The whole subject reduces to one comparison: which rock resisted and which did not. Everything projecting is what held out, everything indented is what did not, and every feature between…
There is a small category of materials obtained from a living organism without killing it, and a smaller category still where the organism replaces what was taken.
Cork belongs to…
There is a plant that behaves so differently from a tree that most of what people assume about it is wrong, starting with what it is.
Bamboo is a grass.…
There is a category of engineering problem that only becomes visible once you think about what a machine has to do over a whole journey rather than at any moment.…
There is a question that seems too large to answer and turns out to have a small number of recurring answers.
The question is why a particular city is where…
There is a difference between a piece of engineering and a commitment, and reclaimed land is the largest example of the second.
A bridge, once built, stands. A tunnel, once…