Photo courtesy of KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
“You make a better door than a window!” I’m sure your parents hollered that at you all throughout your childhood as you were unaware that you were obstructing their view of their favorite TV show. That phrase may surprisingly not make sense to future generations with the recent discovery of a process that can make wood transparent. Seems crazy, I know.
Read morePhoto by PROMalte Sörensen, CC BY 2.0
Harnessing the power of the sun has been on the top of many scientists’ lists for quite some time. It’s just hanging out up there, making everything warm, so it’s a seemingly endless supply of wireless energy. The problem is, we haven’t been able to make them cheap, powerful, or light enough to make them economically feasible. A team of researchers believes they solved one of those problems as they’ve revealed a solar cell so light that it can rest on a soap bubble without popping it.
Read moreRock Print
Concrete, the world’s most widely used construction material, has a giant target on its back and plenty of people want to take a piece of its pie. It’s cheap and strong, which has, so far held off many would-be competitors from getting popular. One of concrete’s major drawbacks and one of its most vulnerable areas is the fact that it’s extremely time consuming and difficult to demolish.
Read moreEven though concrete is the world’s most highly used construction material, scientists have failed to understand very important fundamental aspect of the material, until now.
Read moreNet zero buildings, which are buildings that produce as much energy as they use, are gaining popularity throughout the world. The earth has a lot of energy to share with us, but actually harnessing that energy is a science that’s still developing. When people are willing to invest in energy manufacturing technologies, scientists gain what is otherwise unattainable inside a laboratory, real world examples in real world situations.
Read morePhoto by Katy Warner, CC BY SA 2.0
Compact Fluorescent (CFL) lightbulbs had a good run in our new-ish energy saving world, but one gigantic company is going to stop making them, in favor of LEDs. In a series of breakup letters written to CFLs and love letters to LED bulbs, GE announced that it would stop making CFLs in 2016. CFL bulbs are notorious for taking a while to brighten up a room and their signature ice cream cone swirl shape isn’t great for aesthetics. They’re also filled with mercury, which make them tricky to get rid of.
Read moreSteel has had a foothold on the construction industry for roughly 100 years, because it’s high in strength and aids in the tensile strength of concrete. But is it the best material for reinforcing concrete? Swiss architect Dirk Hebel doesn’t think so.
Read moreGreen building is not just a trend anymore, it is making huge impacts all across the construction industry, whether by government regulation or market shifts. According to the US Green Building Council, the Green Construction Industry will account for 1/3 of all construction projects by the year 2018. That’s certainly something to pay attention to. But it’s not just building practices that are affected by green building trends, products are affected, as well. A startup company in Raleigh, North Carolina has a solution for the high carbon dioxide emissions created by firing bricks in kilns: growing them in a plant with bacteria and water.
Read morePhoto credit: Luke Bisby, The University of Edinburgh
Self-compacting concrete, which does not need to be vibrated to become fully compacted, has many advantages on a job site, such as lower overall costs, faster construction times, no need for a concrete vibrator, and thinner concrete sections. One of the major disadvantages of this type of concrete, however, is that it’s notoriously poor in regards to fire resistance. Traditional concrete solves the fire resistance problem by adding polypropylene (PP) fiber, which allow the concrete structure to stay intact when it comes in contact with fire.
Read moreThe two major issues with asphalt roadways are their lifespan and their vulnerability to weather and temperature. The optimum lifespan of an asphalt road is about 25 years and that is dependent on a large variety of factors. In the Northern United States, this lifespan could substantially less, 15 to 20 years. One of the largest frustrations with our current road systems is the time it takes to build and resurface roadways. Many of the solutions proposed are costly and un-sustainable.
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