Karlotta Freier

• Developmental Editing

  The Editors

  When we  announced that Asterisk was doing an issue about development, we started to get questions. Questions like "What kind of development?" and "Do you mean development economics? Drug development? Developmental biology? Development as in charity fundraising?"

• forecast

  How Long Til We’re All on Ozempic?

  Greg Justice

  Over 100 million Americans, and possibly many more, could benefit from GLP-1 drugs. When can they expect to get them?

• interview

  Development Finance Done Right

  Andrew Herscowitz

  A veteran diplomat explains how to navigate the U.S. development ecosystem, master the interagency process, and bring electricity to 200 million people.

• Why We Shut Down

  Sarah Eustis-Guthrie Ben Williamson

  In international development, it’s not enough to try to do good. We need the tools to tell if a project is really working — and the incentive to end it if it’s not.

• The Next Revolution in Animal Agriculture

  Constance Li

  The technologies of precision livestock farming could reshape animal agriculture. How will that go for the animals?

• The Wrong Kind of City?

  Dietrich Vollrath

  How much can the way cities grow tell us about the economic trajectory of their countries? According to the father of modern sociology, quite a lot.

• Want Growth? Kill Small Businesses

  Karthik Tadepalli

  The central question of development economics is simple: how can poor countries become rich? The answer is neither small-scale, targeted interventions nor broad generalizations about growth. Instead, we should focus on firms.

• Through the Looking Glass, and What Zheludev et al. (2024) Found There

  Georgia Ray

  Every time microbiologists develop a new way of looking, they find that there’s more to see than they expected.

• Culture Studies

  Henrik Karlsson

  Montessori classrooms don’t have much in common with the Jesuit colleges of early modern Europe. But students in both settings learn more than a core curriculum — instead they’re taught a distinctive culture. And then they pass it on.

• Can You Trust An AI Press Release?

  Lawrence Chan

  Of course not. Here’s how leading AI labs mislead consumers, journalists, and each other.

• The Misery Bomb

  Matt Reynolds

  Children across the Western world are getting less happy. If we can’t find a way to reverse the trend, it might have an outsized impact on their future.

• Artificial Wombs When?

  Sarah Constantin

  What to expect when you’re expecting in 2050.

• fiction

  Sins of the Children

  Adrian Tchaikovsky

  The circle of life on Chelicer 14d.