Elon Musk caused quite a stir when SpaceX decided to build their new Starship rocket out of stainless steel, rather than titanium alloys or carbon composites. But for sheer strength and durability, you can’t beat steel. It’s also more economical. “I’m in love with steel,” tweeted Elon, and to prove it, Tesla launched their CyberTruck,...

They’ve slowly been making inroads into the mainstream transport paradigm, but now electric cars are the mainstream – and trucks are right behind them. Ten years ago, cities from Shanghai to Venice to New York were treated to weeks of fresh air and cleaner rivers, courtesy of coronavirus shutdowns. It was remarkable how quickly air...

Life ‘beyond Covid’ is strangely different from what went before the pandemic. Most obvious is the reluctance of governments and national leaders to relinquish their newfound powers of decree. What a wonderful time it was, for despots and democratically elected leaders alike! Given a golden opportunity to declare states of emergency and national disasters, most...

It’s taken five long years to climb out of the hole blown in the global economy by the viral pandemic of the early ‘20s, but now business is busy again. And making things is part of the new usual. For the past 20 years, innovation has been driven by tech and scaled by globalization. “Designed...

Airlines that have survived the last decade’s roller coaster ride are back in business in a big way, and what they need most right now are planes – big planes; and quickly. The cycle has turned once again, and although many low-cost carriers and smaller feeder airlines went bust during the brutal travel bans of...

Now that we have a vaccine for coronavirus, life has morphed into a new normal. But one thing is clear: we will not forget. One of the many lessons we learned is that Do It Yourself on Location (DIYOL) is the skill we should all be mastering. Restaurant dinners with friends are resuming and hotels...

Five years ago, we were taken aback at how quickly a new viral pneumonia could turn into a global pandemic, and decimate the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems, or underlying illnesses that made them vulnerable. And yet, even then, we had decades of experience, virtually a century, of dealing with viral and bacterial...

As any politician knows, you should never waste a good crisis. When Covid-19 raised its ugly head, demagogues and autocrats quickly seized the day, putting entire countries in lockdown, and requiring recovered or suspected cases to surrender their personal information, so that their movements could be tracked and their contacts traced. And we happily agreed;...

It’s a little over a year since the coronavirus outbreak became a global pandemic, resulting in travel bans, flight cancellations, and eventually widespread lockdowns of major cities and entire countries. Air travel, except cargo and mercy flights, ground to a halt. Interstate and intercity busses were parked. As people were confined to homes, taxis and...

Hello. Hi. How are you? I won’t shake hands or hug.  But you didn’t expect that either. We don’t do that anymore. We’ve learned our lesson about casual social contact. ‘No touch’ is not just the auto sensor on the door, it’s become a way of life. And when we do touch, that’s very intimate,...