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1 week ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
I’ve been writing Construction Physics since September of 2020. Over the past four and a half years I’ve written 186 essays, totalling around 600,000 words. The newsletter was originally focused on understanding the problems of construction productivity (though it’s never been entirely about that), but I have branched out to write more about a variety of topics, including energy, transportation, and scientific and technological progress.
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1 week ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at solar PV adoption in Pakistan, a sodium-ion battery startup closing up shop, Figure’s humanoid robot progress, an AI-based artillery targeting system, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber.
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2 weeks ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
Modern civilization relies on electric power for almost everything, and even small disruptions to electric service are incredibly disruptive. Because of this, we demand a high level of reliability in electrical service. In 2023, the average US electricity customer was without power for only 366 minutes over the course of the year, equivalent to a service uptime of more than 99.9%.
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2 weeks ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at China’s sulfur emissions, Japan’s new semiconductor effort, declining sunbelt housing construction, water competition in Texas, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber.
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3 weeks ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at US bridges at risk of ship collisions, Airbus testing an unducted fan, an earthquake in Myanmar, China’s undersea cable cutter, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber.
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4 weeks ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
The most prestigious scientific achievement is likely the Nobel Prize, which is awarded every year to “those who confer the greatest benefit to mankind” in the fields of physics, medicine, and chemistry (of course, there are also Nobel Prizes for literature and peace, as well as a Nobel Prize for economics which was added much later).
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1 month ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at Google’s answer to Starlink, US food imports, an enormous BYD factory, DeepSeek adoption, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber. For this week’s newsletter, Understanding Solar Energy, several folks asked about the code I used to run the various simulations.
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1 month ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
The biggest energy story of the last fifteen years is the rise of solar photovoltaics, also known as solar PV or simply solar panels. Solar PV was invented in the 1950s, and began to be used in appreciable volumes for utility-scale electricity generation in the US in the early 2000s, but only around the 2010s did it start to become a large share of planned generation projects worldwide. Since then, solar generation capacity has grown incredibly quickly.
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1 month ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links on buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at Chinese EUV machines, North Korea’s nuclear submarine, greenhouse gas and low-orbit satellites, far-UVC for pandemic prevention, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of reading list content is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber. No essay this week, but I’m working on a more involved piece about solar energy that will be out next week.
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1 month ago | 
construction-physics.com | Brian Potter
Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at China’s industrial diplomacy, streetlights and crime, deorbiting Starlink satellites, a proposed canal across Thailand, a looming gas turbine shortage, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber.