The Ongoing Transformation
Industrial Policy
A year after he left office, President Biden’s industrial policy is widely considered a failure. But the tools his administration developed are still in play and have defied a long-standing consensus about what is possible.
As research budgets tighten, priorities evolve, and new funding models emerge, the grand challenge framework can restore coherence, direction, and shared purpose across the scientific enterprise.
Tech Sovereignty
Today’s emerging economies need to carefully manage tradeoffs to achieve technological sovereignty and a globally competitive position.
The Ongoing Transformation
Newark, New Jersey is working to build a new, inclusive tech innovation ecosystem. Fay Cobb Payton and Lyneir Richardson share how Newark is pioneering data-led innovation with a diverse group of entrepreneurs.
Engineering Culture
Restoring US manufacturing leadership requires a culture shift in how engineers, technologists, and technicians translate ideas into production.
Digital Infrastructure
To ensure the nation’s leadership in artificial intelligence, cloud computing infrastructure must be regulated to encourage competition and enable innovation, building on lessons from other sectors.
The Ongoing Transformation
Technical standards are the “the invisible infrastructure of modern life,” underpinning public safety, consumer protection, interoperability, and innovation. Laurie Locascio explains how standards enable innovation, and why more researchers should be involved with the standards community.
Regulatory Burden
The current policy environment offers a unique opportunity to act swiftly on the longstanding issue of burdensome research regulations.
Real Numbers
The United States should treat STEM talent development as a core pillar of national security, but opportunities for STEM workforce training and education have not developed in a coordinated manner.
Publicly Funded Science
The North Carolina Collaboratory is “working proof” of how state-directed research at universities can make publicly funded science accountable to the people of the state.
The Ongoing Transformation
The legality of cannabis in many states has been decided by voters, not regulators, and it remains illegal at the federal level. How has this divide shaped cannabis safety, research, and policy?
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Vol. XLII, No. 2, Winter 2026
The past year’s cuts to science funding, haphazard layoffs and rehires at federal agencies, and myriad threats to federal support for research universities have left many researchers demoralized. In fast-moving and deeply uncomfortable times like this, the science community searches for a story about where we are going. After nearly 80 years of federally driven science policy, the stories in this issue demonstrate that states can be places where transformative ideas about the relationship between science and the public can emerge, possibly offering new models to connect the research enterprise with society’s needs.
Browse the Issue
For faster access to our full journal and to see the beautiful artwork that accompanies our feature essays, subscribe to the print edition today.
Subscribe to the Print EditionIn response to essays published in Issues, our readers weigh in on critical topics in policy related to science, technology, and society.
Winter 2026
A Discussion of
Responses By
Winter 2026
A Discussion of
Responses By
Moira Shourie returns to Mumbai, the city she once called home while working at MTV India. She reflects on how a culture of celebrity, rampant inequality, and complex urban design divide some residents and bring others together.
Response
An Indian actor in a future Mumbai has authorized politicians, entertainers, and businesses to use his likeness. When he discovers his image is being used as a tool for repression—and when two kids he’s close to disappear—the actor is forced to confront what he really gave away.
What happens as AI systems become embedded in military operations? Candace Rondeaux explores how command structures are already reorganizing around AI black boxes—and what it would look like to design decisionmaking structures that combine technical capacity with human expertise.
Response
How will artificial intelligence transform warfare? Andrew Liptak’s story brings us to the front lines to see how a glitchy combat AI deals with the tricky task of balancing the demands of a mission with the unpredictability of the battlefield.
Would you trust artificial intelligence to coach your favorite sports team? This month’s Future Tense Fiction story brings us straight to the pitch, where a soccer team is battling its way toward the Premier League with the help of an unusual, technologically enabled manager.
Sports teams are turning to artificial intelligence to gain a competitive advantage. Will they alienate their fans in the process?
Response
If the public funds science and gives it autonomy to govern itself, then benefits such as economic growth, innovation, and national security will follow. This unwritten social contract was long thought to underpin policymakers’ relationship to the scientific enterprise, but recent events suggest those days are over.
Why has the idea of an implicit social contract between society and science had a hold on scientists’ imaginations for so long? And what does it mean now that the relationship has frayed?
American research universities have unleashed an age of massive technical innovation—but they’ve failed to innovate their own designs to meet the changing needs of society.
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson spent five decades in public service, during which she ushered through landmark science and technology legislation and helped to advance opportunities for all Americans.
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