His plan to replace it with homegrown rice did not go well.

Dig a 70-mile tunnel under the Bering Strait, and you get this amazing InterContinental Railway, which will reshape the world.

Steam cars hit the U.S. market in the 1890s but were largely extinct by the 1930s. Will technology bring them back?

The first "running machine" — later known as the bicycle — symbolizes a key design idea.

Alibaba has played a key role in China’s meteoric economic rise.

The media sells bad news, but scientific evidence shows that we are making progress toward a greener planet.

Synthetic milk is not a sci-fi fantasy; it already exists.

All roads may not lead to Rome, but many of them lead to wealth and prosperity — even 1,500 years after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Population growth is driven by three changes: Fertility, mortality, and migration.

For centuries, the only way to travel between the Old and New World was through ships like the RMS Lusitania. Experiences varied wildly depending on your income.

The future of American jobs isn't only services and tech.

Do we still remember what we learned in the 1940s?

Humanity is poised to pass the 8 billion milestone mid-November, but population growth is actually slowing down.

We asked 11 experts about the future of progress for humanity.

One of the fundamental questions for those studying and advocating progress is around understanding what variables can move the needle for the type of progress that you might want to see in the world. It's a key focus of the "progress studies" discipline and a question that has received increased attention from academics and public intellectuals in recent years.

As with any "big idea" progress means a lot of different things to different people and not everyone comes into the discussion with the same priors. Some experts are primarily focused on material progress while others emphasize the importance of moral progress. So to start the discussion, we asked each expert to define the term as they see it from their specific vantage point.

An interview with economist Tyler Cowen on why American progress has seemed to stall and how we can get it back on track.

A new bridge joins a divided Croatia, but it cuts Bosnia out of Europe — literally and figuratively. A bridge meant to unite also divides.

Catholic sisters outnumber priests and religious on every continent.

By toppling medieval Europe’s mightiest political power, the Protestant Reformation ushered in a new age of freedom, religious and otherwise.

Investments in public libraries are a long-term investment in children and communities.

The U.S. has the world's largest debt in absolute terms, but Japan's is the largest when measured in terms of its debt-to-GDP ratio.

Iceland consistently ranks as the most gender-equal nation. It is also the nation where men and women are most likely to pursue sex-typical jobs.

The decline of global poverty is one of the most important achievements in history, but the end of poverty is still very far away.

Made from concrete, it cost 15% less per square foot to construct than a typical house.

The results of a recent study counter some common claims found in anti-immigration narratives.

France is split in two by its very own "desert," the Empty Diagonal. The area’s depopulation is fairly recent, and Paris is to blame.

Why does Seattle continue to be a place that nurtures the development of breakthrough technologies but not Minneapolis, Memphis, or Minsk?

Grad students will be taxed at the highest rate in the country, even higher than billionaires. For millions of young people, the American dream is to study the thing you’re […]