Issues in Science and Technology

"r&d" means something else on capitol hill

Science in Congress

“R&D” Means Something Different on Capitol Hill

Scientists need to learn how information flows to congressional staffers—and the crucial role they play in setting policy.

Snapshot

Shizu Saldamando

Shizu Saldamando’s work challenges social and artistic norms by spotlighting overlooked lives and examining how language, fashion, and memory shape culture.

Book Review

War Is Us

John Alic

From their beginnings as rational technical disciplines, engineering and the physical sciences have been entangled in warfighting.

The Ongoing Transformation

Using Storytelling to Investigate Scientific Questions

Arula Ratnakar, Mia Armstrong-López

Fiction can be an important tool to explore complex science and technology questions. Arula Ratnakar discusses how storytelling can help experts and nonexperts alike think through complex issues.

Science Education

Inclusive Science Education Is Not Zero-Sum

David Asai

Including everyone in science education not only improves the scientific enterprise, but it is essential for the democratization of personal agency in the twenty-first century.

Science Fellows

15 Years of California’s Science & Technology Policy Fellowship

Bruce M. Alberts, Sarah Brady, Keleigh Friedrich, Amber Mace, Maxine Savitz

Lessons from a thriving Sacramento-based program can help similar initiatives improve decisionmaking across the nation.

Science for Policy

Supplying State Legislatures With Scientific Expertise

Adam C. Jones, Jonathan Z. Kaye, Harvey V. Fineberg

A national network of state-based science and technology policy fellows can strengthen the exchange of information between scientists and policymakers.

The Strange New Politics of Science

Vol. XLI, No. 3, Spring 2025

Solving the disconnects between science and society will require much more than good ideas and good intentions—it will require the political will to bring the fragmented institutions of science together. Today’s political environment precludes the science community from making its old pitches to Congress; it will need to break old habits, build new bonds at personal, local, and regional levels, and reconsider the way it works.

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Spring 2025
Finding and Training the Missing Inventors
A Discussion of
How Some Universities Translate Inclusive Innovation Into Regional Growth
Responses By
Naomi Hausman Christian Ketels
Spring 2025
A Fragile Network
A Discussion of
Don’t Rank Research Universities—Compare Them
Responses By
Cole Clark Eric W. Kaler, J. Michael Oakes David V. Rosowsky Jonathan R. Cole

Beyond the Headlines

Driverless Trucks Seem on a Roll

In Texas recently, the first fully driverless trucking service—using one semitrailer—started running a regular commercial long-haul route. Soon after, a trade group petitioned the Trump administration to “streamline federal regulations to spark… Read More

Musical Sea Lion Adding to New View of Animals

Grooving to a playlist of songs, a teenage California sea lion named Ronan has demonstrated anew her ability to keep a beat, better than when she was a pup, and even better… Read More

Cities Turning the Tap on Wastewater Reuse

Phoenix is building an advanced water purification plant to convert wastewater into drinking water, joining a number of western cities looking to prepare for a drier future. While “potable reuse depends on… Read More

Space Debris Increasingly Threatens Satellites

If the growing buildup of space debris is not controlled, government and private companies will be unable to safely operate satellites for communication, navigation, and research, the European Space Agency predicts. Compounding… 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.

What If an All-Knowing Algorithm Ran Traffic and Transit?

Henry Grabar

A journalist who reports on cities and autonomous vehicles responds to Linda Nagata’s “Ride.”

Response
Ride

Linda Nagata

Jasmine, a hotel worker in a future climate-ravaged Hawaii, is desperate for a change to her monotonous routine. When a guest tells Jasmine about a secret hack to tinker with the taxi-share system the island’s workers rely on, she’s forced to ride with some unusual fellow commuters, who change her mind about what her true destination should be.
Automated Justice?

Elizabeth Joh

The emerging applications of artificial intelligence promise huge social benefits: significant gains in detecting breast cancer that allow radiologists to focus on other patient needs, the deciphering of text inside a 2,000-year-old… Read More

Response
The 28th

Mark Stasenko

In a future legal system in which the investigators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and juries are all replaced or supervised by artificial intelligence, who can be trusted? And are the contradictions and flaws inherent in human decisionmaking actually an asset?
The Minnesota Diet

Charlie Jane Anders

In a future city complete with vertical farms, rooftop gardens, and no carbon footprint, the city’s survival still depends on regular food deliveries from the outside. What happens when those deliveries suddenly stop showing up?
Can We Insulate Ourselves From Food Shortages?

Christopher Wharton

A food systems and security researcher responds to Charlie Jane Anders’ short story “The Minnesota Diet.”

Response

Collection

Climate and Health

Expore the Collection

Climate change poses a significant threat to human health. Extreme heat, stronger storms, new pathogens, food and water insecurity, and many other stressors pose dangers to human well-being. In addition, these health risks are not evenly distributed: They will affect society’s most vulnerable people most. What can be done to keep all people healthy on a warmer planet?

Foiling the Growing Threat of Fungal Pathogens

Angel N. Desai, George R. Thompson III

Climate change, changing migration patterns, and our agriculture system have created a perfect environment for fungal pathogens to thrive.
Channels for Arctic Diplomacy

Nataliya Shok, Katherine Ginsbach

Illustration by Shonagh Rae During the summer of 2016, in Russia’s arctic Yamal Peninsula, a heat wave resurfaced anthrax bacteria long buried in the permafrost. The bacteria then killed thousands of reindeer… Read More
Behind the Bougainvillea Curtain: Wildfires and Inequality

Michael Méndez

More equitable approaches to preparation and relief efforts for wildfires and other disasters must include undocumented Latino and Indigenous migrants.
A Climate Equity Agenda Informed by Community Brilliance

Jalonne L. White-Newsome

With every heat wave and flood, the failure to translate climate science into insight and action puts the health and well-being of people in vulnerable communities at risk. Intentional partnerships between residents, scientists, government, industry, and philanthropy can fix this disconnect.