If you've ever seen a rusty nail or pipe, you've observed corrosion. On a small scale it's a nuisance but on a large scale the process can destroy pipelines, bridges, and other expensive metal infrastructure. Corrosion costs the U.S. government billions of dollars a year in repairs, which makes the issue an important target for scientists. Now, researchers are working on a new way to detect and fix rusty metal.

Originally released by American Institute of Physics, 2014. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on October 30, 2014.