Archive - Construction Physics

Reading List 11/29/25

NIMBYism and aesthetics, defibrillator drones, railway track detonators, a proposed mach-23 space gun, and more.

Nov 29 •

How a Government Think Tank Trained The First Generation of US Software Developers

The US government had a hand in creating much of the early computer industry.

Nov 26 •

Reading List 11/22/25

The ship failure that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, the boring part of Bell Labs, a more efficient way of making antimatter, underground…

Nov 22 •

How ASML Got EUV

I am pleased to cross-post this piece with Factory Settings, the new Substack from IFP.

Nov 20 •

Reading List 11/15/25

Israel refilling a lake with desalinated seawater, South Korean nuclear subs, ways to make titanium cheap, a “new Bell Labs”, and more.

Nov 15 •

What Is A Production Process?

Chapter 1 of my book “The Origins of Efficiency”

Nov 13 •

Reading List 11/8/2025

Gathering robot training data, “love letters” sent to home sellers, the Napier Deltic diesel engine, jumps in electricity demand from electric…

Nov 8 •

The early history of the United States runs along with the first years of the railroad.

Nov 6 •

Reading List 11/01/2025

A new semiconductor lithography startup, how to make batteries more like bombs, AI and real estate listings, a monastery being built in Wyoming, and…

Nov 1 •

October 2025

How the UK Lost Its Shipbuilding Industry

From roughly the end of the US Civil War until the late 1950s, the United Kingdom was one of the biggest shipbuilders in the world.

Oct 28 •

Reading List 10/25/25

Jet engine-powered data centers, Brightline train deaths, cracks in a super thin skyscraper, a Chinese particle accelerator, and more.

Oct 25 •

Reading List 10/18/25

North Korean construction company, data center popularity, why robot dexterity is hard, a map of US solar panels, and more.

Oct 18 •

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