A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report concludes that long-term zinc creep inside cable spelter sockets caused the 2020 collapse of the Arecibo Observatory's telescope platform. The failure sequence reportedly began with damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017, after which cables showed progressive pullout that eventually let the platform fall into the 305-metre reflector dish. The report calls it the first documented case of such long-term zinc-induced creep failure despite over a century of similar hardware use.
maketecheasier.com
· 2026-10-30
The US National Science Foundation will issue its fewest new grants in four decades after withholding roughly $1 billion for the White House's Grand Research Challenges initiative and pulling back recommendations for over 150 peer-reviewed proposals. Meanwhile, the National Natural Science Foundation of China is increasing its prestigious early-career grants by 50% this year, moving in the opposite direction as Washington retreats from research investment.
nature.com
· 2026-09-15
The US National Science Foundation is moving to a 'portfolio-based' funding approach that blends traditional investigator-driven research with agency-directed priorities, according to an internal letter. The agency has not specified what these directed opportunities will entail, leaving staff and researchers uncertain about future funding categories.
nature.com
· 2026-09-14
Samantha Brunhaver, an associate professor at Arizona State University, is leading an NSF-funded project examining how engineers develop adaptability on the job. Through interviews with managers, early-career employees, and undergraduates, she found that while adaptability is widely cited as essential, employers rarely define or teach it consistently, and its meaning shifts depending on the industry, from tool turnover in software to regulatory changes in aerospace or biomedical fields.
spectrum.ieee.org
· 2026-08-24
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