2026-08-05
Changes to Innsbruck. Source: Beauty in my Backyard Samuel Hughes has a new Works in Progress essay asking again whether beauty can solve the housing crisis . He distinguishes NIMBYs (locals who oppose development of all…
3D printed structure. Source: Can We Lower Construction Costs with Cheaper Labor or Materials? One of Brian Potter’s latest Construction Physics installment s asks whether cheaper labor or materials can meaningfully cut …
The Snail Darter. Source: wikipedia You may have heard about the effects of the Endangered Species Act on big construction projects — like the famous case of the tiny “snail darter” fish and its role in delaying the Tell…
A forthcoming paper lends some structure to the intuition around regulated utilities (these are the vertically-integrated kind, with a local monopoly and their own generation facilities – they’re “regulated” because a st…
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration is considering implementing a $100,000 fee on international students who want to work in the United States after graduation via the optional pract…
In June, the FDA issued new draft guidance stating that drug makers no longer needed to run two trials to demonstrate the efficacy of a new drug before it could be approved; rather, “one adequate and well-controlled clin…
If you’ve been following the conversation around the design of scientific institutions and funding strategies, you may have come across a table breaking down how different characteristics map onto different mechanisms. F…