The Works in Progress Newsletter
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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.
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.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
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.
Why the West was downzoned • In the space of a few decades, nearly every city in the Western world banned densification. What happened?
Why the West was downzoned
In the space of a few decades, nearly every city in the Western world banned densification. What happened?
www.worksinprogress.news
November 26, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Why the West was downzoned • In the space of a few decades, nearly every city in the Western world banned densification. What happened?
Issue 21: The Great Downzoning • Plus: Why cities in poor countries need wider streets, how to measure competition, and the South Korean baby bust.
Issue 21: The Great Downzoning
Plus: Why cities in poor countries need wider streets, how to measure competition, and the South Korean baby bust.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 25, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Issue 21: The Great Downzoning • Plus: Why cities in poor countries need wider streets, how to measure competition, and the South Korean baby bust.
Should we ban ugly buildings? • Episode ten of the Works in Progress podcast is surprisingly NIMBY.
Should we ban ugly buildings?
Episode ten of the Works in Progress podcast is surprisingly NIMBY.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 24, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Should we ban ugly buildings? • Episode ten of the Works in Progress podcast is surprisingly NIMBY.
Living in artificial gravity • If we ever want to live in space, we need to work out a way of creating artificial gravity.
Living in artificial gravity
If we ever want to live in space, we need to work out a way of creating artificial gravity.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 22, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Living in artificial gravity • If we ever want to live in space, we need to work out a way of creating artificial gravity.
The three-thousand-year journey of colchicine • For centuries it was a poison. Then colchicine rewrote treatment for gout, heart disease, and later, the debate over drug exclusivity.
The three-thousand-year journey of colchicine
For centuries it was a poison. Then colchicine rewrote treatment for gout, heart disease, and later, the debate over drug exclusivity.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 20, 2025 at 3:24 PM
The three-thousand-year journey of colchicine • For centuries it was a poison. Then colchicine rewrote treatment for gout, heart disease, and later, the debate over drug exclusivity.
Inventing the dishwasher • The amount of housework a married American woman did fell by 48 percent in 45 years. The dishwasher alone didn't cause this, but it certainly helped.
Inventing the dishwasher
The amount of housework a married American woman did fell by 48 percent in 45 years. The dishwasher alone didn't cause this, but it certainly helped.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Inventing the dishwasher • The amount of housework a married American woman did fell by 48 percent in 45 years. The dishwasher alone didn't cause this, but it certainly helped.
Why the developing world needs wider streets • Roads are the arteries of cities, making the whole more than the sum of its parts. Cities of the developing world need more of them.
Why the developing world needs wider streets
Roads are the arteries of cities, making the whole more than the sum of its parts. Cities of the developing world need more of them.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Why the developing world needs wider streets • Roads are the arteries of cities, making the whole more than the sum of its parts. Cities of the developing world need more of them.
More pieces we would like to commission • Write for us.
More pieces we would like to commission
Write for us.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
More pieces we would like to commission • Write for us.
The economics of the baby bust with Jesús Fernández-Villaverde • Episode nine of the Works in Progress podcast.
The economics of the baby bust with Jesús Fernández-Villaverde
Episode nine of the Works in Progress podcast.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
The economics of the baby bust with Jesús Fernández-Villaverde • Episode nine of the Works in Progress podcast.
Evolution under a microscope • Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists have watched evolution happen in real time, and it’s changed how we understand natural selection.
Evolution under a microscope
Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists have watched evolution happen in real time, and it’s changed how we understand natural selection.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Evolution under a microscope • Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists have watched evolution happen in real time, and it’s changed how we understand natural selection.
Readers from Canada, Australia and the EU can now subscribe to Works in Progress • Our first print edition ships in two weeks.
Readers from Canada, Australia and the EU can now subscribe to Works in Progress
Our first print edition ships in two weeks.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Readers from Canada, Australia and the EU can now subscribe to Works in Progress • Our first print edition ships in two weeks.
Will AI solve medicine? • Some say AI will solve medicine within a decade. Others believe biology is far more complex than people imagine and AI will hit the limits of clinical trials and economics. Who's right?
Will AI solve medicine?
