Trains may soon use lasers to clear debris off of tracks

Each autumn, leaves fall to the ground by the billions. Slightly annoying if you have a backyard but really annoying if you run a railroad company. It turns out those leaves are a slippery menace on train tracks. That’s why Dutch Railways is testing a high-energy solution: Train-mounted lasers. In a recent article, New Scientist lays out the seriousness of the fallen leaf problem. Movement grinds the leaves into a “hard Teflon-like residue” that coats the tracks, reducing traction and messing with signaling systems.