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Media Platforms Design TeamCan it rain oil? That’s the question badgering environmental bloggers and tweeters who are anxious about in Louisiana near the Gulf Coast. The video is ominous. In it, oil-slicked puddles pour through a street grate and pool in gutters in a Louisiana town during a rainstorm. But does it imply that it is actually raining oil in the gulf?a YouTube video that seems to show the aftermath of an oil rainstormIn all likelihood, no....

As pancake batter is stirred clockwise, the mixture begins to swirl counter-clockwise. This conundrum has confounded researchers.A team from Harvard recently found that as granular media increases in density, it begins to swirl in the opposite direction from how it’s being rotated.The researchers published their results in the scientific journal Physical Review E earlier this summer.Whipping up the perfect fluffy pancakes means you first need a great batter. There are a few key ingredients—flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, butter and blueberries—plus some rigorous mixing action....

In the United States, buildings account for 39 percent of our total energy use, 12 percent of total water consumption, 68 percent of total electricity consumption and a whopping 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.With nearly 170,000 commercial buildings constructed each year, both corporations and interests groups are seizing the chance to lower those huge numbers by employing the “C” word—that most unpopular solution to the world’s energy, global warming and oil crises: conservation....

Gutters serve a vital purpose by preventing water damage around your home. While they’re mostly out of sight, they shouldn’t be out of mind, as gutters can easily become clogged or damaged, which can lead to big problems. Here are three ways to repair and maintain your gutters so they remain effective at guiding water away from your home.Check for BlockagesLeaves, dirt, and debris can quickly block the path of water that would otherwise drain down your gutter....

It’s funny to hear a pilot and an air traffic control have it out—it’s an window into a world we don’t get to see, happening behind the scenes while we sit back in coach. It’s even funnier when the two fighting parties have great accents. This tiff happened this past weekend, when an Aer Lingus flight (called “Shamrock 104 Heavy” in the clip) bound for Dublin took off from New York’s JFK airport....

A team of scientists trapped in Antarctica for more than a week is on its way home aboard an Australian icebreaker after a series of failed rescue attempts culminated in a helicopter airlift off the stranded vessel. (The Russian ship they were aboard was freed by better weather this morning.)The researchers, led by professors from the University of New South Wales, were on the way home from a voyage to retrace the 1911 to 1914 route of Australian geologist Sir Douglas Mawson, in an expedition that combined adventure with science and public outreach, when they got stuck....

When Roman emperor Caesar Augustus erected the Milliarium Aureum (or Golden Milestone) in the heart of Ancient Rome, all roads were designed to begin at the monument, and all distance across the Roman Empire measured through it. Today, a pair of designers have actually created an interactive map that shows every road that leads to Rome, with the help of data, Google maps, and code. The map shows an intricate network laid atop Europe, with thick branches (the most frequently used routes) and tiny spidery branches in a total of almost 500,000 routes....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt was a long time since anyone in my family had built a boat. The last was my Uncle Paul. He was a shipbuilder who learned his trade beginning at age 14 in Hamburg, Germany. Every morning, the boy rowed from the family’s dock out across the shipping lanes of the Elbe River, which flows into the North Sea. The trip to the shipyard where he was apprenticed took an hour and a half, longer in winter, when there was fog and floating ice on the water....

Media Platforms Design Team1.) Gather the Gear My bird feeders lure Carolina wrens and tufted titmouses—titmice?—but I can’t stand to see rodents raid the seeds. So I devised a fortified feeder. Hang a modified 2-liter soda bottle between two trees spaced 16 to 25 feet apart, using 16-gauge galvanized-steel wire, two 2-inch No. 6 screw eyes and one ¼ x 2–inch eyebolt with nuts. Ten 1-foot lengths of ½-inch PVC spin on the wire, stopping squirrels as birds perch on pieces of a 20-ounce bottle....

The Threat: Winter storms can paralyze whole regions of the countryWhere: Everywhere but the southern U.S.When: December to AprilSevere winter storms can snow people in for days at a time, while heavy ice and snow routinely bring down tree limbs and power lines. Homeowners in cold-weather states are used to breaking out the shovels (and even the roof rakes) for the hard task of snow removal. But a clear driveway isn’t an excuse for a drive—70 percent of winter storm fatalities occur in automobiles—so sit tight at home and stay warm....

