IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS on June 24, 2021, a section of Champlain Towers South, a 12-story apartment complex in Surfside, Florida, crumpled to the ground.Eyewitness accounts and video footage revealed the progression of the condo's collapse. Around 1:15 a.m., a loud crash came from the parking garage beneath the L-shaped structure, as the garage's ceiling, which extended outward to become the building's pool deck, began to disintegrate. Minutes later, Champlain Towers South's eastern wing gave way in two stages with its midsection falling first, followed by the rest of the wing, seconds later. Dust and debris engulfed the building's west wing, still standing amid a pile of rubble.
Ninety-eight people died in the collapse, and hundreds more lost their homes and possessions. It was one of the deadliest structural building failures in U.S. history, and the emergency response to it was the largest ever in Florida, other than for hurricanes. Before rescue workers even finished identifying the victims, multiple teams of investigators began to dig into the aftermath to determine what led to the building's collapse.
Matthew Fadden, a structural engineer based 20 minutes north of Surfside, learned of the incident later that day. Seeing photos of the wreckage, he noted that the building suffered a "progressive collapse," where an initial structural failure leads to more failures, spreading through the building like cascading dominoes. By September, the court-appointed receiver and insurers for the condo association would hire Fadden's firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., to do its own investigation. Given the scale of destruction, and the fact that Champlain Towers South had been built using common methods, the possibility remained that the deficiency responsible for the building's collapse may also exist at other structures. Investigators felt an urgency to find answers.
This story is from the March - April 2024 edition of Popular Mechanics US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March - April 2024 edition of Popular Mechanics US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Henrietta Lacks - It's not surprising that Henrietta Lacks-whose
It's not surprising that Henrietta Lacks-whose "immortal" HeLa cells were pivotal in developing treatments for diseases such as polio, HIV/AIDS, and COVID19-is referred to as "the mother of modern medicine." But Lacks's legacy is complicated due to the ethical concerns surrounding the use of her special cells. Lacks, who died of cancer at age 31 in 1951, was never aware that her cells led to significant medical advancements or that they had been taken without her consent. And even now, her strange case raises questions about the morally dubious methods through which we achieved unquestionably positive breakthroughs in medicine.
Chasing an Asteroid - How NASA defied incredible odds to get its asteroid-hunting osiris-rex mission off the ground and in the process upended what we know about our solar system.
Dante Lauretta sat in the backseat of a helicopter hovering high above a remote patch of Utah desert, waiting for a small, twinkling speck in the sky to plunge toward earth.If you didn't know better, you might think what was beginning to burn through the skies above the American southwest in the early hours of September 24, 2023, was a shooting star. But it wasn't a shooting star. Or a meteor. It was a dishwasher-size capsule filled with bits of ancient asteroid-priceless matter from the dawn of the solar system. In other words, it was a treasure chest moving at 27,000 miles per hour and sizzling at a temperature half that of the sun's surface.
Whether We Live in a Simulation - scientist Melvin Vopson, PhD, studies this exact thing- the possibility that the universe might indeed be a digital facsimile. And he claims to have evidence.
In the 1999 film the Matrix, Neo discovers A truth to end all truths-the universe is a simulation. While this premise provides fantastic sci-fi fodder, the idea isn't quite as relegated to the fiction section as one might expect. . In fact, University of Portsmouth scientist Melvin Vopson, PhD, studies this exact thing- the possibility that the universe might indeed be a digital facsimile. And he claims to have evidence.
The Ancient Language of Easter Island - Today, humans inhabit- or have, at the very least, explored- pretty much every corner of the planet. But that immense proliferation of Homo sapiens across the globe was a slow process.
With the first humans leaving Africa between 60,000 and 120,000 years ago, the species slowly spread across the Earth over many millennia. And one of the last places these ancient humans made their way to was the southeastern Pacific island of Rapa Nui, known more broadly as Easter Island.Located 2,360 miles off the coast of Chile, Rapa Nui is one of the most isolated places in the world. Its native people, who are also named the Rapa Nui, first arrived on the island's shores between A.D. 1150 and 1280, and lived in isolation until the arrival of Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen in 1722.
Underwater UFOs - A retired U.S. Navy admiral believes that the government should look to the oceans to help solve a mystery in the skies.
A retired U.S. Navy admiral believes that the government should look to the oceans to help solve a mystery in the skies. Rear Admiral Timothy Gallaudet, former Oceanographer of the U.S. Navy, recently published a paper arguing that unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP, more commonly referred to as UFO) and unidentified submersible objects (USO) are linked, and should be studied further.
Synching Up Our Circadian Rhythms - If you've ever done any kind of long-distance travel, or just woken up feeling under-rested thanks to daylight saving time, you know how important your circadian clock is.
If you've ever done any kind of long-distance travel, or just woken up feeling under-rested thanks to daylight saving time, you know how important your circadian clock is. Like many things in your body, your circadian rhythm is more complicated than it might seem on the surface. Rather than being entirely brain-based, it's actually controlled by a collection of several circadian clocks (central and peripheral) that all work together to keep your gears turning like a well-oiled machine.
SKINWALKER RANCH REVEALED
The 512-acre ranch has captivated real-estate tycoons, TV producers, and the U.S. government. What are they searching for?
Upgrade Your Living Room With This DIY - MID-CENTURY COFFEE TABLE
This project is easy to build and customize to fit your space.
INDISPENSABLE LESSONS FROM A POP MECH LEGEND
With people moving around so much these days, it's perfectly natural to wonder how an editor can just come along and stick like a barnacle to the hull of Popular Mechanics, lasting for 35 years.
SAVING THE SUGAR BUSH
A technological revolution has transformed the ancient tradition of sugar making-with big implications for local economies and ecosystems imperiled by climate change.
