News Updates

10/19/17 – The reward system in biomedical research can lead scientists to overlook potential biases—often unconscious—and fool themselves into believing a study’s splashy but flawed findings, a longtime science reporter recently argued in Issues, adding that such distorted studies “pervade the biomedical literature” and contribute to what’s become known as the “reproducibility crisis.” Extending this analysis, a scholar who works at the intersection of machine learning and computational linguistics says the best way around the reproducibility problem to scrap the current focus on the statistical significance of individual studies and instead pursue science in a way that “explicitly recognizes its communal and interconnected nature.”

10/17/17 – Two former high-ranking officials in the United States and Mexico recently argued for keeping—and strengthening—the North American Free Trade Agreement, which may be edging toward collapse, saying it has boosted the US economy and transformed the three-nation region into a global powerhouse. A trade policy expert made this case earlier in Issues, while proposing some updates to make NAFTA work even better as the partners engage world markets.

10/14/17 – As part of its drive to overturn the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, the Environmental Protection Agency recently released significantly lower estimates of the so-called social cost of carbon dioxide, a measure widely used to weigh the value of actions aimed at stopping climate change. Arguments about the numbers ensued. But in Issues, analysts have identified a more fundamental problem—the social cost of carbon dioxide is the wrong guide to follow—and they proposed an alternative method that better reflects what is known about long-term effects of climate change and how these effects should be valued by today’s decision-makers.

10/12/17 – If every cigarette smoker switched to using e-cigarettes, the result would be “tremendous health benefits” and a “significant gain in years of life,” according to a new study said to be the first to examine the health outcomes of such a switch. The findings align with an idea proposed in Issues that states should “move immediately and decisively beyond the serious limitations of federal tobacco law” and launch programs to test vaping and other tobacco alternatives as ways to reduce overall smoking rates.

10/11/17 – Raising livestock in large numbers for food is an ethical failing and environmental disaster, a columnist recently argued in the Guardian, a British newspaper, adding that the solution will come “only with the advent of cheap artificial meat.” With such a day in mind, two Arizona-based analysts have said in Issues that society should start thinking about “adaptive and responsible policy and institutional responses to the unpredictable and far-reaching social consequences of a transition to the production and consumption of factory-grown meat.”

10/9/17 – The steady increase in measles outbreaks in the United States is most likely due to people who choose not to vaccinate their children, a major new government study has found. But increasing vaccination rates will not be achieved “simply by pointing to the scientific evidence that vaccines are safe and effective,” a philosopher of science said recently in Issues, explaining that “science” must often compete with deeper political and philosophical matters, such as varying perceptions of risk and the role of expertise in a democracy.

10/8/17 – A thick bloom of algae now covers a huge area of western Lake Erie, nourished by nutrients running off of agricultural and urban lands, and such algal explosions are projected to become increasingly common in waterways across much of the United States. In Issues, three researchers have presented a range of options for restricting nutrient runoff, not only to protect the environment but to help rein in climate change.

10/3/17 – General Motors “believes in an all-electric future,” an official said in announcing plans to greatly expand its lineup of electric vehicles, and Ford said it plans to do likewise. But to fully capitalize on the potential of electric vehicles for reducing climate-altering carbon emissions from the transport sector, an analyst recently explained in Issues, new investments are needed in large-scale electricity storage and new public policies are needed to encourage recharging when renewable energy sources are providing the power.

10/2/17 – The controversy that erupted when many professional football players protested during the national anthem is misguided, an opinion writer says in the New York Times, adding that “we need a public argument clearly tethered to the two big policy questions raised by police misconduct and the broader crime and incarceration debate.” Addressing these questions, he says, “could point to a stable policy consensus around race and criminal justice, in a way that our present ‘Make America Great Again’ versus ‘You’re All White Supremacists’ culture war does not.” Well, Issues has provided a start, offering a series of articles by criminal justice experts that examine ways to reduce incarceration rates while protecting public safety, help current prisoners re-enter society, and ease the particularly damaging effects of incarceration on communities of color.