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Spring is here, and with that, the season of sealing asphalt driveways and parking lots is upon us. While asphalt is typically used to improve the appearance of pavement and prolong its lifespan, it can, unfortunately, be as toxic as it tends to smell. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, asphalt seal coats contain coal tar, a well-known hazard to the environment and to personal health. In a recently published U.S. Geological Survey, researchers found that coal tar-based asphalt sealants that are applied to driveways, parking lots, and other areas can find their way into places they should not be, such as schools and homes. Asphalt can also be used as a roofing material, and comes in two kinds of shingles, organic and fiberglass. However, unlike sealants, these materials aren't respon...

Most Americans now use the Internet to find health information, and thanks to the Web, important medical information can now spread at the speed of light. Of course, that means misinformation can spread just as fast, which is causing preventable deaths all over the world. With warmer weather heating up the Southern United States, officials have been able to quickly spread helpful information on avoiding the Zika virus in areas likely to be affected by the mosquito-borne disease. On the other hand, countless Americans now believe that vaccines can cause autism and other health problems, a dangerous conspiracy theory that's led to several disease outbreaks in the past several years. And in China, the world's largest country is investigating the death of 21-year-old college student Wei ...

May the 4th be with you. Whether you're a Star Wars fan or not, chances are you've heard this dated pun before, but this year's annual celebration brought at least one new thing to fanatics everywhere: the skulls of their favorite Star Wars characters. Not literal skulls, of course. Most humans don't have the nerve or steady fingers necessary to take down something like a full-grown Wookiee. According to 3DPrint.com, through the magic of 3D printing, there will be a much easier and diplomatic way to get a model skull of your favorite galactic creature this year. The 3D-Printable Toys and 3D Printer test kits company 3DKitBash has announced they will embark on a Kickstarter-funded journey to make these miniature skull replications possible. “Two years ago, we had a steel mold creat...

President Obama is expected to visit Flint, MI, next month to see firsthand the effects of the on-going water crisis the city has been facing. The decision to visit stems from a letter 8-year-old Flint resident Mari Copeny sent the President, asking if she could meet him. Copeny wrote her concerns about the effects of the water contamination on not just herself but others in her community. In her letter, she requested to meet with both President Obama and the First Lady. "I am one of the children that is effected by this water, and I've been doing my best to march in protest and to speak out for all the kids that live here in Flint," Copeny wrote. "I know this is probably an odd request but I would love for a chance to meet you or your wife. My mom said chances are you will be to...

Sewer robots aren't exactly the sexiest kind of robot, but according to two MIT researchers, sewer robots may just be the future of public health. And if the technology lives up to the hype, these robots are just the beginning of the "smart sewers" coming to a city near you. Already, MIT's Underworlds project has birthed two sewer robots, fittingly dubbed Mario and Luigi, which have been exploring the sewage flowing beneath Cambridge, MA. Architects Newsha Ghaeli and Alaa AlRadwan recently showed off their second generation sewer robot -- that would be Luigi -- to a writer at IEEE Spectrum, which offers the first up-close look at these sewage-sifting robots. The MIT Underworlds project is based on a simple premise: "A vast reservoir of information on human health and behavior lives i...

One of Sydney's biggest public hospitals is the site of the city's second Legionnaire's disease outbreak in a month and health authorities believe the hospital's cooling tower could be the source. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the country's Department of Health reported that at least three people have been infected with the bacterial lung infection after spending time in or near St. George Hospital in Kogarah. The three victims of the most recent outbreak are two men, ages 64 and 76, and one 85-year-old woman. They are currently under treatment at St. George and all are reportedly recovering. All three of them had been in the area of St. George Hospital before coming down with the illness. "We are investigating the source of the contamination of the three cases and we ca...

Americans work hard. So hard, in fact, that fewer and fewer people in the American workforce are inclined to take a vacation. Take the Volk family, for example. For the past five years, Briana and her husband Andrew have accomplished a lot. Not only have they opened a successful cocktail bar in Portland, ME, but Briana has also given birth to a child and launched her own marketing firm. Yet despite all of this success, the two hadn't found the time to take a vacation -- a hard-earned one, at that. “We’re good at getting into the trap of working all the time. So stepping away from that felt a little selfish. We both felt we always needed to be working,” Volk said in an interview with the Boston Globe. And even when the Volks finally managed to get away to Palm Springs in February...

A woman in North Dakota recently launched a new business that offers workshops for women in car and home repair. The idea for the company, Misfix, was conceived while Amanda McKinnon was at the Women's Startup Weekend in Fargo last April. An entrepreneur with her own marketing company, she was originally there to discuss her work and inspire other women. Little did she know that inspiration would come to her. While discussing how her father had taught her plumbing and other handy repair skills, she realized that not many women had been offered the opportunity to learn these things at a young age. It was then that she decided to create a business to help women become self-sufficient in these male-dominated, but entirely necessary, areas. McKinnon will be offering workshops througho...

If "good news" and terrorism are ever compatible in a sentence together, it's only for situations such as this. According to Newsweek, Belgian police have arrested seven people they believe to be suspects in the recent terrorist attacks that took place in Brussels. The coordinated suicide attack, which occurred on Tuesday and left 31 people dead, was just the most recent in what's become all too familiar in recent years. In total, three separate attacks took place that day at the country's international airport and one of its popular metro stations. Security experts and government officials are still trying to determine exactly how they were able to pull off the plot in the face of already heightened security. Before the attacks occurred, there had already been clues that an impendin...

Firefighters in several towns across America were kept busy this week as multiple propane tank explosions occurred just hours apart. When emergency teams arrived at the scene of the blaze that took place in Jersey City on March 22, a leaking propane tank ruptured and was propelled several hundred feet into the air and then outwards, where it landed adjacent to the nearby light-rail tracks. Remarkably, nobody was injured, nor did the operators of the light-rail service need to shut down for any period of time. In Fargo on the very same day, things could have gotten much worse. Small propane tanks also unexpectedly burst there, though the presence of a much larger 300-pound tank made the situation all the more daunting for emergency responders. The large tank did not burst, but one ...