Scientists Discover a 600-Mile Coral Reef

While bleaching is plaguing coral reefs around the world—most significantly Australia’s Great Barrier Reef—there’s one reef that seems to be flourishing. Located at the mouth of the Amazon river, a 600-mile-long reef was recently discovered below the oceans murky waters—and it’s thriving with corals, sponges, stars and other sea life. Scientists were blown away with the discovery, as they previously believed a reef couldn’t survive …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Inventing transparent wood, saving a language, how emoji is changing the way we communicate and more in this week's look at the web

1. How Empowerment Became a Purchasable Product Originally used by social workers to encourage marginalized communities to rise up from poverty and oppression, the term “empowerment” has taken on completely different definitions in recent years. It’s been transformed into a mass-marketing tactic—especially when pertaining to women—flaunted by corporations (like the #StrengthHasNoGender campaign from Brawny paper towels, a company owned by Koch Brothers who have spent …

Researchers Find a Way to Make Wood Translucent

Researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm have developed a translucent wood paneling called Optically Transparent Wood (TW) that could transform the way we incorporate sunlight into architecture. It’s created by removing the chemical lignin from the wood veneer and then impregnating it with a transparent polymer. Lars Berglund, a professor at KTH, believes the new material could be used in anything from …