New Horizons for a Flat World
Every issue explores cutting-edge developments in technology, medicine, education, climate change, and much more. Articles provide in-depth analyses of science and technology’s impact on public policy, the economy, and society—bringing today’s best minds to bear on tomorrow’s most critical topics.
Editor's Journal
To Blog, or Not to Blog
“I’M HOME FROM HAVING A COLONOSCOPY—everything went fine, but I think I’ll let the drugs leave my system for a while longer before doing any serious blogging.” —Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) 12/5/05, 11:19… Read More
From the Hill
From the Hill – Winter 2006
White House unveils pandemic flu plan In a November 1 speech at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), President Bush proposed a multiyear plan to address the growing global threat of an… Read More
Features
Archives – Winter 2006
Committee on International Security and Arms Control The National Academy of Sciences formed the Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) in 1980 as a standing committee to bring the resources… Read MoreIs the Next Economy Taking Shape?
Recent economic trends, including a massive trade deficit, declining median incomes, and relatively weak job growth, have been, to say the least, somewhat disheartening. But there is one bright spot: strong productivity… Read MoreThe Kyoto Placebo
Global warming is a stealth issue in U.S. foreign policy. Even as the effects of mounting carbon dioxide (CO2) begin to make themselves felt, and huge multinationals such as General Electric and… Read MoreA Green Approach to Tax Reform
The Bush administration has called for federal tax reform and appointed an advisory panel to develop recommendations. Because the administration has stipulated that any reform must be “revenue-neutral,” there will be a… Read MoreRestoring Rivers
Between 1973 and 1998, U.S. fresh waters and rivers were getting cleaner. But that trend has reversed. If the reverse continues, U.S. rivers will be as dirty in 2016 as they were… Read MoreA Forgotten Model for Purposeful Science
Toward the end of Richard Nixon’s first term as president, his Republican administration forced on a reluctant National Science Foundation (NSF) a major research program that looked like something out of a… Read MoreCollaborative Advantage
Almost daily, news reports feature multinational companies—many based in the United States—that are establishing technology development facilities in China, India, and other emerging economies. General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola—the… Read MoreYes, in My Backyard: Distributed Electric Power
More than four generations of U.S. residents have come to accept the notion that electricity is best produced at large centralized power plants owned by monopolies. As a result, utilities continue to… Read MoreWill Government Programs Spur the Next Breakthrough?
The future health of the U.S. economy depends on faith: the faith that a new general-purpose technology will emerge that will enable the tech-savvy United States to maintain its pace of rapid… Read MoreRethinking, Then Rebuilding New Orleans
New Orleans will certainly be rebuilt. But looking at the recent flooding as a problem that can be fixed by simply strengthening levees will squander the enormous economic investment required and, worse,… Read More
Real Numbers
Brain Mobility
The high level of participation of international scientists and engineers in U.S. laboratories and classrooms warrants increased efforts to understand this phenomenon and to ensure that policies regarding the movement and activities… Read More
Book Reviews
Stranger in a Strange Land
An increasingly common aspect of globalization is the movement of plant and animal species to places that they did not previously inhabit. This movement includes plants sold for use in the horticultural… Read More
Racing to the top
The United States is in a race to the top of a flat world. Will it win in this competition for the highest global standard of living? According to Thomas Friedman in… Read More
Bad Fiction, Worse Science
Michael Crichton has achieved celebrity status as a novelist, film director, and television producer/series creator. Trained as a doctor, Crichton never pursued a medical career but instead successfully combined his interest in… Read More
Scientizing politics
The Republican War on Science offers a catalog of Republican-led confrontations with mainstream science, ranging from attacks on evolution and denial of climate change to the stacking of government advisory committees with… Read More