Civil Engineering News

November 20, 2025

Top Headlines

Nearly 47 Million Americans Live Near Hidden Fossil Fuel Sites

Nov. 20, 2025 A nationwide analysis has uncovered how sprawling fossil fuel infrastructure sits surprisingly close to millions of American homes. The research shows that 46.6 million people live within about a mile of wells, refineries, pipelines, storage sites, ...

Hypersonic Breakthrough Could Enable Planes That Fly 10 Times the Speed of Sound

Nov. 14, 2025 Hypersonic flight could one day make long-haul travel as quick as a short movie. Researchers are testing how turbulence behaves at extreme speeds, a critical hurdle for designing these aircraft. ...

Entangled Spins Give Diamonds a Quantum Advantage

Nov. 11, 2025 UC Santa Barbara physicists have engineered entangled spin systems in diamond that surpass classical sensing limits through quantum squeezing. Their breakthrough enables next-generation quantum sensors that are powerful, compact, and ready for ...

This Tiny Laser Could Transform How We See and Sense the World

Oct. 19, 2025 Researchers from NTNU and EPFL have unveiled a compact, low-cost laser that outperforms current models in speed, control, and precision. Built using microchip technology, it can be mass-produced for use in everything from Lidar navigation to gas ...

Scientists 3D-print Materials That Stop Vibrations Cold

Oct. 18, 2025 A collaboration between the University of Michigan and AFRL has resulted in 3D-printed metamaterials that can block vibrations using complex geometries. Inspired by nature and theoretical physics, these “kagome tubes” demonstrate how geometry ...

Scientists Accidentally Create a Tiny “Rainbow Chip” That Could Supercharge the Internet

Oct. 7, 2025 Researchers at Columbia have created a chip that turns a single laser into a “frequency comb,” producing dozens of powerful light channels at once. Using a special locking mechanism to clean ...

Lighting the Way for Electric Vehicles by Using Streetlamps as Chargers

Oct. 5, 2025 A Penn State research team found that streetlights could double as affordable EV charging stations. After installing 23 units in Kansas City, they discovered these chargers were faster, cheaper, and more eco-friendly than traditional stations. Their ...

This Ultra-thin Solar Tech Could Power Everything from Phones to Skyscrapers

Oct. 2, 2025 A team in Sweden has unraveled the hidden structure of a promising solar material using machine learning and advanced simulations. Their findings could unlock durable, ultra-efficient solar cells for ...

Sneezing from Cats or Dust? Safe UV Light May Neutralize Allergens in Minutes

Sep. 22, 2025 Sneezing from cats, dust mites, or mold may one day be preventable with a flip of a switch. Researchers at CU Boulder found that UV222 light can alter allergen proteins, reducing allergic reactions ...

Scientists Unlock Nature’s Secret to Superfast Mini Robots

Aug. 24, 2025 Ripple bugs’ fan-like legs inspired engineers to build the Rhagobot, a tiny robot with self-morphing fans. By mimicking these insects’ passive, ultra-fast movements, the robot gains speed, control, and endurance without extra ...

Scientists Discover Salt That Makes Batteries Last 10x Longer

July 27, 2025 A team at KAUST has revealed that the short lifespan of aqueous batteries is primarily due to "free water" molecules triggering harmful chemical reactions at the anode. By adding affordable sulfate salts like zinc sulfate, they significantly reduced ...

Concrete That Lasts Centuries and Captures Carbon? AI Just Made It Possible

July 23, 2025 Imagine concrete that not only survives wildfires and extreme weather, but heals itself and absorbs carbon from the air. Scientists at USC have created an AI model called Allegro-FM that simulates billions of atoms at once, helping design futuristic ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:55pm EST

Breakthrough Shows Light Can Move Atoms in 2D Semiconductors

Nov. 14, 2025 Laser light can physically distort Janus TMD materials, revealing how their asymmetrical structure amplifies light-driven forces. These effects could power breakthroughs in photonic chips, sensors, ...

Scientists Just Found a Way to Grow Diamonds Without Heat or Pressure

Oct. 29, 2025 A University of Tokyo team has turned organic molecules into nanodiamonds using electron beams, overturning decades of assumptions about beam damage. Their discovery could transform materials science ...

What Came Before the Big Bang? Supercomputers May Hold the Answer

Aug. 22, 2025 Scientists are rethinking the universe’s deepest mysteries using numerical relativity, complex computer simulations of Einstein’s equations in extreme conditions. This method could help explore ...

Room-Temperature Quantum Breakthrough Freezes Motion Without Cooling

Aug. 18, 2025 ETH Zurich scientists have levitated a tower of three nano glass spheres using optical tweezers, suppressing almost all classical motion to observe quantum zero-point fluctuations with unprecedented ...

Einstein Was Wrong: MIT Just Settled a 100-Year Quantum Debate

Aug. 2, 2025 Physicists at MIT recreated the double-slit experiment using individual photons and atoms held in laser light, uncovering the true limits of light’s wave–particle duality. Their results proved ...

Ghost Particles May Secretly Decide the Fate of Collapsing Stars

July 28, 2025 Neutrinos, ghostly particles barely interacting with matter, may secretly be reshaping the fates of massive stars. New research suggests that as stars collapse, they form natural "neutrino ...

Goodbye Plastic? Scientists Create New Supermaterial That Outperforms Metals and Glass

July 22, 2025 Scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston have created a powerful new material by guiding bacteria to grow cellulose in aligned ...

