The study of loess soil mechanics is essential to understand its structural behaviour and the challenges it poses for engineering applications. Loess, a wind-blown, fine-grained sediment, exhibits a ...

Madhur Atreya working in the lab. New research from the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering into biodegradable sensors may change the way farmers track, measure, and respond in real time ...

Soil degradation is gradually becoming a major challenge in the world, and one of the biggest drivers of it is the erosion of topsoil. Soil degradation might just be coming to a tipping point if ...

Growing up in Haiti, Northwestern Engineering’s Ludmilla Aristilde looked critically at the land and thought about how soil sustains plants. This came naturally; her father was both an educator and ...

Take a look out at this landscape. What do you notice? Credit: Shutterstock Take a walk outside. Get some fresh air. What do you notice around you? Buildings, trees, and the sky may be on your list, ...

Irrigated agriculture is the planet's largest consumer of freshwater and ultimately produces more than 40% of food worldwide. Yet the exact amounts of water actually being used in irrigation remains ...

Soil is the place where most plants grow. They derive nutrients and water from the soil and it is in the soil that plants are anchored. Only a few plants grow on water. Most of the livestock whose ...