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Classical statues were not painted horribly
Did the Greeks and Romans have different tastes, paint badly, or have the reconstructors of classical statues been trolling us?
Dec 19
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Works in Progress
and
Ralph Stefan Weir
110
16
18
English has become easier to read.
It's not because of shorter sentences.
Dec 16
•
Henry Oliver
and
Works in Progress
92
7
22
Why is South Korean fertility so low?
Every hundred South Koreans today will have only six great-grandchildren between them. The rest of the world can learn from Korea’s catastrophe to avoid…
Dec 15
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Phoebe Arslanagić-Little
and
Works in Progress
173
10
24
Give Works in Progress as a gift
Order by Monday 15 December for delivery before Christmas in the US and UK
Dec 10
•
Works in Progress
24
2
The survival of Swiss watches
Quartz helped Japan’s watchmakers nearly drive Switzerland’s watch industry out of business. But the Swiss fought back.
Dec 5
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Works in Progress
and
Aled Maclean-Jones
113
13
21
The holy grail of capitalism
A new measure may be the holy grail of economic regulation.
Dec 4
•
Brian Albrecht
and
Works in Progress
170
11
28
Nature's drug database
Millions of years of evolution have given us genomes that are like giant datasets for drug development. Finally, we are learning how to use them.
Dec 3
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Works in Progress
56
1
7
November 2025
The history of vaccines
The early smallpox vaccines that kept dying out, why Émile Roux drilled into rabbits' skulls, and the lucky career changes that saved millions of lives.
Nov 26
•
Saloni Dattani
and
Jacob Trefethen
20
1
3
2:06:22
Why the West was downzoned
In the space of a few decades, nearly every city in the Western world banned densification. What happened?
Nov 26
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Works in Progress
and
Samuel Hughes
188
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41
Issue 21: The Great Downzoning
Plus: Why cities in poor countries need wider streets, how to measure competition, and the South Korean baby bust.
Nov 25
•
Works in Progress
28
1
4
Should we ban ugly buildings?
Episode ten of the Works in Progress podcast is surprisingly NIMBY.
Nov 24
•
Works in Progress
,
Sam Bowman
,
Ben Southwood
, and
Samuel Hughes
24
14
1
1:19:28
Living in artificial gravity
If we ever want to live in space, we need to work out a way of creating artificial gravity.
Nov 21
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Works in Progress
64
2
8
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