Sandcastle Engineering: A Geotechnical Engineer Explains How Water, Air and Sand Create Solid Structures

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August 23, 2022

Dear Reader, Before summer draws to a close, you still have time to build a sandcastle. In this week's lead story, a geotechnical engineer explains how to craft sturdy structures from ever-shifting grains.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Engineering Sandcastle Engineering: A Geotechnical Engineer Explains How Water, Air and Sand Create Solid Structures Building the ultimate sandcastle By Joseph Scalia,The Conversation US

Pollution Cheap New Method Breaks Down 'Forever Chemicals' A new technique destroys persistent PFAS without requiring high pressures and temperatures By Giorgia Guglielmi,Nature magazine

Ecology De-extinction Company Aims to Resurrect the Tasmanian Tiger The scientists who want to bring back mammoths now hope to revive the marsupial carnivore thylacine By Kate Evans

Space Exploration NASA's Giant SLS Rocket Rolls to Launchpad for Artemis 1 Moon Mission The Space Launch System rocket could lift off on its voyage to lunar orbit as early as late August By Elizabeth Howell,SPACE.com

Conservation AI Diagnoses Devastating Olive Tree Infection Predicting severity can help address deadly effects to olive groves By Maddie Bender

Public Health Nuclear War Could Spark Global Famine Smoke from burning cities would engulf Earth after a nuclear war, causing worldwide crop failures and starvation, models show By Alexandra Witze,Nature magazine

Culture Octavia E. Butler's Legacy of Time Travel Why evolutionary biology and social justice belong together, the Silicon Valley fatalism that's ruining our planet, and more By Amy Brady

Materials Science Poem: 'Aerogel: A Quintain' Science in meter and verse By Christopher Norris

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Each new multigrasping bionic hand tends to be more sophisticated but also more expensive than the last and less likely to be covered (even in part) by insurance. And as recent research concludes, much simpler and far less expensive prosthetic devices can perform many tasks equally well, and the fancy bionic hands, despite all of their electronic options, are rarely used for grasping." Britt H. Young, IEEE Spectrum

FROM THE ARCHIVE 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: September 2022 Booster shots for smallpox, molten moonglow By Mark Fischetti | September 2022

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