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Works in Progress

worksinprogress.co

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Works in Progress

Should European housing politics be Americanized? - Works in Progress Magazine

Europe's housing shortages are even worse than America's. So why does nobody there talk about zoning?

9 min read
Works in Progress

How the Squamish struck gold in Vancouver

The Squamish nation has built one of the world's most exciting bottom-up high-density developments: Senakw. This is its story.

17 min read
Works in Progress

The flag stranglers - Works in Progress Magazine

Most flags used to be ugly. They were probably better that way.

7 min read
Works in Progress

The blood cancer that became solvable

Multiple myeloma is brutal. We may finally have a cure, but American regulatory inertia means that it was discovered abroad.

14 min read
Works in Progress

Samurai city - Works in Progress Magazine

For three hundred years, Japan enjoyed enviable stability and peace. All it took was locking up its warlike samurai elite in the world’s least efficient city.

11 min read
Works in Progress

The Great Downzoning - Works in Progress Magazine

It was once legal to build almost anything, anywhere. Then, in the space of a few decades, nearly every city in the West banned densification.

35 min read
Works in Progress

Steam networks - Works in Progress Magazine

New York's skyscrapers soar above a century-old steam network that still warms the city. While the rest of the world moved to hot water, Manhattanites still buy steam by the megapound.

23 min read
Works in Progress

How bacteria solved the mystery of inheritance - Works in Progress Magazine

In the 1940s, scientists made a discovery now fundamental to biology: genes are encoded in DNA. The story involves bacteria, dead mice, and a kitchen cream separator.

10 min read
Works in Progress

Review: Recession

Why bad luck is the main cause of British and American recessions since 1700.

10 min read
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Works in Progress

How to write for Works in Progress - Works in Progress Magazine

We're looking for new authors and article pitches.

11 min read
Works in Progress

Washington diary - Works in Progress Magazine

What Americans take to be a borrowed European tradition turns out to be a national style all of their own.

5 min read
Works in Progress

How Ben Southwood got his views

The story of an intellectual journey from hardcore libertarianism via neoliberalism to common-sense liberalism.

18 min read
Works in Progress

Artificial used to be a compliment - Works in Progress Magazine

'Artificial' didn't scare Americans in the 19th century. Why does it scare them now?

4 min read
Works in Progress

The golden age of vaccine development - Works in Progress Magazine

The first vaccine was a lucky accident. Now we can design new vaccines in weeks, atom by atom.

21 min read
Works in Progress

Toronto's underground labyrinth - Works in Progress Magazine

Pedestrian tunnels are often thought to undermine urban life. The opposite happened in Toronto.

5 min read
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Works in Progress

Triumph of the Spanish city - Works in Progress Magazine

The traditional European apartment city has declined almost everywhere. There is one big exception: Spain.

19 min read
Works in Progress

Has pancreatic cancer met its match?

Pancreatic cancer, a disease that was once a death sentence, is increasingly treatable with new technology.

10 min read
Works in Progress

The beauty of batteries - Works in Progress Magazine

Keeping the grid stable requires overbuilding generating capacity, driving up costs. Batteries fix that.

12 min read
Works in Progress

Engineering the disposable diaper - Works in Progress Magazine

Benjamin Spock told mothers in the mid-twentieth century to buy six dozen cloth diapers and a covered pail. Within a decade, both were obsolete.

11 min read
Works in Progress

We're freezing our eggs; maybe you should too

You have been told that egg freezing doesn't work. Not true. Its effectiveness is limited only by a woman's fertility when they freeze.

12 min read
Works in Progress

The death rays that guard life - Works in Progress Magazine

We disinfect water before we drink it. Why don’t we disinfect the air before we breathe it?

16 min read
Works in Progress

The world’s most complex machine - Works in Progress Magazine

By betting on extreme ultraviolet lithography long before it worked, ASML became the chokepoint for cutting-edge chips.

18 min read
Works in Progress

How Britain learned and unlearned nuclear - Works in Progress Magazine

Britain gave an elite group of engineers sweeping power and massive resources to deliver a nuclear power revolution. But their nuclear dreams crumbled.

27 min read
Works in Progress

Modern Hindu temples - Works in Progress Magazine

Most ancient architectural traditions have withered, but one is enjoying a golden age: Hindu temple architecture.

10 min read
Works in Progress

The invention of buses - Works in Progress Magazine

Wheeled vehicles existed for 5,000 years before someone thought of running a bus service.

7 min read
Works in Progress

Escaping the Ogallala trap - Works in Progress Magazine

There is a closing window to stop driverless cars from creating omnigridlock.

7 min read
Works in Progress

A brief history of instant coffee - Works in Progress Magazine

Instant coffee seems unremarkable. It’s just powder and hot water. But making it work took decades.

12 min read
Works in Progress

Why Japan has such good railways - Works in Progress Magazine

Japan's railways are the finest in the world. Other countries can copy its formula.

19 min read
Works in Progress

How Australia really stopped the boats - Works in Progress Magazine

Many countries want to copy Australia’s immigration rules. But its most-copied border policy is not the one that worked.

17 min read
Works in Progress

Microbubbles - Works in Progress Magazine

It’s incredibly hard to deliver drugs to the right organ, especially to reach the brain. Tiny gas-filled spheres that burst on command could change that.

8 min read