Welcome to another edition of K Exchange’s Monday Link Review, your weekly digest of the best science and engineering links from across the web.

ENR.com has a great look at Egypt’s search for a contractor to build it’s already designed $550 million museum.

All the way from The Guardian in the UK comes a piece on the Greenroads evaluation of the sustainability of US Road construction.

Speaking of the UK, EU Infrastructure takes a look at a construction project in Wales that includes a 131ft tall tower topped by an 82 ft tall Dragon!

And finally, one Youtube user used a centrifuge to answer the age old question… what would happen to a Lava Lamp on Jupiter?

As the calendar rolls around to March, and 2010 rolls on, it’s time for yet another Monday Link Review, our weekly roundup of the best science and engineering links from across the web.

Physorg.com has a story on engineers from the University of Florida creating a flat surface that doesn’t get wet.

Don’t you hate when something is just on the tip of your tongue? LiveScience has a piece explaining exactly what happens in those moments.

Ars Techica has a great piece that estimates 93% of human behavior is predictable.

Finally, the Salk instutute has successfully replaced a mouse’s liver with that of a human.

With the Olympics in full swing, Curling on TV at least six hours a day and National Engineers Week Foundation launching their Women in Engineering Marathon on March 10th, what better time for us to speak with Darcy, a Civil Engineer Technologist from Western Canada? Darcy and I spoke about house building, being a woman in a man’s world and the international phenomenon known as Curling.

K Exchange: First off Darcy, thanks for agreeing to speak with us. Can you tell us what made you want to be an Engineer?
Darcy:  My whole family, immediate and extended, have worked in construction for as long as I can remember.  My dad worked for one of the largest industrial engineering and procurement companies in the world before he retired; his brother owns a medium sized industrial insulation company in the West, my grandfather built refineries for the likes of Shell and Imperial Oil when he was alive.

I’ve always just assumed that I would go into construction.  Unlike the rest of my family, I’m in residential.  I like that it’s more tangible than commercial or industrial construction.  When I say I design roofs, people know what I’m talking about.

I’m not actually an engineer, though.  I’m a Civil Engineer Technologist, which means I have a diploma (two years of study) in Civil Engineering.  My degree is actually in Business Management.

What type of work do you do?
Darcy: I work for a company that supplies residential housing.  We design/supply Ready to Move (RTM) homes, in addition to roof systems, floor systems, house packages, blueprints and buildings supplies.  My particular area of work involves roof design.

KX: Why did you choose to go into residential roof design? Is it what you went to school for?
Darcy: I chose this field because they had the best offer upon graduation! As I said, I’ve completed a diploma in Civil Engineering.  How much my schooling actually applies to the real world is up for debate; this industry is very software specific – your time is spent first learning how to use it and then designing with it.

Now, having said that, I use trigonometry daily.  I also use my statistics classes quite frequently when working out loading and load dynamics on roofs.  You never know, sitting in a class, what information will actually be useful to you.  I’m as surprised as anyone else that I rely on trigonometry and force diagrams to understand my daily job!

I lucked out with this job, big time.  Our office has two P.Eng’s and several C.E.T.s (Certified Engineering Technologists) who have been in the industry forever.  They can always find the most economical way to build/design something, and they’re very aware of the big picture; they don’t just look at the floors or the roofs or whatever – they’ll analyze the whole structure and make sure it’s acceptable.  This is rare, and a great environment to learn in.

KX: If you couldn’t be working as an Engineer, what would you like to be doing?
Darcy: Teaching college or university.  I’m taking a master’s degree in Human Security and Peacebuilding (essentially a political science mixed with mediation and international law degree). I spent about six months in 2008 teaching in Africa; I like teaching and I think I’m good at it.  I’m still toying with the idea of doing a PhD.  If I ever do, you can rest assured it will be in a wholly unrelated field.

KX: Back to what you are doing, what kind of projects have you worked on? What has been your favorite?
Darcy: The most memorable one for me was designing a house where the roof was a giant loft.  The trusses themselves sat on the floor of the structure (as opposed to the walls), and everything had massive vaults running through it, including the dormers.  Given that it was a loft/attic space we were trying to squeeze as much ceiling height out of every possible nook and cranny.  It was extremely difficult to design, and it involved so much back-and-forth with the homeowner that he and I eventually became friends.  I still chat with him on Facebook!  You know it’s been a long project when you can claim that about your customers.

