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Summer's coming in hot across the world, and with it, an ever-increasing risk of devastating wildfires. However, while some fires are unwanted, others can be life-saving. Throughout history, humans have managed lands and crops through prescribed fires, inadvertently mitigating the risk of actual wildfires along the way by removing excess "fuel" from the landscape. Knowing exactly how hot such fires burn is crucial to understanding both fire ecology, safety and management, and the actual implications of rising temperatures.

This led researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to develop FireLog: A remote sensing device designed to withstand temperatures up to 800°C and simultaneously deliver high levels of spatial replication at a limited cost.

In this episode of HardwareX, we're joined by Sabrina Russo, a plant ecologist and professor at the School of Biological Sciences, and Nipuna Chamara, a Research Assistant Professor with the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, to learn more about what happens when nature burns.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.