Home, passive home
It’s a cliché that less is more, but engineers are making it work when they apply it to houses. Passive Houses. Today, on Engineering Works. Passive buildings, especially passive houses, are built to use as close to no energy as possible for heating and cooling. It’s a nifty idea if you can make it work [...]
The water that was Rome
We’re going to go wading in the water, the stuff the ancient Romans drank. Today, on Engineering Works! When someone mentions ancient Rome, what comes into your mind? Gladiators in the Coliseum, maybe. Engineers are likely to think about water. Roman engineers did amazing things with water. Let’s start with simply getting water to the [...]
Under the Alps
While most of us have been keeping track of what’s happening with new computers or airplanes, Swiss engineers have been hard at work on the biggest construction project in decades. Under the Alps. Today, on Engineering Works! The Gotthard Base Tunnel is actually two tunnels, each more than 30 feet in diameter and more than [...]
Water, water … anywhere?
When we talk about scarce natural resources, we usually think oil. But there’s another one. Water. Today. On Engineering Works! If you live in the United States, as most of us do, water’s not a big deal. Turn on the tap and there it is. Sometimes, like the last couple of years in Texas, watering [...]
Computers in the driver’s seat
Search engine giant Google has been spending lots of money to come up with a car that drives itself. We’ll look at what it means. Today, on Engineering Works! If you’ve been following high-tech news lately, you know that the folks that run Google are spending a ton of money to design software and sensor [...]
Blowin’ in the Italian wind
Sometimes you find leading-edge energy technology in unexpected places. We’ll show you where. Today, on Engineering Works! When someone mentions green energy, stuff like wind turbines and solar panels, one place you’re not likely to think of is Italy. Think again. Small towns in Italy are showing the rest of us what can be done [...]
Hydraulic hybrids
Everybody knows about hybrids. Here’s a hybrid you probably don’t know about. A hydraulic hybrid. Today. On Engineering Works! Hybrid cars are no big deal these days. You see them just about everywhere. Even the technology is getting familiar. A gasoline engine paired with an electric motor and a big battery. The important point is [...]
The reactor down the street
Powering your town with nuclear energy. Small reactors for small towns. Today. On Engineering Works! Usually, when we build nuclear power plants, we build them big. The largest nuclear plants produce more than 1,400 megawatts of electricity, enough power for about 1.5 million households. That could be changing. The Department of Energy is studying smaller [...]
Cahokia
Thousands of years ago, people we’d call engineers today built some impressive structures. We’ll look at one. Cahokia. Today, on Engineering Works! Today, Cahokia is nothing but a collection of big grass-covered mounds alongside the Mississippi River not far from Saint Louis. A thousand years ago, it was the largest city in North America north [...]
Drilling into the deep
Let’s talk about oil and some of what it takes to get it. Drilling deep. Today, on Engineering Works! It takes a lot of information to drill an oil well. And some of it’s pretty hard to come by. Starting is easy. GPS tells you where you are. Once you get underground, it gets complicated [...]