Category: Building Material

College Textbook & Course Material Costs: AAP Releases Preview Version of Student Monitor’s Fall 2020 Report

by  on  in Building Material

Average student spending on college textbooks and course materials continued to decline during the fall semester of 2020, dropping 7% compared to the same term last year, according to a special preview of the latest data from independent research firm Student Monitor.  A high-level version of Student Monitor’s Fall 2020 report is due out in November, followed by the full report in December.

“We are pleased to once again partner with Student Monitor to offer a sneak peek of its Fall 2020 report, which reaffirms the incredible array of options that students and college administrators have today to access course

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Materials Science News — ScienceDaily

by  on  in Building Material

Building a Quantum Network One Node at a Time

Nov. 4, 2020 — Researchers create ‘optically active spin arrays’ within a device that could serve as a node for exchanging photons with distant …

Model for Acid-Tolerant Yeast Helps Guide Industrial Organic Acid Production

Nov. 4, 2020 — Microbes and other microscopic organisms could serve as sustainable ‘factories’ to create many types of industrial materials because they naturally convert nutrients such as sugars into …

Luminescent Wood Could Light Up Homes of the Future

Nov. 4, 2020 — The right indoor lighting can help set the mood, from a soft

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Lumber shortages and prices are soaring amid tariffs, mill closures and a whole lot of DIY projects

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Covering COVID-19 is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas about the coronavirus and other timely topics for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.

I have done more DIY projects in the last five months than in the preceding five years. One thing I have noticed: Lumber prices are really high.

America started the year with lower than normal lumber supplies, then along came the pandemic that shut down mills and slowed imports. At the same time, while Americans are stuck at home, we have been

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Deloitte: Construction cost pressures to continue in 2020

by  on  in Building Material

A new report from accounting services firm Deloitte touches on what construction pros already know: It’s getting harder to make a profit in commercial building.

According to the 2020 Construction and Engineering Industry Outlook, a number of factors will put extra pressure on U.S. engineering and construction companies’ profitability in 2020. These include increasing project complexity, competition from Asian companies, talent shortages and supply chain constraints. In addition, construction and input costs for key building materials such as steel are rising, largely driven by limited supply and tariff uncertainties.

The report cites the 2019 Turner Building Cost Index,

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Berkeley researchers use 3D printer to make stronger, greener concrete

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Home > News > Berkeley researchers use 3D printer to make stronger, greener concrete
Berkeley researchers used a 3D printer to create polymer lattice reinforced beams. Special camera equipment shows that, when tested under bending, the beams are highly flexible and most of the cracks are blunted by the lattice.

October 13, 2020 by James Steinbauer

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a new way to reinforce concrete with a polymer lattice, an advance that could rival other polymer-based enhancements and improve concrete’s ductility while reducing the material’s carbon emissions.

The Berkeley team used a 3D printer to build octet

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