Humans are using more sand than the Earth is naturally producing, and that’s a problem for the global construction industry. But it turns out that the usefulness of sand depends on the science of each tiny little grain. We went on a sand scavenger hunt to collect some samples, look at them under a microscope, and try to figure out why sand scarcity is such a problem.

Video: William Poor, Alex Parkin, Cory Zapatka
Additional Camera: Cynthia Gil, Tom Connors
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