How the world’s first electric grid was built
In 1918, fifty systems supplied London’s electricity. Turning these into a grid required war, nationalization, and an act of engineering insubordination.
Alex Chalmers
Alex Chalmers is a staff writer at the Cosmos Institute and a former editor at Works in Progress. He also writes Chalmermagne, a Substack focused on technology, finance, and policy.
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How Airbus took off
Words by Alex Chalmers
Airbus is an example of successful industrial policy and the rare European company that is better than its American rival. Could its success be copied elsewhere?
Liberté, égalité, radioactivité
Words by Alex Chalmers
France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. Here’s how they did it, and how the world can follow their lead today.
The bad science behind expensive nuclear
Words by Alex Chalmers
How a dubious theory of radiation damage based on fruit flies and a secretive weapons testing program came to be – and why its time may now be up.