New Visions for National Security
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
The False Promise of the Scientist ex Machina
In a scene in the movie Annie Hall, Woody Allen is waiting in line to enter a movie and becomes disgusted with a guy near him in the line who is… Read More
From the Hill
From the Hill – Fall 2006
Bush vetoes stem cell research bill Within 24 hours of a Senate vote of 63 to 37 to approve the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, President Bush issued the first veto of… Read More
Perspectives
Ethics and Science: A 0.1% Solution
Science has an ethics problem. In South Korea, Woo Suk Hwang committed what is arguably the most publicized case of research misconduct in the history of science. The range of Hwang’s misconduct… Read MoreA New Science Degree to Meet Industry Needs
All of us are aware of urgent calls for new and energetic measures to enhance U.S. economic competitiveness by attracting more U.S. students to study science, mathematics, and engineering. In the case… Read MorePreventing Catastrophic Chemical Attacks
A terrorist attack on a single 90-ton chlorine tank car could generate a cloud of toxic gas that travels 20 miles. If the attack took place in a city, it could kill… Read More
Features
Archives – Fall 2006
Birdwing Butterfly from Papua New Guinea This image of a birdwing butterfly, included in the National Academies’ permanent art collection, is part of Rosamond Purcell’s larger body of work in which she… Read MoreSecuring Life Sciences Research in an Age of Terrorism
The anthrax attacks that closely followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks helped create a sense that danger was everywhere. They also helped create a crisis for science. Government statements that the anthrax attacks… Read MoreReorienting U.S. Drug Policy
The United States will soon surpass the half-million mark for drug prisoners, which is more than 10 times as many as in 1980. It is an extraordinary number, more than Western Europe… Read MoreFrom Brain Drain to Mutual Gain: Sharing the Benefits of High-Skill Migration
The news on high-skill migration (HSM) is good and getting better. More highly skilled people are moving across borders for education and work than ever before. Judging by figures on graduate-school applications… Read MoreFrom Energy Wish Lists to Technological Realities
The aspiration for new technology has been at the heart of every energy policy developed since the first oil embargo in 1973. President Bush’s 2006 State of the Union address continued the… Read MoreThe Shield and the Cloak
Imagine the 21st century as a three-dimensional chess game. One dimension represents the United States. One dimension represents the world of nation-states. The third dimension—a new one— represents stateless nations. In the… Read MoreNuclear Deterrence for the Future
The most significant event of the past 60 years is the one that did not happen: the use of a nuclear weapon in conflict. One of the most important questions of the… Read MoreGlide Path to Irrelevance: Federal Funding for Aeronautics
The nation’s 100-year preeminence in aviation is in serious jeopardy. So, too, are the medium- and long-term health and safety of the U.S. air transportation system. The peril stems from a lack… Read More
Book Reviews
From tubes to chips
This is an important book that is likely to be cited in all future work exploring both the origins of the semiconductor industry and the economic and industrial development of the Silicon… Read More
Chemical Weapons
The issue of chemical warfare has frayed the nerves of policymakers for the past century. Most recently, the U.S.-led coalition fully expected to find stockpiles of chemical weapons when it invaded Iraq… Read More
Just Say No to Tech Determinism
Technology often appears to bear the world along with an inexorable, irreversible momentum. Forces beyond human control seem to be driving us into a future of either boundless prosperity and unprecedented health… Read More