The earthquake in Nepal was so violent it moved mountains. Satellite imagery shows that the parts of the Himalayas sank three feet—and the area around it as much as five feet—as tectonic plates snapped under extreme pressure. But the mountains will regain their height, slowly but surely, thanks to the geologic forces at work. Read more…
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The Himalayas Dropped 3 Feet After the Nepal Earthquake
In winter, ice encroaches on Lake Michigan. In summer, sediment and algal blooms from runoff cloud the waters. But on a perfect day earlier this month, the ice had melted to reveal waters so clear, you could see decades-old shipwrecks lying at the bottom of the lake . Read more…
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Old Shipwrecks Are Reappearing In Lake Michigan’s Unusually Clear Water
Fifteen years ago, Luciano Faggiano of Lecce, Italy sent his sons out digging for a broken sewer line. They didn’t find the pipe, but they did find “a Messapian tomb, a Roman granary, a Franciscan chapel and even etchings from the Knights Templar, ” writes Jim Yardley in a story for the New York Times. Read more…
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Italian Man’s Quest to Fix Toilet Led to Amazing Archaeology Discoveries
A drum full of radioactive waste exploded at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico last February, sparking serious safety concerns about the U.S.’s only longterm nuclear storage site. A yearlong government investigation has officially fingered the long-suspected culprit: kitty litter. Read more…
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It’s Official, Kitty Litter Caused a Drum of Nuclear Waste to Explode
Scientists have a promising if slightly grisly treatment for wounds: skin from human cadavers stripped of everything but its cells. Sound weird? Let me explain. Read more…
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Skin From Human Cadavers Helps Wounds Heal Better
The results of a massive new DNA sequencing project on the New York City subway have just been published . And y up, there’s a lot of bacteria on the subway—though we know most of it is harmless. What’s really important, though, is what we don’t know about it. Read more…
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Half the DNA on the NYC Subway Matches No Known Organism
It’s easy to forget how horrifying the effects of a vitamin deficiency can be. Each year, up to 500, 000 children in the developing world go blind from lack of vitamin A, half of whom will then die within 12 months. The molecule that could save their lives is so well-studied and abundant, yet we haven’t figured out how to get it to them. Read more…
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Could Genetically Engineered Gut Bacteria Make Vitamins Obsolete?
Not all spider silk is created equal. Some spiders spin webs of wet, sticky silk. Others like the Uloborus spider have fluffy webs made of nanoscale filaments. But those fluffy webs are just as good at catching prey, likely thanks to their electrostatic charge. Read more…
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This Spider Catches Prey With a Web of Electrically Charged Silk
There’s gold in them thar sewers —and silver and platinum and copper, too. A study by Arizona State University (ASU) researchers estimates there is $13 million worth of precious elements in the sewage produced by a million-person city every year. Never think of sewage as stinky worthless waste again. Read more…
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There’s Millions of Dollars Worth of Gold and Silver in Sewage
The Cheesegrater is a beautiful glass wedge of a building that rises over 700 feet into the London skyline. It unfortunately has some safety problems. This week, its owners revealed that a third bolt of high-strength steel snapped because of “hydrogen embrittlement”—an obscure term, but one that ” causes fear among engineers .” Read more…
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Damn, Another Arm-Sized Bolt Fell Off London’s Cheesegrater Tower