The name “cold fusion” is so toxic the researchers who work on it nowadays don’t even call it that. After years of being rejected by the scientific mainstream over false claims and outsized hype, they’ve taking to calling their field low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR). But whatever you call this field, something strange has been happening in the last few years, with reputable companies like Toyota and Nissan openly sponsoring LENR research and other big players have taken an interest (even if they’ve preferred to avoid the toxic label)....

As the bitter cold of winter hits several states, think twice before you warm up your car. Not only can it be bad for the vehicle, but a majority of states have what are known as anti-idling laws. These laws are meant to blunt the negative effects cars have on the environment and protect against vehicle theft. They apply to numerous situations, like groups of people refusing to exit a car in an area marked for unloading....

You remember those glorious childhood days spent climbing through caves, inspecting rocks, pretending you were Indiana Jones unlocking some great archaeological secret. For one lucky four-year-old-boy, the daydream ended with the coolest possible reality. Last fall, zookeeper Tim Brys was on a fossil hunt with his son, Wiley, in Mansfield, Texas. The area had been covered in water millions of years ago. In 2014, it was dug up to make way for a new shopping center, so it seemed like the perfect place to look for prehistoric items....

An international team of scientists has created the world’s first global coral reef atlas. The atlas, created with the help of Earth-orbiting satellites and field observations, contains 25,097 square miles (65,000 square kilometers) of coral reefs and their surrounding habitats. Considering there are an estimated 110,000 square miles (284,300 square kilometers) of coral reef across the planet, the new atlas covers around 23 percent of that total.Coral reefs are among the world’s most threatened habitats....

Media Platforms Design TeamAccording to a new study published in Science, global plant growth has decreased in the past decade, reversing trends observed over the past 20 years. The authors of the study, Maosheng Zhao and Steven Running, found a significant reduction in the global terrestrial net primary production (NPP), a measure of global plant growth that is calculated by a measure of estimated photosynthesis activity. Ultimately, the study reveals that plant productivity is decreasing, which means plants are taking less carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as biomass, and there is, therefore, more CO in the air to reinforce current warming trends....

Footage of two Steller sea lions commandeering a small boat in Olympia, Washington has gone viral.Although the vessel appears to be on the verge of sinking, it stays above water while the creatures are on it. The ship eventually sinks, though it remains unclear when this happened. It’s now at the bottom of the Eld Inlet.The video made us curious about how many sea lions it would take to capsize a boat....

A new video posted to YouTube could be the first ever to show a low-flying missile from the perspective of the missile itself. The video shows a Roketsan Atmaca, Turkey’s first locally produced anti-ship missile, as it skims over the wavetops to hit a simulated ship-sized target. View full post on Youtube For decades, navies have armed themselves with so-called “sea skimmer” anti-ship missiles. Thanks to the curvature of the Earth, the lower an object flies the longer it can stay off enemy radar systems....

Access to the internet has become a utility required for the basics of life, right up there with housing and clean water. Many organizations have taken to expanding high-speed internet access across the United States with the fervor of human rights, while corporate giants navigate technical challenges. Microsoft, for one, has an ambitious plan to increase internet access through television bandwith. Vice’s Motherboard reported on a more locally-minded effort in Detroit, Michigan: the Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) where the disenfranchised are building their own internet....

The Harlem Globetrotters have met their technological match. The trick-shot-loving basketball team just partnered with students from Georgia Tech to create their own Rube Goldberg-style trick-shot machine, complete with a musical soundtrack to match.The Globetrotters flipped the script on their usual trick-shot videos and brought in student engineers who could use their industrial design skill set to magic the magic happen. “This was an opportunity to really understand iterative design, to fail fast and fail forward,” says Kevin Shankwiler, senior lecturer in the School of Industrial Design, “to not give up on ideas, but to get through to the end....

A year ago, astronomers spotted something no one had ever seen before: an object visiting our solar system from somewhere else in the galaxy. The object, dubbed ‘Oumuamua, is long since gone, heading rapidly out of our solar system just as quickly as it came. But now that we know interstellar asteroids exist, scientists have been on the hunt for more. And according to a new study by Harvard researchers, there may be plenty to find....