For over a century, the federal government has headquartered its research into wood at an outlet of the Forest Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a hulking stone building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The Forest Products Laboratory has even expanded in recent years to more modern facilities where researchers study things you may have never considered — like how to slow the spread of mold on military munitions crates. How to recycle a postage stamp. How to construct ever-taller buildings from timber.
“Even though wood has been used for thousands of years, there’s still a fair amount that is not known about it from a mechanical perspective,” said Nathan Bechle, a materials research engineer who says he’s worked on safety improvements for everything from baseball bats to lumber…