Category Archives: Engineering

Detecting Gravitational Waves from Prescott, Arizona

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three men, but the detection of gravitational waves was the work of a thousand scientists and students — 10 of them from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Embry-Riddle Scientists, Students Contribute to Nobel-Winning Research

Worth Doing Right: How Climate Change Could Throw a Wrench Into Road repairs

Repairing with the wrong materials for shifting climates could be a road to nowhere, like this spot in the Suffolk village of Covehithe. Picture by Timothyansell123.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has given America’s roads a D rating. But a recent study shows that trying to raise that grade without accounting for climate change could put the country’s roadways at risk.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Not Planning For Climate Change Could Cost Billions In Infrastructure Repairs Down The Road

Scientific Glassblowing Fuses Art, Science and Innovation

Christine Roeger of the ASU glass shop wears sodium flare eye protection that filters out the orange flame of her torch.

Go to any major research university, and you’ll find the most advanced science relies on an art older than alchemy: glassblowing.

In this piece, we meet a third-generation scientific glassblower and go behind the scenes with some of her chief clients to see how this ancient art helps make cutting-edge research possible.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
At ASU, Third-Generation Scientific Glassblower Blends Art And Science

Mantle Mystery Yields to Diamond Vise

Cross section of a diamond anvil cell. Illustration by Tobias1984.

Improved imaging of the Earth’s interior has unlocked new subsurface mysteries, including an area 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) down where the mantle’s usual flow pattern changes.

Now, at a lab bench on the planet’s surface, a team of researchers might have found the reason why.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Researchers Use Diamond Vise To Crack Mantle Mystery

We’re Not in Phoenix Anymore: How Radio Signals “Skipped” All the Way to Kansas

Yes, it’s that exciting.

Unlike AM signals, FM is confined to line-of-sight, so Phoenix’s KBAQ radio station doesn’t typically reach much beyond the Valley of the Sun, let alone to a Volkswagen Beetle 875 miles away. So it’s no wonder that Ken Baker of the Radio Kansas Network was surprised to see what resolved on his HD tuner that day.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
How Phoenix-Area Radio Signals Can Bounce All The Way To Kansas