What Structural Engineers Learned from 9/11

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September 10, 2021

Engineering What Structural Engineers Learned from 9/11 Members of the profession study such tragic events to try and ensure that something similar won't happen again By Donald Dusenberry

Medicine The New Science of Autoimmune Disease Millions of people are sickened by immune systems that are supposed to defend them. There are new ideas about why this happens and how to stop it.

Reproduction The Absurd Pregnancy Math behind the Texas 'Six-Week' Abortion Ban The law the Supreme Court just failed to block is not just a blow to women; it's biologically nonsensical By Michelle Rodrigues

History Health Effects of 9/11 Still Plague Responders and Survivors Those who were exposed to Ground Zero have increased rates of certain cancers and other health problems By Tara Haelle

Quantum Physics Talking to My Daughter Can Be Harder Than Learning Quantum Mechanics Ordinary human dilemmas are tougher to solve than the most difficult problems of physics and mathematics By John Horgan

Ecology Wolf Populations Drop as More States Allow Hunting Repercussions of planned and anticipated wolf hunts and traps could ripple through ecosystems for years to come, scientists say By Tess Joosse

Behavior A New Way to Understand--and Possibly Treat--OCD People with the disorder seem to have a more flexible "sense of self" By Baland Jalal

Aerospace Starlink, Internet from Space and the Precarious Future of Broadband in Rural America President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan includes an unprecedented $65 billion for broadband deployment, but money alone will not fix the U.S.'s Internet problem. This short documentary shows why By Jacob Templin

Evolution When Lord Kelvin Nearly Killed Darwin's Theory The eminent 19th-century physicist argued—wrongly, it turned out—that Earth wasn't old enough to have let natural selection play out By Mano Singham

Extraterrestrial Life To Look or Not to Look? That Is the Question The search for technological relics of extraterrestrial civilizations will inspire the public and attract talent to the field of astronomy By Avi Loeb

Natural Disasters Hurricane Ida May Spark Mass Migration Like Katrina before it, the storm may make living conditions untenable in hard-hit areas By Daniel Cusick,E&E News

Creativity To Solve the Environmental Crisis, We Must Foster the Power to Imagine Our educational system is designed to generate productive workers, not creative thinkers and doers By Peter Sutoris

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 30, Issue 4s

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BRING SCIENCE HOME Generate Electricity with a Lemon Battery Did you know you can make a battery out of a piece of fruit? You'll be charged up on science when you feel the success of your homemade electricity!  Credit: George Retseck Can you imagine how your life would change if batteries did not exist? If it were not for this handy way to store electrical energy, we would not be able to have all of our portable electronic devices, such as phones, tablets and laptop computers. So many other items—from remote-control cars to flashlights to hearing aids—would also need to be plugged into a wall outlet in order to function. In 1800 Alessandro Volta invented the first battery, and scientists have been hard at work ever since improving previous designs. With all this work put into batteries and all the frustration you might have had coping with dead ones, it might surprise you that you can easily make one out of household materials. Try this activity and it might just charge your imagination!

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