Free Republic

Almost no matter what you build in Western Pennsylvania, you have to consider the possibility that in previous generations the site had been mined for coal. That’s especially true for the next leg of the Southern Expressway, a 13-mile, $700 million section being built along part of the Pittsburgh coal seam between Route 22 and Interstate 79 in western Allegheny and northern Washington counties. In the area around McDonald alone, where the highway will pass over Route 980 just outside the borough, at least 10 mines operated within two square miles between the mid-1860s and mid-1930s. Particularly in Western Pennsylvania,...

3D printing is proving to be a potential game changer for a wide variety of fields. One group in particular that could benefit is the medical community, thanks to a recent development by scientists that could make it easier to print organs from living tissue. How? By printing structures inside of special gel that provides support during the build process. New Scientist reports that researchers from the University of Florida in Gainesville came to the breakthrough method while searching for a way to enable the printing of items that cannot support their own weight. The technique prints objects inside a...

The darkness at ground zero just got a little darker. If there are people still clinging to the expectation that the Freedom Tower will become a monument to the highest American ideals, the current design should finally shake them out of that delusion. Somber, oppressive and clumsily conceived, the project suggests a monument to a society that has turned its back on any notion of cultural openness. It is exactly the kind of nightmare that government officials repeatedly asserted would never happen here: an impregnable tower braced against the outside world. The new design by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings...

If you love cities, this is a week to rejoice. Now that the stadium planned for New York's West Side is dead, no one can fantasize anymore about the Olympics coming to New York. If the city had gotten the 2012 Games, its leaders would have basked for seven years in Olympic photo opportunities, and mayors across America would have watched enviously. They would have succumbed further to what I think of as the Circus Maximus syndrome. The victims of this urban-planning syndrome believe, like some Roman emperors, that a leader's prime civic responsibility is to build entertainment palaces for...

Atlantis Hunt Reveals Structures in Sea Off Cyprus Sat Nov 13, 2004 06:33 AM ET NICOSIA (Reuters) - An American researcher on the trail of the lost city of Atlantis has discovered evidence of man-made structures submerged in the sea between Cyprus and Syria, a member of his team said Saturday. Robert Sarmast, who is convinced the fabled city lurks in the watery depths off Cyprus, will give details of his findings Sunday."Something has been found to indicate very strongly that there are man-made structures somewhere between Cyprus and Syria," a spokesperson for the mission told Reuters. The mystery of...

Porous structures, such as brick and concrete, are notoriously hard to clean when contaminated with certain types of radioactive materials. Researchers in Argonne 's Chemical Engineering Division are developing a new technique that can effectively decontaminate these structures in the event of exposure to radioactive elements. Researchers are using engineered nanoparticles and a super-absorbent gel to design a clean-up system for buildings and monuments exposed to radioactive materials. Having this system available will allow the nation to be more prepared in case of a terrorist attack with a "dirty bomb" or other radioactive dispersal device. "If a radioactive device were...

German Firm Hired to Save Easter Island Sculptures Tue Nov 4,12:24 PM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - UNESCO has awarded a German firm contract to preserve the world-famous but decaying Moai head sculptures on Easter Island, which are suffering the effects of the weather, tourism and past restoration attempts. Stefan Maar, founder of Berlin-based Maar Denkmalpflege GmbH said Tuesday his company planned to begin treating the statues with chemicals in early 2005 in a project estimated to cost about 10 million euros ($11.5 million). "Something has to be done," Maar told Reuters. "But with over 1,000 figures, it is a really...

NASA nanometer breakthrough uses hot pond protein You couldn't make it up By Paul Hales: Wednesday 27 November 2002, 11:35 NASA SCIENTISTS say they have invented a breakthrough biological method to make ultra-small structures that could be used to produce electronics 10 to 100 times smaller than today’s components. The scientists apparently use modified proteins from 'extremophile' microbes to grow mesh-like structures so small that an electron microscope is needed to see them. These naturally-occurring microbes live in near-boiling, acidic hot springs, according to an article in on-line version of the journal Nature Materials. One of the scientists, Andrew McMillan,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 3 Interstellar Dust Bunnies of NGC 891 Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight, CFHT Explanation: What is going on in NGC 891? This galaxy appeared previously to be very similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy: a spiral galaxy seen nearly edge-on. However, recent high-resolution images of NGC 891's dust show unusual filamentary patterns extending well away from its Galactic disk. This interstellar dust...

Mystery shrouds undersea structures Years of study haven’t solved a puzzle found off Cuba’s coast Russian offshore engineer Paulina Zelitsky speaks on a radiophone aboard her ship docked at Havana. Zelitsky is trying to determine whether megalithic structures beneath the ocean's surface were left behind by a vanished civilization. By Anita Snow ASSOCIATED PRESS HAVANA, May 21 — Floating aboard the Spanish trawler she chartered to explore the Cuban coast for shipwrecks, Paulina Zelitsky pores over yellowed tomes filled with sketches and tales of lost cities — just like the one she believes she has found deep off the coast...