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the emerging threat of fungal pathogens

The Ongoing Transformation

The Rise of Deadly Fungal Pathogens

Changes in the global climate, in human settlement patterns, and even in our own body temperatures have made fungal pathogens an increasing health threat. On our latest podcast episode, Angel Desai talks about what fungal pathogens are, why they are becoming more dangerous, and how the public health community can respond.Read More

The Ongoing Transformation

science communication in a crisis

When Nuance Is the Enemy

How can scientists communicate effectively during a crisis—a moment when attitudes toward science shift from lukewarm interest to a demand for immediate answers?Read More

Sea Level

Illustration for Sea Level Rise article by Shonagh Rae

Our Bases Are Precarious!

Sea level rise has become a standard indicator of how humans are transforming the planet. But our ideas about sea level, why we measure it, and how it varies have changed radically over the centuries.

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Gallery

Richard Misrach, Entrance, Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository (under construction), Nevada, 1994, pigment print. Courtesy of the artist and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, © Richard Misrach.

Out of Site: Survey Science and the Hidden West

Artists explore visual technologies to revise our understanding of remote Western lands that are both within and without modern society.

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Poem

Shonagh Rae’s illustration for "The Ants"

The Ants

Nothing is more important to the ant
whose exoskeleton has been breached
by mushroom spores that are now
controlling his nervous system …Read More

Future Tense Fiction

Rey Velasquez Sagcal's illustration for "Coda" by Arula Ratnakar

Coda

When Ray discovers a secret that a powerful quantum computing company would rather keep hidden, she’s forced to question the very nature of her reality—and the memories that make it up.

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The Winter Issue

Winter 2025 ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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In response to essays published in Issues, our readers weigh in on critical topics in policy related to science, technology, and society.

The Future of Nuclear Power

The US Department of Energy and big tech companies such as Google and Amazon have announced their support for the development of advanced nuclear reactors. Do their efforts prefigure a nuclear renaissance? And what would such a renewal of the nuclear sector mean for society?

Nuclear Innovation

An Ambidextrous Approach to Nuclear Energy Innovation

An Ambidextrous Approach to Nuclear Energy Innovation

Tension between the promise of new nuclear technologies and uncertainty about their feasibility requires a diversified, balanced research portfolio that can be adjusted locally in concert with global progress.Read More

Engineering Education

Educating Engineers for a New Nuclear Age

Radical designs for fission and fusion energy systems require engineers who are grounded in technical knowledge, adept at engaging communities in participatory design, and fluent in ethical, equity-centered communication.Read More

Decentralized Nuclear?

Can Nuclear Power Go Local?

With origins in the Cold War military-industrial complex, nuclear power struggles to reinvent itself as part of the inclusive, democratic future envisioned by progressives.Read More

Nuclear Waste

nuclear regulatory commission

Deep Time: The End of an Engagement

For all its flaws, US nuclear waste policy at least relied on a sense of a moral responsibility toward the present and future. That may now be changing.Read More

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