Some say AI will solve medicine within a decade. Others believe biology is far more complex than people imagine and AI will hit the limits of clinical trials and economics. Who's right?
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Will AI solve medicine? • Some say AI will solve medicine within a decade. Others believe biology is far more complex than people imagine and AI will hit the limits of clinical trials and economics. Who's right?
Treating cost disease with Congressman Jake Auchincloss • Episode eight of the Works in Progress podcast is about the politics of the Abundance movement
Treating cost disease with Congressman Jake Auchincloss
Episode eight of the Works in Progress podcast is about the politics of the Abundance movement
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Treating cost disease with Congressman Jake Auchincloss • Episode eight of the Works in Progress podcast is about the politics of the Abundance movement
The genius of the amateur • The greatest breakthroughs often come from outsiders who can take a fresh perspective
The genius of the amateur
The greatest breakthroughs often come from outsiders who can take a fresh perspective
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
The genius of the amateur • The greatest breakthroughs often come from outsiders who can take a fresh perspective
The art of protein design with AI • Scientists are using AI to hallucinate novel proteins that could transform medicine, agriculture, and materials science
The art of protein design with AI
Scientists are using AI to hallucinate novel proteins that could transform medicine, agriculture, and materials science
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
The art of protein design with AI • Scientists are using AI to hallucinate novel proteins that could transform medicine, agriculture, and materials science
What makes Joel Mokyr great • His Nobel is a triumph for history and the importance of ideas
What makes Joel Mokyr great
His Nobel is a triumph for history and the importance of ideas
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
What makes Joel Mokyr great • His Nobel is a triumph for history and the importance of ideas
Chinese dams hold billions of people to ransom • Could desalination make them irrelevant?
Chinese dams hold billions of people to ransom
Could desalination make them irrelevant?
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Chinese dams hold billions of people to ransom • Could desalination make them irrelevant?
What's new in biology: October 2025 • Safer transplants, new antibiotics, the rise of paper mills, long-term flu protection, slowing down ageing, and more.
What's new in biology: October 2025
Safer transplants, new antibiotics, the rise of paper mills, long-term flu protection, slowing down ageing, and more.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
What's new in biology: October 2025 • Safer transplants, new antibiotics, the rise of paper mills, long-term flu protection, slowing down ageing, and more.
Hacking proteins with AI • Episode four of Hard Drugs is about building new proteins
Hacking proteins with AI
Episode four of Hard Drugs is about building new proteins
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Hacking proteins with AI • Episode four of Hard Drugs is about building new proteins
Making antibodies as ubiquitous as aspirin • If antibodies were cheaper, they could prevent millions of deaths from rabies, malaria, and dengue.
Making antibodies as ubiquitous as aspirin
If antibodies were cheaper, they could prevent millions of deaths from rabies, malaria, and dengue.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Making antibodies as ubiquitous as aspirin • If antibodies were cheaper, they could prevent millions of deaths from rabies, malaria, and dengue.
AI isn't replacing radiologists • Radiology combines digital images, clear benchmarks, and repeatable tasks. But demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high.
AI isn't replacing radiologists
Radiology combines digital images, clear benchmarks, and repeatable tasks. But demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
AI isn't replacing radiologists • Radiology combines digital images, clear benchmarks, and repeatable tasks. But demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high.
Seeing the light • Germicidal ultraviolet could make airborne diseases as rare as those carried by water.
Seeing the light
Germicidal ultraviolet could make airborne diseases as rare as those carried by water.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Seeing the light • Germicidal ultraviolet could make airborne diseases as rare as those carried by water.
Issue 20: The death rays that guard life • Plus: How to make antibodies, why rivers are now battlefields, and a clinical trial for cooling the plant
Issue 20: The death rays that guard life
Plus: How to make antibodies, why rivers are now battlefields, and a clinical trial for cooling the plant
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Issue 20: The death rays that guard life • Plus: How to make antibodies, why rivers are now battlefields, and a clinical trial for cooling the plant
Subscribe to the print edition of Works in Progress • A magazine worthy of our readers
Subscribe to the print edition of Works in Progress
A magazine worthy of our readers
www.worksinprogress.news
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Subscribe to the print edition of Works in Progress • A magazine worthy of our readers