In many places, municipal water from a utility is something that’s often taken for granted. A local government or water utility will employ a water tower or pumping facility to ensure that there’s always water available to every home and business connected to it, all day, every day, and at a relatively constant pressure. This […]
There’s interesting news out of Wyoming, where a coal mine was opened this week. But the fact that it’s the first new coal mine in 50 years isn’t the big news — it’s the mine’s abundance of rare earth elements that’s grabbing the headlines. As we’ve pointed out before, rare earth elements aren’t actually all […]
Without warning on an early August evening a significant proportion of the electricity grid in the UK went dark. It was still daylight so the disruption caused was not as large as it might have been, but it does highlight how we take a stable power grid for granted. The story is a fascinating one […]