Engineering

Is 1 mile out of 5 on U.S. interstates really supposed to be straight so that planes can land on them in an emergency? Find out the truth about this long-held urban legend.

By Cherise Threewitt

This dragon is illuminated every night, spitting out both fire and water on weekends and holidays, as it sways its way over the Han River in Da Nang.

By Jesslyn Shields

Crumpling is a physical process that occurs when a thin sheet is forced to adapt to a smaller space and is seen in everything from DNA packing in a cell nucleus to the formation of mountains.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Environmental engineering existed long before it had a name. It began at the dawn of civilization when we started changing our surroundings to meet our needs.

By Bernadette Johnson

Some architects and engineers go big. Others get fancy. And yet others aim squarely for the completely bizarre. These imagination-bending, gravity-defying products may induce more than a few OMGs.

By William Harris

It's a recipe for disaster: Venice is sinking, and the waters around it are rising. Can the controversial MOSE project save Italy's famous city with a series of aqua gates?

By Nathan Chandler

Until 2022, the longest suspension bridge in the world was in Japan. Now, the 1915 Canakkale Bridge in Türkiye has taken the title

By Austin Henderson

Underwater tunnels are so commonplace that we rarely think of the great dangers -- and extreme construction techniques -- these modern wonders require. With the opening of the Marmaray Tunnel in October 2013, it's time to take a second look.

By Nicholas Gerbis

These African American men and women were trailblazers, and in some cases, business leaders in the field of engineering.

By Kate Kershner

Underground mining has come a long way from the days of men with pickaxes and canaries. It relies much more heavily on machinery that makes it much safer than in the past. Which techniques are used in mining today?

By Julia Layton

If we're ever going to live in a world in which machines behave like people, we humans have some teaching to do. But as this writing robot attests, we're not as far away as you might think.

By William Harris

It took 22 government agencies and more than 180 firms to turn Eero Saarinen's groundbreaking airport terminal into a spectacular hotel.

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

The dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is the largest masonry dome ever built and still defines the city of Florence over 500 years later.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

The St. Louis Arch was so spectacularly designed that, when construction kicked off in 1961, many predicted an epic failure.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

Man has been building islands all over the world for centuries using extraordinary feats of engineering. But at what cost to the environment?

By Mark Mancini

AI already can outperform humans in some narrow domains, but in the future AI may go inside the human brain to enhance intellectual capabilities, turning users into human-machine hybrids.

By Patrick J. Kiger

A hospital stay can be a stressful experience for anybody, and especially for a child. But a smiling new robot named Robin plays games, tells stories and comforts children in need of a friend.

By Jesslyn Shields

If you think asphalt is what hot tar roads are made of, you'd be wrong. Asphalt is only one ingredient in the recipe that makes up our roads. And it has a very long, very interesting history.

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

It's easy to confuse the Parthenon and the Pantheon. The names are so similar, and they're both ancient ruins. But despite those similarities, the two structures are very different.

By Carrie Dennis

Despite what the nursery rhyme says, London Bridge is not falling down — and never really has. But the bridge that spans the Thames has been rebuilt again and again for two millennia.

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

You think stainless steel is a strong metal. So would it surprise you to learn it can't hold an edge when it comes to your hair?

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

The designer of New York's Central Park believed that public parks were 'democratic spaces' belonging to all citizens, and aren't we glad he did?

By Wendy Bowman

Set over Bear Run, a tributary of the Youghiogheny River in the mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania, Fallingwater is perhaps the architect's best-known work.

By Tara Yarlagadda

Windmills and wind turbines work on the same core principle to convert wind into energy, but one creates mechanical energy while the other creates electricity. Here's how they work.

By Trevor English

First developed in the 1920s, Geiger counters still use the same basic technology to detect radiation, but today can be the size of a smartphone.

By Patrick J. Kiger