Beyond that, I design roofs for any residential application; the repetitive houses in the new subdivisions, additions to older homes, you name it.

KX: Can you tell us anything about really innovative design work going on now? What kind of work has inspired you?
Darcy: There’s a great group of people called the Western Wood Truss Association.  They put on an exhibition every year, and new products and ideas are showcased there.  Things that jump out to me are stuff like:

• Using green material to treat lumber
• Standardizing the LEED criteria (there are a number of ‘green’ certifications out on the market; there is an effort to standardize things, so that it’s a comprehensive list that everyone is aware of rather than having 10 or 12 different acronyms that kind of do the same thing)

Change is slow, though, because framers and designers like to stick with what they know will work, rather than maybe losing money on a fad that could turn out to be not profitable or – worse – unsafe.

KX: I think it’s safe to say that your industry is stereotypically male dominated. Have you found this to be the case?
Darcy: Yes.  I’ve only ever seen one other female roof designer.  Everyone in our office except our receptionist/office manager is male, and so far all my customers have been men.

KX: Has it ever been an issue?
Darcy: I can honestly say that I’ve never, ever felt that I was at an advantage/disadvantage because of my gender.  Really, it’s a non-issue here.

KX: Finally, with the Olympics taking center stage in your own backyard, I have to ask a few questions. How do you feel about Team Canada’s hockey team? Or will you, right now dispel that myth that all Canadian’s love hockey? And even more importantly, what is the deal with Curling, and why can’t I stop watching it?
Darcy: I really can’t comment on curling or hockey.  I don’t watch either sport.  Now, if you’d like, we can do an interview on my thoughts regarding NASCAR. If I must comment on hockey, I’ll say that we kick United States butts!

Hello loyal readers, and welcome to another edition of K Exchange’s Monday Link Review! We’ve managed to peel ourselves away from the 24 hour Olympic Curling coverage in order to make sure that you get your weekly dose of the best science and engineering links available on the web. Enjoy!

Scientific American has a very cool story called Fighting Crime with Math, exploring mathematical models built from LAPD crime statistics.

I’ll personally never forget a filmstrip I watched in grade school called “Can I Sit on a Cloud?” that explained to kids what clouds were made of. In another story from Scientific American, they go into a little more scientific detail on The Physics of Clouds. Sadly, the Scientific American piece does not feature Wondercat.

United Press International has a short feature on how scientists are making discoveries in the brain… of the fruit fly.

Finally, after nearly 100 years, we’ve learned the cause of King Tut’s death. Contrary to Steve Martin’s belief, he did not actually die “for tourism.”

The offices at Knovel might be closed for President’s Day today, but that wasn’t going to stop us! We know you rely on our weekly selection of links from around the Science and Engineering world, and we hate to disappoint our readers.

First, the website PlanetOddity.com takes a look at an abandoned subway in Cincinnatti Ohio.

Next, I found this great piece on mnn.com detailing 7 Amazing Examples of Biomimicry.

Physorg.com has a story on an “archaeological time machine,” a revolution on radioactive carbon dating.

Finally, National Geographic has a story from England about a revolutionary new power plant being built, one that resembles a giant volcano!

There are certain advantages to being friends with a weatherman. As anyone living in the Northeastern United States can attest, many of us have been glued to The Weather Channel for the past week trying to gauge exactly what the next storm is going to bring.

After two blizzards in the span of a week I spoke with John Cifelli, a meteorologist and the author of John Cifelli’s WeatherNJ. John and I talked about his motivations for working in meteorology and the current whitewash outside our windows.

K Exchange: First off, can you tell us why you wanted to be a weatherman?
John Cifelli: I love snow; the Blizzard of ‘96 was something I’ll never forget. As a boy, watching Niko, my German Shepherd who stood over 6 feet on her hind legs, having to bound like a deer through 4 foot drifts  was just incredible. I wanted to know why, and I wanted to know when it would happen again! I’m also terribly competitive, and I love a challenge. As I entered college, I realized that meteorology offered me the opportunity to satisfy my passion for weather, and the chance to compete with my peers in challenging forecasting situations.

