Category Archives: Engineering

Like a Bridge Under Troubled Waters

A partially disassembled tunnel boring machine (TBM)
A partially disassembled tunnel boring machine (TBM). Photo by Mike.

Between the years of 1825 and 1843 , through floods and financial failures, Marc Isambard Brunel and his son dug a tunnel under London’s Thames River. Our ambitions have grown since then, but the technology we use still bears a striking resemblance to Brunel’s shipworm-inspired device.

In this article, I look at some of the worlds most breathtaking underwater tunnels and delve into how they were constructed.

How do you build an underwater tunnel?

Cloudy With a Chance of Hacking: Remote File Access

In the internet’s early days, bottom-of-the-barrel bauds would choke on anything bigger than a  byte-sized file. Today, bandwidth has opened wide enough to gulp down gigabyte-sized games and stream movies, enabling companies to provide  access to your media and work files anywhere and any time you want it. If you are curious about virtual private networks, remote file access and cloud services, here is a nice friendly article that breaks it all down for you and includes a brief tour of the more popular options available.

How Remote File Access Works

Going the Extra Mile (on the Same Tank of Gas)

Photo of a gas price sign.
Photo by Ildar Sagdejev

Call it ecodriving, hypermiling or plain old frugality, people today are trying every trick they can think of to wring a few extra miles from a drop of gas. Unfortunately, most fuel-saving tips range from the dubious to the downright dimwitted. Even the ones that work — such as making only right turns — veer into the ridiculous. In this Top 5 list, I’ve separated the classics from the clunkers and saved you the trouble of doing your own Mythbusters episode. Read on to discover….

Everyday Driving Tips to Save Fuel

Hobbled Horses Under the Hood – and How to Get Them Running Again

Well, there’s your problem. Photo by Leo-setä.

Does it feel like lately your car has exchanged horsepower for hamster power? If so, you might have a power problem, but good luck nailing it down; the same intricate fuel systems that mostly conquered vapor lock also introduced a slew of failure points, and pinpointing which one is responsible can try the patience of a shade-tree saint.

 Thankfully, there are some clear signs to look for, so get the banana out of your tailpipe and read…

5 Signs Your Engine Is Losing Power

How It’s Made: Crystal Edition

Photo by Alexander Van Driessche (note human for scale)

In physics, the term “crystal” designates a solid substance with internal symmetry and a related, regular surface pattern. But such a dry description cannot capture the intricacy and variety of materials found in snowflakes and crown jewels, or that power stereos and ultrasound machines, or that flavor our food. Nor can it convey the delicate dance of temperature, pressure and time that crystal growth requires.

Historically, growing crystals was as much art as science. Today, it requires precise technologies and technologies to control growth, often on a molecular scale.

How are crystals made?