Menu
Idea

engineering

110
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 31–60 of 110 results. Go to first page
This false-color photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil.

A NASA Mission 45 Years Ago Changed Everything

The Viking missions set the gold standard for landing on Mars, but they couldn't resolve the big question — are we alone?
by Jon Kelvey via Inverse on September 2, 2021
Construction of the U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel

Up In The Air

The restoration of the Air Force Academy Chapel is the U.S.’s most complex modernist preservation project ever.
by Frank Edgerton Martin via The Architect's Newspaper on March 2, 2021
Skiers queuing to get on The Dollar lift.

How a Railroad Engineer From Nebraska Invented the World's First Ski Chairlift

The device was part of an elaborate plan on behalf of Union Pacific to boost passenger rail travel in the American West.
by Sarah Kuta via Smithsonian on February 2, 2021
A house and an american flag

A Disaster 100 Years in the Making

Covid-19 and climate change are drastically intensifying insecurity in New Orleans.
by Eric Klinenberg via New York Review of Books on October 22, 2020

The 100-Year History of Self-Driving Vehicles

What the long history of the autonomous vehicle reveals about its fast-approaching future.
by Anthony Townsend via OneZero on August 3, 2020

When Robert Moses Wiped Out New York’s ‘Little Syria’

What happened to the former Main Street of Syrian America.
by Mattt Kapp via Literary Hub on February 28, 2020
Fish in water next to rocks at the base of Kinzua Dam

Halted Waters

The Seneca Nation and the building of the Kinzua Dam.
by Maria Diaz-Gonzalez via Belt Magazine on January 30, 2020

How New York City Found Clean Water

For nearly 200 years after the founding of New York, the city struggled to establish a clean source of fresh water.
by Jonathan Schifman via Smithsonian on November 25, 2019
Picture of the Challenger Tragedy.
partner

Lessons From the Challenger Tragedy

Normalization of deviance is a useful concept that was developed to explain how the Challenger disaster happened.
via Retro Report on October 29, 2019

How Silicon Valley Broke the Economy

The question of how to fix the tech industry is now inseparable from the question of how to fix late 20th century capitalism.
by Adrian Chen via The Nation on October 14, 2019

The Lines of Code That Changed Everything

Apollo 11, the JPEG, the first pop-up ad, and 33 other bits of software that have transformed our world.
by Thomas Haigh, Arthur Daemmrich, Mar Hicks, Charlton D. McIlwain, Chris Noessel, Molly Olmstead, Clive Thompson, Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Elena Botella, Ellen Stofan, Jamie Zawinski, Jane C. Hu, Lav Varschney, April Glaser, Charles Duan, Aaron Mak, Amanda Levendowski, Ethan Zuckerman, Nikki Stevens, David S. Levine, P. W. Singer, Ari Ezra Waldman, Rusty D. Pickens via Slate on October 14, 2019
Poppy Northcutt.

Inside Apollo Mission Control, From the Eyes of the First Woman on the Job

Poppy Northcutt planned the vital flight trajectories that got astronauts home from their missions to the moon.
by Erin Blakemore via National Geographic on July 18, 2019

The Rocket Scientist Who Had to Elude the FBI Before He Could Escape Earth

Frank Malina's scientific dreams were as radical as his politics.
by Fraser MacDonald via Literary Hub on June 26, 2019

Jeff Bezos Dreams of a 1970s Future

If the sci-fi space cities of Bezos’s Blue Origin look familiar, it’s because they’re derived from the work of his college professor.
by Fred Scharmen via CityLab on May 13, 2019

The Definitive Oral History of TiVo

How the original DVR paved the way for Netflix and the cord-cutter movement.
by Tom Roston via OneZero on April 2, 2019

Spying on Tesla

Looking at a scientist’s FBI file.
by JPat Brown, Michael Morisy, B. C. D. Lipton via Lapham’s Quarterly on March 20, 2019
Margaret Hamilton stands next to a stack of paper as tall as she is - the software she and her team produced for the Apollo project.

Margaret Hamilton Led the NASA Software Team That Landed Astronauts on the Moon

Apollo’s successful computing software was optimized to deal with unknown problems.
by Alice George via Smithsonian on March 14, 2019

Model Metropolis

Behind one of the most iconic computer games of all time is a theory of how cities die—one that has proven dangerously influential.
by Kevin Baker via Logic on January 30, 2019

The Forgotten '80s Home Robots Trend

Alexa’s interface is treated as revolutionary, but you might be surprised to learn of its predecessors from the mid-1980s.
by John Ohno via Tedium on May 24, 2018

The Jet Engine Is a Futuristic Technology Stuck in the Past

Rockets and turbofans have promised to realize dreams of transportation progress—for decades.
by Christopher Schaberg via The Atlantic on February 11, 2018

Nikola Tesla: The Extraordinary Life of a Modern Prometheus

Tesla created inventions that continue to alter our daily lives, but he died nearly penniless.
by Richard Gunderman via The Conversation on January 3, 2018

How Douglas Engelbart Invented the Future

Two decades before the personal computer, a shy engineer unveiled the tools that would drive the tech revolution.
by Valerie Landau via Smithsonian on January 3, 2018

Rediscovering History’s Lost First Female Video Game Designer

In 1976, Joyce Weisbecker programmed games for an RCA PC and console based on technology created at home by her dad.
by Harry McCracken via Fast Company on October 27, 2017

How Texas Rebuilt After the Deadliest Hurricane in U.S. History

The 12-year process of creating a "new normal" in Galveston.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on August 29, 2017

The Secret Origin Story of the iPhone

An exclusive excerpt from "The One Device" about the engineering fight that created the iPhone as you know it.
by Brian Merchant via The Verge on June 13, 2017

A Devastating Mississippi River Flood That Uprooted America's Faith in Progress

The 1927 disaster exposed a country divided by stereotypes, united by modernity.
by Susan Scott Parrish via Zócalo Public Square on April 14, 2017
Robert Rauschenberg and Billy Klüver collaborating on an art project

“God Help American Science”: Engineering Theatre and Spectacle

When an event promises you will "hear the body broadcast its sounds," "see without light," and "see dancers float on air,” there’s bound to be disappointment.
by W. Patrick McCray via Patrick McCray on September 7, 2016

A Century of Highway Zombies

Since the 1920s, “highway hypnosis” has lulled drivers to disaster.
by Carmine Grimaldi via The Atlantic on July 29, 2016

The Battle Ship in Union Square

In 1917, the U.S. Navy built a full-size battleship in the heart of New York City.
by Amanda Uren via Mashable on April 30, 2015
Magellan’s ship, the Victoria, in the Pacific Ocean on the map of the New World.

The Land Divided, The World United

Building the Panama Canal.
via Linda Hall Library on April 8, 2014
View More
30 of
110

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History