Environmental Engineering: Earthquake zone

Tremors below ground in Bristol are being used to help design buildings and equipment better able to withstand the forces of nature. Of all the harsh environments that products and structures have to be designed to withstand, an earthquake is one of the most extreme. The unpredictability, the repetition and the sheer scale of the forces unleashed in earthquakes makes them uniquely dangerous and difficult to prepare for.

Environmental Engineering: Innovate or die

Product development in a wide range of industries, from aerospace to wind power, means a healthy workload for one UK test house. In the face of recession, the business mantra of innovate or die has even more resonance than usual. Manufacturers face the choice of continuing to develop products or effectively giving up the ghost. So, with new products so important, the testing of these products – and the industry that carries out testing – should, theoretically at least, be a little insulated from the ravages of recession.