KX: Do you consider yourself a scientist?
JC: A meteorologist is certainly a scientist. From a forecasting perspective, the goal is to analyze a wealth of data, decide what is relevant, what is flawed, and present the most likely solution. It is much more subjective than other sciences in the sense that much of what a weather forecaster looks at is open to interpretation.

KX: What causes a big storm like the one we have now? Is it similar to any other storm?
JC: A snowstorm, like all weather systems, is a result of unequal heating on Earth. The equator receives the bulk of the sun’s energy, while the poles receive the least. A storm represents a heat flux in an attempt to balance this unequal distribution of energy.

KX: What’s involved in actually predicting storms like this? We heard anywhere from 6-10 to 10-18 inches for this storm, how do you arrive at these numbers?
JC: Different meteorologists can look at all the information before them in different ways. There are many different computer models- the NAM, GGEM, ECMWF, GFS just to name a few. They are all governed by the “primitive equations” of the atmosphere, which are physical algorithms for the basic properties of everything going on above you- temperature, pressure, humidity, etc. But they have different spatial scales, resolutions, boundary conditions, and data input.

To make matters more confusing, they run all of these models up to 4 times a day. Then they run models that use the solutions of these primary models as input to give more ideas of what could happen. Then they have ensembles of some of these models, where they tweak one of the equations to show what could happen in a slightly different scenario. The GFS, for example, has over 20 ensembles. All of these projections can vary, sometimes to an extreme extent given a certain timescale. The amount of data a meteorologist has at their disposal is overwhelming, and deciding what is or isn’t useful isn’t always easy.

Specifically for a snowstorm, a forecaster has to consider temperature, wind speed/direction, humidity, and then consider those variables at all levels of the atmosphere, over areas with very unique microclimates (consider the differences between Sparta and Atlantic City in New Jersey) and over considerable periods of time. Then, even if the near term forecast was essentially perfect, I haven’t even touched on chaos theory- what happens at hour 36 and 48 if the forecast was just a little off at 12 or 24.

KX: How is it that, as with Saturday’s storm, Southern NJ can be hit by over a foot of snow, while areas 40 miles north get almost nothing?
JC: Last weekends storm ran into a region of strong confluence in New England that reached down into northern NJ. Confluence is the convergence of streamlines- paths of wind- aloft. In order for any precipitation to occur, there needs to be a lift mechanism to transport air from the surface to higher altitudes where it cools, condenses, and precipitates. Air cannot be lifted into a region of confluence very easily. You can visualize the amassing of air aloft where the streamlines converge. How are you going to lift more air into an area that already has too much? As a result, confluence leads to sinking air at the surface, the opposite of what you need for rain or snow. South Jersey didn’t have this sinking air regime, so the gradient of haves to have-nots with regards to snow was pretty tight.

KX: Is it unusual for an area to be hit by two storms of this size in such a short period of time?
JC: To have back to back blizzards isn’t just unusual, it’s historic. These storms, combined with the  snowstorm on December 19th put this season in the highest echelon of mid-Atlantic winters. This winter is already a 1 in 50 years type event for people in the Baltimore-Philadelphia corridor. Tack on a late season snowfall or two, and this could end up being a once in a lifetime winter. Truly, history in the making.

John Cifelli has produced forecasts specifically for New Jersey and surrounding metro areas since 2004. You can join his weather newsletter John Cifelli’s WeatherNJ by contacting him at johncifelli@gmail.com.

As the world at large collectively recovers from a post-Superbowl hangover, we want to make sure we don’t forget our loyal readers. So sit back, relax, grab another cup of coffee and enjoy this week’s links.

Florida Today has an interesting piece about Engineering Careers, and how they’re still considered the wave of the future.

From ABC News, apparently Cornell scientists are creating “Spiderman technology” that will allow humans to crawl up walls. No word yet on the Super Soldier Serum.

Sfgate.com has a story about scientists attemption to recreate the power of the sun via 192 lasers.

And finally, I don’t know how viable a fuel source it is for cars, but could you imagine filling up with Coca-Cola?

Last week I spoke with John Patrick after reading a post on his blog regarding Genesys XVI. I got in touch with John to get more insights into the past, present and future of the internet.

John is a former Vice President of Internet Technology with IBM, and currently serves as president of Attitude LLC. John is also the author of Net Attitude, an essential primer on e-business strategies. John has served on Knovel’s Board of Directors since 1992.

