Urban Decay Arriving on Track 11

Daily Dose

May 15: Black holes: soon to be victims of Creationist wiretapping?

Sloths actually sleep less than college students do on weekends.

May 14: The cars of the near future may not fly, but they might Google you.

Don't want to take responsibility for your sweet cravings? Take a leap and blame your genes.

Science News

The Next Steps Toward a Sustainable Planet

Environmental activist Laurie David gives a state of the union on the environment. 05.16.2008

AIDS "Dissident" Seeks Redemption... and a Cure for Cancer

Biologist Peter Duesberg was all but banished from science for his views on HIV. 05.15.2008

Chimps Agree: A Bird in Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush

Chimpanzees are downright conservative when it comes to trading for better food. 05.14.2008

Movie Camera to the Stars

The Earth's fastest telescope aims to make the best sky map ever created. 05.13.2008

Wildlife Conservation 2.0

A new software-based approach may be the key to saving thousands of species. 05.12.2008

The Wonderful World of E. Coli

Carl Zimmer looks inside the dangers—and wonders—of one remarkable bacterium. 05.09.2008

One Hundred Movies on Just One Disk

Holographic digital storage will let consumers store a DVD library on a single disk. 05.08.2008

Want to Help the Environment? Eat Insects.

A group of experts endorse bugs as a nutritious and sustainable food source. 05.07.2008

Technology / Materials Science

The Incredibly Strong See-Through Bicycle

Want a lighter bike? Poke holes in it—the more the better. 03.06.2008

52. Amazing Battery Made of . . . Paper

01.09.2008

50. Created: A Glass That Bends

01.04.2008

Beetle of Many Colors

A golden beetle can turn itself brick red in under two minutes.12.14.2007

Plain Ol' Paint Goes Hi-Tech

From paintable solar cells to antifreeze paint inspired by fish blood11.19.2007

Erasable Tattoos Work Like Scratch'n'Sniff

When a laser "scratches," dye microcapsules dissolve away.11.16.2007

Solar Power, At Last?

The long-sought mechanism for a superior solar cell may now be at hand.11.16.2007

20 Things You Didn’t Know About... Gold

Anti-inflammatory, protector of astronaut eyes, and excrement of the gods11.15.2007

Teflon-ized Frog Chemical Could Save You from Disease

The nonstick pan coating cooks up a mean antibiotic.09.14.2007

12.01.2001

by Fenella Saunders

Salt Lake City is getting a new light-rail line for the 2002 Winter Olympics. And to do it, they must dig up and move every water main, gas pipe, and sewer conduit running parallel underneath the two-and-a-half-mile track.

Stray current corroded these rail spikes in Chicago.Photograph courtesy of Thomas J. Barlo/CC Technologies

Why? Corrosion. The prob-lem is hardly unique to this rail link, which will connect the main stadium at the University of Utah to downtown. Sometimes stray electrons from the current that powers the train leak into the ground and flow through any pipes or other conductive objects buried there. "One amp going through for one year will corrode about 20 pounds of steel. It can discharge from a small area and penetrate a pipe in a very short time," says Steve Nikolakakos, a corrosion engineer with Russell Corrosion Consultants of New York.

So Salt Lake City's public utilities project is using nonconductive polymer pipe or plastic-sheathed metal pipe. Plastic or rubber pads under the train tracks prevent current leakage. And routine checks of the pipes will pinpoint trouble spots.