How Delivery Drones Could Save Lives in Africa

How Delivery Drones Could Save Lives in Africa

What the first thing you think of when you hear the word "drone?" It might be killing machines . Or reconnaissance quadcopters . Or maybe a honey bee. But for a countless number of people in Africa, it could be a flying packmule with life-saving cargo.

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The Story Behind Syracuse's Upside-Down Traffic Light

The Story Behind Syracuse's Upside-Down Traffic Light

Unlike nearly every other traffic light in the U.S., the traffic light up on Tipperary Hill in Syracuse, New York displays green above red. Why this bizarre reversal? Well, St. Patrick’s Day is an appropriate time to tell this story.

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Why Cities Need to Stop Commissioning Calatrava's Fish Skeletons

Why Cities Need to Stop Commissioning Calatrava's Fish Skeletons

I remember the first time I saw a Santiago Calatrava bridge, a spinal column of calcium-white ribs snaking across a Spanish ravine. "That’s cool," I thought. Then, a few years and a few thousand miles away, I saw another one. And another one. And another one.

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How the Persian Gulf Is Quietly Building a Railroad Empire

How the Persian Gulf Is Quietly Building a Railroad Empire

Here in the U.S., the arrival of a new tunnel boring machine is huge news, warranting naming ceremonies and Twitter accounts. Meanwhile, in Doha, officials have quietly signed a contract to buy fifteen boring machines to build a sprawling new subway system. And that’s nothing compared to the massive transit network being built to connect the rest of the Gulf states.

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California Salmon Will Get a Free Ride to the Ocean—In Tanker Trucks

California Salmon Will Get a Free Ride to the Ocean—In Tanker Trucks

If the salmon won’t come to the ocean, then the ocean will come to the salmon. Well, not quite: Tanker trucks will take them there. Such are the extreme measures in California this spring, as drought forces major salmon hatcheries to funnel their fish into tanker trucks and ride them straight to the Pacific.

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Watch This Harrowing Drone Footage of the Building Collapse in Harlem

Watch This Harrowing Drone Footage of the Building Collapse in Harlem

On Wednesday, a sudden gas explosion leveled two buildings in Harlem, killing at least seven people. Hordes of reporters arrived within minutes to cover the story, as did a random guy with a quadcopter. And, with apologies for the autoplay, this is the footage he captured in the immediate aftermath of the collapse:

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Amazing Satellite Image Cutouts Turn Infrastructure Into Intricate Art

Amazing Satellite Image Cutouts Turn Infrastructure Into Intricate Art

Human civilization has littered the natural terrain with sprawling megastructures too big to be entirely seen from the ground. But when seen from above, isolated from their surroundings—as in the work of Jenny O’Dell—these vast tangles of organized chaos will wreak even more havoc on your sense of scale.

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Listening to the Secret Sounds of the Large Hadron Collider

Listening to the Secret Sounds of the Large Hadron Collider

From the Golden Gate Bridge to an ancient Japanese bell, the physical structures around us are humming with secret sound. Artist Bill Fontana has made a career of capturing these haunting and complex soundscapes. As an artist at residence at CERN, he’s mostly recently been listening in on the world’s largest particle collider.

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This Is The Room Where The Internet Was Born

This Is The Room Where The Internet Was Born

For something as ubiquitous as the internet today, it certainly isn’t easy to find where it all started. I don’t mean historically, I mean logistically: 3420 Boelter Hall is a tiny room in a basement hallway of a large nondescript building on the sprawling UCLA campus.

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Explore More Than 3,000 Miles of Tunnels Beneath Montreal

Explore More Than 3,000 Miles of Tunnels Beneath Montreal

Andrew Emond, a Montreal-based photographer, amateur geographer, and DIY gonzo spelunker of the city’s sewers and lost rivers, has just re-launched his excellent website, Under Montreal. The revamped site now comes complete with a fascinating, interactive map of the city’s subterranean streams, documenting Montreal’s invisible rivers for all to see.

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