K Exchange: First off thank you for agreeing to interview with us. To start with, I have to get your impressions on the topic-of-the moment, the Apple iPad. To me, it seems way more evolutionary compared to the then-revolutionary iPhone. By extension, is the iPad just a larger version of the iPod Touch but with more bells and whistles? Will this device ultimately mean anything?

John Patrick: I am quite enthusiastic about the iPad and can’t wait to get my hands on one. Some people are saying the iPad is just a big iPhone. Yes! I can’t wait and it is much more than an iPhone. It has applications galore. On day one it will run 140,000 iPhone applications plus significant upgrades to calendar, contacts, mapping, and email. I see the iPad lightening the load in briefcases when travelling. It will also take up a lot less space on the kitchen counter and while resting there in the new iPad case it will double as a picture viewer. (See complete review by John on his blog at http://www.patrickweb.com/weblog/archives/2010_01_31.php#Amazon and the iPad)

KX: In conjunction with that, do you see mobile devices becoming more important? Or do the limitations of 3G/4G speeds and device memory mean people will be relying more heavily on computers for the time being?

JP: Mobile is taking over. There are hundreds of millions of PC’s. There are billions of mobile phones. Today most of them are “dumb” but soon most of them will be “smart”. Most people in the world will access the Internet from their mobile device. The PC will become less and less relevant, accelerated by the iPad and the flood of tablet competitors who will follow.

KX: You mentioned in your blog the massive disparity between public WiFi in the US and overseas. Does the possibility of widely available WiFi (or WiGig, as you posited for the near future) make the question moot, and suggest that netbooks will be preferable to mobile devices?

JP: WiFi is growing all over the world. The netbook is just an inexpensive Windows PC. The only thing it has going for it is price. Do we really need another Windows PC? There is no innovation in netbooks.

KX: Switching gears, you also believe that social networking is going to be crucial to collaboration in the future. Are you talking about public social networks? Or about private intra-company or intra-industry networks?

JP: Both. All of the above. The days of just “plain” content are over. People expect to be able to compare notes on things. Inside or outside the firewall. The number one source that people use to pick a doctor or a hospital is not a website per se, it is asking their friends and family. Social networking is a tool to do that. In a corporate sense, the most valuable source of information on a topic may be somebody down the hall but again, social networks is a tool to reach them.

Collaboration is not new but the social networks provide enhanced tools to make collaboration work. It goes deeper than writing on someone’s wall. Specialized tools are emerging such as Kindling to make social networking concepts into serious business tools. The largest source of
content is user generated content. That is part of social networking too.

KX: Along those lines, we have statistics from Outsell that suggest that while 40% of engineers are on Facebook, only 4% are on Twitter. An interesting fact that may make more sense when you consider the recent stats suggesting that Twitter’s growth is stagnating. Why do you think Facebook’s adoption has been so much stronger among the engineering community?

JP: They are totally different types of social networking tools. Facebook is a people oriented way to establish a presence and connect with friends or colleagues. It is frictionless to achieve. Twitter is more of a protocol — a way to send a message or “tweet”. Twitter as a company may or may not survive but the concept of sending short messages and following companies or people is a fundamental and new “channel” on the Internet.

KX: Finally, I want to end on the question you asked to finish your post: “will we trust the internet?” You were talking in terms of security, but the question brings up an interesting point, do people inherently mistrust information that comes from the internet? Obviously Wikipedia is a flawed source, but does a company like Knovel have to fight the impression of being an internet company rather than an information provider?

JP: The Internet is the communications network. It will be a constant battle against those who want to disrupt it, but I am optimistic that the good guys will stay on top. I don’t think people inherently distrust the Internet — perhaps to the contrary. It is no different than a book. How do you know a book is accurate? The key is to test veracity through cross-checking just like doing any basic research. Knovel has a huge opportunity to leverage the Internet as the delivery mechanism to make engineers more productive. In the long run it will be important to use technology to provide digital signatures and authentication of data.

John’s post on Genesys XYI can be found at http://www.patrickweb.com/weblog/archives/2010_01_26.php#Genesys XVI.

Posted 2/3/2010

Welcome to another edition of K Exchange’s Monday Link Review, our weekly digest of the best science and engineering stories of the past week from around the internet.

