On a day in late April, a small drilling rig sits on the fringe of the scrubby overgrown fields of Syracuse, New York, taking soil samples. It’s the primary signal of development on what might turn out to be the biggest semiconductor manufacturing facility within the United States.
The CHIPS and Science Act, handed final yr with bipartisan congressional assist, was broadly seen by trade leaders and politicians as a technique to safe provide chains, and make the United States aggressive once more in semiconductor chip manufacturing.
Now Syracuse is about to turn out to be an financial check of whether or not, over the following a number of many years, the aggressive authorities insurance policies—and the huge company investments they spur—can each increase the nation’s manufacturing prowess and revitalize areas like upstate New York. And all of it begins with an astonishingly costly and complicated sort of manufacturing facility referred to as a chip fab. Read the total story.
—David Rotman
Inside a high-tech cement laboratory
Cement is a local weather nightmare. The materials, which is principally the glue that holds concrete collectively, accounts for about 8% of worldwide emissions.
It requires super-high temperatures to make, which means you must burn fossil fuels within the course of. Secondly, there are chemical reactions concerned in remodeling minerals into working cement, and people launch carbon dioxide.