You may have noticed that our front page now features the International Space Station. So what better subject for our first article in 2018 to be about the history of this engineering feat? But the ISS itself is not as remarkable as the 150-year journey for a permanent human settlement of space.

We now begin with a story written back in 1869...

There are few materials in this world that resulted in civilisation-changing impacts. Bronze was discovered early in our history, but we didn't have the technology to apply it thoroughly. Iron started similarly, and it tool millennia to put them into construction and machine making. Aluminium (or "aluminum" in case you're an American) went through the process of discovery, novelty, application, and societal dependence in less than two centuries.

This is the story of how it came into being...

So you may have heard the news. A team of American geneticists have successfully edited the genes of a living human embryo. It's hard to believe that 15 or 20 years ago all of this is merely science fiction.

But as we take our baby steps towards transhumanism, we should, with all respect, give due credit to those who came before. As well as ask ourselves whether we want to know of what might come after....

Remember when we used to dabble with alien geometries? IFSA is going back to our roots (which was planted in our first article about our logo), and this time we're tackling a cousin of that nefarious Mobius strip...

There are few things in this world that are as simple as they are crucial to our civilisation; and these things exist as a solution to an old problem. To fight gravity, we have pulleys;  for multiplying force we use levers; and so on...

But in our modern times, the vexing problem of friction are the things that keeps engineers awake at night. And a very simple tool that have not essentially changed in centuries are the best things we have to keep it at bay...