Issues in Science and Technology

Nathalie Meibach, Changing Lines, 2023, paper, wood, data, 10 ft. x 9 ft. x 1 ft. The Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest-warming waters on the planet. This piece examines the chemical and biological changes in the gulf, with a particular focus on the Bay of Fundy.

Experiencing Data

Sculpting The Floods

Nathalie Miebach explores how scientific data can be experienced through artistic processes, making the complexities of natural systems physically and emotionally perceptible.

Digital Infrastructure

Why the Cloud Needs Competition

Asad Ramzanali

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

Simplify Research Regulations

Alan I. Leshner, Alex M. Helman

The current policy environment offers a unique opportunity to act swiftly on the longstanding issue of burdensome research regulations.

Real Numbers

Connecting the Dots for Defense STEM Workforce Development

Payuna Uday, Ruth David, Jeff Wilcox

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

Research That Solves North Carolina’s Problems

Jeffrey Warren, Blair Ellis Rhoades

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

How Cannabis Regulation Became a Giant Experiment

Symone T. Griffith, Maxwell C. K. Leung, Kelsey Schoenberg

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?

Eggonomics: The Global Market in Human Eggs and the Donors Who Supply Them by Diane M. Tober

Book Review

Making the Invisible Visible

Emily Packard Dawson

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.

Since 2007, Texas voters have approved $9 billion to chase cures for cancer and now dementia through CPRIT and DPRIT, embracing the idea that biomedical research is a force for public good, rather than a special interest handout to well-connected universities.

Biomedical Research

A Texas-Sized, Texas-Shaped Approach to Biomedical Research

Kenneth M. Evans, Kirstin R. W. Matthews, Heidi Russell

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.

Illustration of the Rocky Mountain Locust oviposition by Charles Valentine Riley, 1877.

Editor’s Journal

The “Terrible Engine of Destruction” That Inspired Federal Science Funding

Lisa Margonelli

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.

Industrial Policy

Can Industrial Policy Still Do Big Things?

Andrew Schrank

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.

AI future of work David Autor MIT economist podcast labor market machine intelligence

The Ongoing Transformation

How Is AI Shaping the Future of Work?

David Autor, Sara Frueh

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.

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Working Proofs for State-Level Science

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.

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From This Issue

Forum

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

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Winter 2026
Needed: A Transparent Indirect Cost Model
A Discussion of
Three Months on the Way to FAIR
Response By
Penny Gordon-Larsen
Winter 2026
Time to Treat Cannabis as Medicine
A Discussion of
A Coordinated Approach to Cannabis Policy and Product Safety
Response By
Uma Dhanabalan

Beyond the Headlines

The Invisible Infrastructure of the Modern World

Standards are the invisible infrastructure of the modern world. They’re the reason bridges are safe to cross, school buses are a particular shade of yellow, and your credit card will work at… Read More

Building Partnerships to Prevent Diabetes

Is running or weightlifting the best way to prevent type 2 diabetes in at-risk kids? This is the kind of question a scientist can design a research project around, and the media will… Read More

Atlantic Marine Reserve Reopened to Commercial Fishing

The Trump administration recently reopened a vast marine reserve in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing, declaring the protection set by Presidents Obama and Biden to be unnecessary, the New Bedford Light… Read More

What Artificial Intelligence Might Bring

“Where Is AI Taking Us?” The New York Times asks, providing short takes from eight experts on artificial intelligence’s potential benefits and ill effects, from mundane to momentous. For a deeper dive,… Read More

Future Tense Fiction

Future Tense Fiction is a speculative fiction series that uses imagination to explore how science and technology will shape our future. It features short stories written by acclaimed authors across a wide range of styles. Each story is paired with original artwork by Rey Velasquez Sagcal and a response essay from an expert who connects the fictional narrative to real-world policy debates.

Deficiency Agent

Andrew Liptak

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.
The Algorithmic Fog of War

Candace Rondeaux

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
Bonum Certamen

Andrés Martinez

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.
Can an AI Manage the “Beautiful Game”?

Deji Bryce Olukotun

Sports teams are turning to artificial intelligence to gain a competitive advantage. Will they alienate their fans in the process?

Response
A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen

Margrét Helgadóttir

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.
The Dawn of the Synthetic Age

Christopher Preston

An expert in environmental philosophy and wildlife recovery responds to Margrét Helgadóttir’s “A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen.”

Response

Collection

Perspectives on Science’s “Social Contract”

Explore the Collection

Over four decades, Issues has hosted many articles discussing science’s “social contract”—the idea, as physicist Harvey Brooks articulated it in 1988, that the scientific enterprise would provide “social benefits in exchange for an unusual degree of self-governance and financial support free of strings.” Today, this contract is clearly defunct: The federal government has cut funding for science, cast doubt on scientific findings, and prioritized investment in research outside the university system. Whatever the future of federally funded science is, it’s no longer “free of strings.” As the scientific enterprise tries to decide how to respond, it first needs to figure out what happened. The collection of these articles is part of an exploration of science’s social contract that is generously supported by The Kavli Foundation.

Discussing Science’s “Social Contract”

Ian Banks, Heather E. Douglas, David H. Guston, C. Brandon Ogbunu, Bina Venkataraman

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.
No Longer Free of Strings

Lisa Margonelli

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?
It’s Time for Universities to Redesign Their 75-Year-Old Contract

Michael M. Crow, William B. Dabars, David V. Rosowsky

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.
“The More Inclusion We Have in Science, the Better Outcomes We’ll Get.”

Eddie Bernice Johnson, Molly Galvin

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.