The Latest

What Do China’s Scientific Ambitions Mean for Science—and the World?

Silvia Schwaag Serger, Cong Cao, Caroline S. Wagner, Xabier Goenaga, Koen Jonkers

Taking a deep look at how China has transformed its capacity for scientific research and innovation provides a window into the country’s ambitions and possible paths in the future.Read More

Recent Articles

INFRastructure

Clean Firm Power is the Key to California’s Carbon-Free Energy Future

California’s plan to make all of its electricity carbon free by 2045 will double electricity demand. Three groups of analysts optimize its grid to be economically and environmentally sustainable.Read More

COVID-19

Postpandemic

Nancy Tomes, Vivian Tseng, David Walt, Kumble R. Subbaswamy, Jeff Bingaman, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, William E. Spriggs, Leana S. Wen, Malka Older, Mark Hagerott, David Biello, Denis Cortese, Elizabeth Freeman, Laurie E. Locascio, Aseem Inam, Makhtar Diop, Guru Madhavan

We asked 17 experts to write about how COVID-19 will change the world. They explore postpandemic robots, time, disasters, economics, and much more.Read More

Art

Duyi Han: The Saints Wear White

Alana Quinn

An outpouring of creative responses have given voice to suffering, loss, and trauma caused by the pandemic. For Duyi Han, the creative director of Doesn’t Come Out, a design studio in New York and Los Angeles, the response was personal. Born in Shanghai, Han became increasingly concerned about his grandparents, who live in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus first appeared. Read More

Imagining the future

Can Time-Traveling Guts Cure What Ails Us?

Biodesign Challenge

VISION: Sample and log people’s intestinal bacteria, so that if they get sick they can restore their gut microbiome to its former healthy state. Read More

In focus

  • COVID-19

    Fresh insights on the social, political, and scientific aspects of the pandemic.

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From the Archives

Rethinking Infrastructure in an Era of Unprecedented Weather Events

Thaddeus R. Miller, Mikhail Chester, Tischa A. Muñoz-Erickson

As the government considers a huge investment in America’s infrastructure systems, a more integrated and systemic approach is needed to ensure the nation’s resilience in the face of a changing climate.Read More

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Dark Thoughts: Philosophy and the Texas Grid Failure

Adam Briggle

The little electric hearts of appliances give the modern home a comforting background hum. The whirl and wheeze of fridge and freezer. The occasional sigh of the computer in its sleep. The whoosh of the furnace blowing hot air through the vents. Read More

How Social Media Apps Encode Users’ Privacy, Not Always for Good

Morteza Rahimi, Mostafa Taqavi

Although there are many philosophical and sociological definitions of the concept of “privacy” as an ethical value in technology, what ultimately affects people’s daily life is how privacy is designed into these products. Read More

News

Connecting today’s headlines with deeper policy analyses from the Issues archives.

Partner Up to Speed Global Vaccine Production

Congress Considering Revamping the National Science Foundation

Reaching the Isolated During the Pandemic

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