Passive radiative cooling saves energy
As we’ve discussed previously, keeping spaces cool in summer takes a lot more energy than heating them in winter. And some things—such as food and vaccines—must stay cold to remain […]
Insights
What I’d like to see more of in specifications
At Beton we review project specifications for various reasons. Sometimes it’s to develop concrete mixture proportions that will help a contractor meet the requirements. Sometimes it’s to come up with […]
A test for spotting fraudulent statistics
As countries report their death tolls due to COVID-19, some appear to be providing fraudulent statistics. Dmitry Kobak has examined them using the Poisson distribution. It’s a useful way to […]
Julia Morgan, architect and engineer
Before Julia Morgan became an architect, only men practiced architecture. First she studied civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating in 1894—the only woman in her class. […]
Mostly good news about water quality
Can we improve the water quality of our lakes and rivers? It turns out that there are things we can do, and they’re working. Reviving dead zones in the Thames […]
Technology makes vaccines available in Africa
As the third year of the pandemic begins, we know it won’t be over until people everywhere receive the vaccine—and maybe not even then. But it’s not just a matter […]
Managing the water footprint in construction
We’ve discussed the carbon footprint of concrete previously. However, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases aren’t the only environmental effects of construction. Making the best use of scarce resources is […]
Deep water cooling
Keeping interior spaces cool in summer is much less energy- and carbon efficient than heating them in winter. For this reason, most of the CALGreen provisions for making buildings energy […]
Why should we care about serviceability and durability?
There are generally three aspects to the performance of a structure. The first is structural. The structure needs to resist the gravitational, wind, and other loads to which it will […]
Learning from natural experiments
Experiments usually involve a controlled environment where we can limit the number of variables. In a traditional experiment using the scientific method, we hold everything constant except the thing we […]