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?
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.
Book Review
Drawing on nearly a decade of research, Diane M. Tober situates egg donors at the center of a sprawling, ethically thorny, and economically complex system. The result is one of the most detailed portraits yet of the hidden labor sustaining assisted reproduction.
Biomedical Research
Since 2007, Texas voters have approved $9 billion to chase cures for cancer and now dementia, embracing the idea that biomedical research is a force for public good, rather than a special interest handout to well-connected universities.
Editor’s Journal
The story of how the federal government came to fund science to solve the problem of plagues of locusts in the 1870s offers insights into the relationship between science and the American public.
University Research
Far from being passive recipients of federal research dollars, universities pour in substantial resources of their own. It’s time to do a better job of documenting those investments.
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.
The Ongoing Transformation
MIT labor economist David Autor discusses the possible impacts of AI on the future of work, what that means on an economic and human level, and what policies may be able to shape AI in a way that works for humans.
Animal Welfare
Considering how water breathers differ from air breathers in policy and practice could improve welfare for these animals, both captive and wild.
The ISSUES Interview
Simons Foundation president David Spergel talks about the evolving landscape for science philanthropy, his outlook for the research enterprise, and remaining hopeful in an uncertain time.
The Day Tomorrow Began
Across sculpture, painting, text, and music, Tavares Strachan creates immersive environments that blend everyday spaces with surreal landscapes.
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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
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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
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A Discussion of
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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.
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
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
Following the mass extinction of most species, the animals that fill a zoo in a future Arctic metropolis are lab-made—with one exception: an aging lion. When the lion escapes in the middle of the city’s Christmas festivities, a complex hunt ensues.
An expert in environmental philosophy and wildlife recovery responds to Margrét Helgadóttir’s “A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen.”
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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