Environment
fromFortune
1 week agoScientists are burning homes to protect them in wildfires: 'We crash test houses' | Fortune
Better materials and strategic landscaping can protect homes from increasing wildfire risks.
The rods are the central element of a novel seismic-responsive structural system that is designed to help the building snap back to its original shape in the event of a major earthquake. Their trick is an embedded cluster of taut cables made from a highly flexible compound called a shape-memory alloy that's capable of bending under tension-like the lateral shaking in a California earthquake-and then straightening out.