Spotlight
Issue 17
Horses bled for antivenom, crabs drained for endotoxin tests, and silkworms boiled for silk. Science can now replace these practices with synthetic alternatives — but we need to find ways to scale them.
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Snails
Why housing shortages cause homelessness
Why do high-cost cities have more homelessness? It’s not just about rents — it’s also about the rooms friends and family can’t afford to share.
How Madrid built its metro cheaply
Madrid tripled the length of its metro system in just 12 years — faster and cheaper than almost any other city in the world. What can its expansion teach other cities?
The world of tomorrow
When the future arrived, it felt… ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?
How big data created the modern dairy cow
What do cryogenics, butterfat tests, and genetic data have in common? They’re some of the reasons behind the world’s most productive dairy cows. Here’s how it all started.
Progress unmoored
Airports and cities may face delays and rising costs, but cruise ships keep breaking records. They show what can still be built.
Machines for living in
Buildings are not just art – they are the places people live in, work in, and experience every day. True functionalism combines utility and beauty for the people who use it most.