Scientists Twist DNA Into Self-Building Nanostructures That Could Transform Technology

July 20, 2025 Scientists have used DNA's self-assembling properties to engineer intricate moiré superlattices at the nanometer scale—structures that twist and ...

A Simple Twist Unlocks Never-Before-Seen Quantum Behavior

July 11, 2025 Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new method for creating quantum states by twisting materials at the M-point, revealing exotic phenomena previously out of reach. This new direction ...

Forget 3D printing—DNA and Water Now Build Tiny Machines That Assemble Themselves

July 10, 2025 Imagine if you could "print" a tiny skyscraper using DNA instead of steel. That’s what researchers at Columbia and Brookhaven are ...

You Hear the Beep, but Can’t Find the Car: The Hidden Flaw in Electric Vehicle Safety

June 18, 2025 As electric vehicles grow more popular, their warning sounds may not be doing enough to protect pedestrians. A Swedish study shows that these signals are hard to locate, especially when multiple ...

This Quantum Sensor Tracks 3D Movement Without GPS

June 14, 2025 Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have created a groundbreaking quantum device that can measure 3D acceleration using ultracold atoms, something once thought nearly impossible. By ...

Photons Collide in the Void: Quantum Simulation Creates Light out of Nothing

June 8, 2025 Physicists have managed to simulate a strange quantum phenomenon where light appears to arise from empty space a concept that until now has only existed in theory. Using cutting-edge simulations, ...

Collaboration Can Unlock Australia's Energy Transition Without Sacrificing Natural Capital

June 3, 2025 Australia can reach net-zero emissions and still protect its natural treasures but only if everyone works together. New research from Princeton and The University of Queensland shows that the country ...

New Laser Smaller Than a Penny Can Measure Objects at Ultrafast Rates

June 2, 2025 Researchers have engineered a laser device smaller than a penny that they say could power everything from the LiDAR systems used in self-driving vehicles to gravitational wave detection, one of the ...

Predicting Underwater Landslides Before They Strike

May 30, 2025 A new method for predicting underwater landslides may improve the resilience of offshore ...

Waste to Foundation: Transforming Construction Waste Into High-Performance Material

May 29, 2025 In a major advancement for sustainable construction, scientists have created a cement-free soil solidifier from industrial waste. By combining Siding Cut Powder and activated by Earth Silica, an ...

Electronic Tattoo Gauges Mental Strain

May 29, 2025 Researchers gave participants face tattoos that can track when their brain is working too hard. The study introduces a non-permanent wireless forehead e-tattoo that decodes brainwaves to measure ...

Does Outdoor Air Pollution Affect Indoor Air Quality? It Could Depend on Buildings' HVAC

May 29, 2025 Researchers determined how much outdoor particulate pollution affects indoor air quality. Their study concluded pollution from inversion and dust events is kept out of buildings, but wildfire smoke ...

Mid-Air Transformation Helps Flying, Rolling Robot to Transition Smoothly

May 28, 2025 Engineers have developed a real-life Transformer that has the 'brains' to morph in midair, allowing the drone-like robot to smoothly roll away and begin its ground operations without pause. ...

Cryogenic Hydrogen Storage and Delivery System for Next-Generation Aircraft

May 27, 2025 Researchers have designed a liquid hydrogen storage and delivery system that could help make zero-emission aviation a reality. Their work outlines a scalable, integrated system that addresses several ...

New Fuel Cell Could Enable Electric Aviation

May 27, 2025 Engineers developed a fuel cell that offers more than three times as much energy per pound compared to lithium-ion batteries. Powered by a reaction between sodium metal and air, the device could be ...

A Dental Floss That Can Measure Stress

May 23, 2025 Scientists create a floss pick that samples cortisol within saliva as a marker of stress and quantifies it with a built-in electrode. The system uses a polymer casting technology that can be adapted ...

How Property Owners Can Work to Prevent Flooding

May 22, 2025 The risk of heavy rainfall and severe flooding increases with climate change. But property owners -- regardless of size -- often underestimate their own responsibility and are unaware of what ...

Nano-Engineered Thermoelectrics Enable Scalable, Compressor-Free Cooling

May 21, 2025 Researchers have unveiled a breakthrough in solid-state cooling technology, doubling the efficiency of today's commercial systems. Driven by the Lab's patented nano-engineered thin-film ...

Investment Risk for Energy Infrastructure Construction Is Highest for Nuclear Power Plants, Lowest for Solar

May 19, 2025 The average energy project costs 40% more than expected for construction and takes almost two years longer than planned, finds a new global study. One key insight: The investment risk is highest for ...

Using Sound to 'See' Unexploded Munitions on the Seafloor

May 19, 2025 More than 400 underwater sites in the United States are potentially contaminated with unexploded ordnance -- weapons that did not explode upon ...

Empowering Robots With Human-Like Perception to Navigate Unwieldy Terrain

May 19, 2025 Researchers have developed a novel framework named WildFusion that fuses vision, vibration and touch to enable robots to 'sense' and navigate complex outdoor environments much like humans ...

Tiny Microlaser Sensors Offer Supercharged Biosensing

May 19, 2025 Researchers have developed a 3D micro-printed sensor for highly sensitive on-chip biosensing, opening new opportunities for developing high-performance, cost-effective lab-on-a-chip devices for early ...

Chemists Develop Compact Catenane With Tuneable Mechanical Chirality

May 19, 2025 A team of chemists has made significant strides in the field of mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs). Their work showcases the development of a compact catenane with tuneable mechanical ...