Five to read

Michigan Central and the rebirth of Detroit: Michigan Central was once one of the grandest railway stations in the United States - the gateway to a fabulously wealthy city, dominated by the auto industry. Thousands of workers passed through the building in search of new lives - immigrants from Europe and the Middle East along with black workers, part of the “great migration” northwards, from the prejudice and poverty of the agricultural South. But Detroit’s days of lavish prosperity are long gone. The station has been closed and abandoned for more than 30 years. Its tower, like the keep of a derelict fortress, is a poignant symbol of a once-great city’s decline. 
BBC 

Cyborgs: Elon Musk and the new era of neuroscience: Musk revealed the first details of an electronic brain implant developed by Neuralink, the secretive company he founded in 2016 to facilitate direct communications between people and machines. Its early applications will be in medicine to help people with severely damaged brains or nervous systems. But Musk also emphasized more futuristic plans that can give humans “the option of merging with artificial intelligence” by exchanging thoughts with a computer — augmenting the mental capacity of healthy people.
FT 

Richard Branson: The difference between having an idea and being an entrepreneur: Many people have good ideas, but not everyone becomes an entrepreneur. I’m often asked if there is a good way to work out whether your idea is a good one, so I’ve put together a quick guide for those wondering whether to make the plunge.
Virgin Blog 

Cool Britannia: where did it all go wrong? Twenty years after Labour’s landslide win, did the patriotism and triumphalism of 1997 sow the seeds of Brexit?
John Harris - NewStatesmanAmerica 

London's 1952 fog that killed 12,000 people: It wasn't until 2016, when scientists from Texas A&M University were investigating smog in Beijing and Xi'an, China that they determined a possible cause for the London event. They concluded that the London smog was comprised of concentrated sulfuric acid.
Interesting Engineering