Amongst the myriad secrets lost to the ancient world was the formula for Roman concrete: uncannily more robust than today’s mixtures, there are ancient Roman seawalls and harbor piers, built two millennia ago, that are still standing today, whereas modern concrete would require maintenance every few decades under the same aquatic conditions. But now, a new study may have uncovered how the ancients made their long-lasting concrete, suggesting that the secret of this forgotten formula may not truly be set in stone.
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A $17 million expedition aimed at studying the effects of climate change in Canada’s Hudson Bay has been postponed due to complications brought about by climate change itself. An unusually heavy southward flow of surface ice from the Arctic has blocked the safe passage of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen, on the first leg of her mission to ferry 40 scientists participating in the Hudson Bay System Study (BaySys).
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Despite the assumption by many individuals that the detrimental effects of global warming are theoretical events that are far into the future, there are communities in the United States that are already faced with the reality of relocating due to sea level rise caused by global warming. While numerous communities around the world are already planning to relocate due to the loss, or imminent loss of land to the ocean, two such communities in the U.S. have already received funding to migrate to more stable land, in what may be a harbinger for larger coastal populations in the near future.
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