest railway tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, was blessed on June in a ceremony attended by an inter-faith group of religious leaders. A Catholic priest, a pastor, a rabbi and an imam were present at the ceremony. The completion of[…..]

In nature, wood, shells, and other structural materials are lightweight, strong, and tough. Significantly, these materials are made at the ambient temperature in the local environment — not at the high temperatures at which human-made structural materials are generally processed. Similar materials are difficult[…..]

What does one need to strengthen or toughen concrete? A lot of nothing. Or something.  The “nothing” is in the form of microscopic voids and the “something” consists of particular particles embedded in the most common construction material on Earth. Rice University materials scientist[…..]

When an important bridge collapsed on Interstate 5 near Mount Vernon, Washington, in 2013, questions were raised about how such a catastrophic failure could occur. A new analysis by a team of civil engineering faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign outlines the[…..]

In March 1995, members of a Japanese cult released the deadly nerve agent sarin into the Tokyo subway system, killing a dozen people and injuring a thousand more. This leads to the question: What if a U.S. transportation hub was contaminated with a chemical[…..]