I’m not ashamed to admit that my favorite links usually come in the form of a Popular Mechanics List, and this is no exception: The World’s 18 Strangest Tunnels.

In a story that seems, to me anyway, to be culled straight from 1930’s pulp comics, MIT researchers may have developed a new way to develop clean energy: levitating magnets.

From the always controversial world of climate change news, a group of environmental scientists recently posited a way to halt climate change in Nature Magazine: giant explosions.

And finally, we have a great list from an unlikely source: Spike TV’s website. The Top 10 (Gutsiest) Scientists in History.

With so much focus being put on the need for Engineers worldwide, we believe it’s important to learn what leads students toward Engineering Careers to encourage others to follow suit. I recently exchanged e-mails with Adrian Spoljarevic, a 21 year old Civil Engineering Student in his final semester at University of Queensland, St. Lucia Campus in Australia. We spoke about life, work, school and the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art.

K-Exchange: What made you want to be an engineer?
Adrian: I’ve always been very technically minded and hands on. While I was growing up my family and teachers just assumed I would be an engineer. Truth be told I didn’t even know what an engineer did until I did some research in my final year of high school when I had to apply for the Uni course.

KX – What made you choose civil engineering?
AS – Lack of direction initially. I couldn’t decide between electrical, software, mechanical or civil. I tried a few EE/software courses but failed them because I ended up not being interested in them. I Ultimately settled on civil because it seemed to be the broadest, and is probably the most useful discipline to have when applying for management type roles at non-engineering companies. Also my family background is in the construction industry so I spent a lot of time growing up on building sites and working with power tools in the back shed.

KX – What do you want to do after school?
AS – I have been changing my mind on this about every 6 months. My current position in this economic climate is “I’ll take what I can get”, but my long term goal is to enter into property development. An engineering degree isn’t necessary for that but it will certainly help to gain the background experience I need before jumping into that kind of self employment. I haven’t tried design work professionally, my initial trepidation to go into design was partly due to the types of assignments we were given at uni, but now that I’ve built up a good knowledge I do feel more confident about it.

What was your favorite class? Did that lead you to the career decision?
My favourite class was civil design, a year long capstone course that had us doing everything from architectural design to engineering design. It definitely softened my stance on not wanting to work in design, but I still don’t expect it to become a long term career.

KX – Do you now wish you’d started in another engineering discipline?
AS – No, I am confident I made the right decision. If I had wanted to be a design engineer I may have gone into mechanical or electrical, but I don’t.

KX – If you couldn’t be in an engineering discipline, what would you like to be studying?
AS – Anything that would help property development. Real estate, building, business.

KX – Anything specific that inspires you as a civil engineer?
AS – A project just finished in the city, Kurilpa Bridge. It is to my knowledge the first tensegrity bridge in the world. The general consensus here is that it’s hideously ugly and doesn’t suit the decor of the city. As a kid I remember building tensegrity structures out of wooden skewers and fishing line, and that’s how I see Kurilpa Bridge – giant wooden skewers and fishing line. It’s hugely inspirational to think outside the box and go against popular opinion if it means bringing your idea to fruition. Even though the concept was done by architects, I think engineers feel just as much satisfaction in seeing their design work, especially when so much of the final form of the structure is ultimately decided by the engineers.

KX – Any interesting stories, tales, failures, life lessons from your studies?
AS – The biggest life lesson I have learned was the principle of the “zone of acceptance.” There are too many “correct” designs, and not always a perfect one. You can’t be a perfectionist in engineering (it took me a few years to learn this the hard way). Define the zone of acceptance, and once you’re in it, stop. Anything else is a waste of time and money.

KX – Finally, as a civil engineer you’re uniquely qualified to answer this question. If you were a building, what building would you be?
AS – Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art:

Knovel Engineering Cases feature the stories of engineers who have applied innovative theories and new technologies to both common and uncommon challenges. The following Engineering Case was posted on January 26, 2010

A Look Inside Renewed World Energies’ Algae Bioreactor

By Richard Armstrong, CEO and Tim Tomkins, CTO, Renewed World Energies.

Renewed World Energies applies time-tested engineering strategies to the design of its cutting-edge algae bioreactor…. Read More >>