News Updates

Across the United States, politicians of all stripes generally agree on the need for major criminal justice reforms, and though there has been some federal action, states are making the most progress, says a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who focuses on social problems. As part of a series of articles in Issues on mass incarceration, two officials at the Council of State Governments Justice Center described the experiences of four states making notable strides and outlined lessons that others might apply in reducing incarceration while ensuring public safety.

First came laboratory-grown hamburgers, potentially opening the door to culturing meat in factories to help satisfy growing world demand while being, advocates say, ethically and environmentally friendlier than conventional means. Taking note, two Arizona State engineering analysts wrote in Issues that society should start planning policy and institutional responses fitted to this emerging technology. Now adding even more sizzle to the scene, a Harvard team has solved the problem of growing more densely textured steaks that mimic the form and flavor of bovine counterparts.

Making sure that the new technologies for human gene editing yield socially desirable results will require expanding the diversity of researchers in laboratories, making regulatory processes more open and transparent, and promoting early and sustained public involvement, says a molecular biologist in the field. Going even deeper, Issues has examined the technical, social, ethical, and policy aspects of human gene editing, most recently with expert views on the value of public participation, on promising venues for deliberations, and on ways to encourage positive and deter problematic work.

Even as some US cities are moving to restrict use of Roundup and numerous lawsuits have targeted the herbicide, some observers argue that it is safe. In a deep look in the latest Issues, a cancer epidemiologist describes how what he calls “flawed scientific evidence” has been used to wrongfully condemn Roundup, and he asks the scientific community and government regulators to “refocus the energy and resources spent on trying to demonize this useful and valuable chemical on problems that really matter.”

With 25% fewer college students pursing English majors now than before the Great Recession—most of the missing having moved into technical fields—economists worry about producing enough “storytellers” to fill management ranks in major parts of the economy. Their concern aligns with a recent National Academies study, described in Issues, that calls for higher education to better blend disciplines and aim at producing well-rounded individuals with, among other attributes, good written and oral communication skills and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings.

Citing economic and environmental reasons, the utility owners of a large coal-fired power plant in Arizona are shutting it down, largely with the support of the region’s Native American tribes that are now working to help local residents cope with emerging challenges. Nothing new here. The same forces have driven the nation’s century-long move away from coal as an energy source, as a longtime science and policy consultant recently detailed in Issues, debunking the claim by conservatives that some sort of political “war on coal” has been a key factor.

After a decade in which technology start-up companies focused solely on fast growth, entrepreneurs and investors are reportedly starting to prioritize profit. About time. In the latest Issues, an independent technology consultant laid out data showing how over-hyping new technologies has led to economic losses and slowing innovation, adding that “My hope is that this discussion will help decision-makers—from individual investors to national policy leaders—recognize hype, avoid its negative effects, and evaluate the economic promise of emerging technologies in more realistic ways.”

This year’s prize in physics went to three scientists for their work in understanding the cosmos and Earth’s place in it, and the prize in chemistry went to three scientists for developing practical lithium ion batteries. Basic and applied. This mix is a hallmark of today’s “richly interwoven system of scientific and technological research in which there is no clear hierarchy of importance and no straightforward linear trajectory,” three Harvard scholars noted in Issues, adding that “accepting this reality has profound implications for the design of research institutions, the allocation of resources, and the national policies that guide research.”

An international team recently produced the first “cultivated meat” in space, in a proof-of-concept experiment aboard the International Space Station that its backers say might enable production of food on long space missions—and even catalyze an environmentally friendlier animal farming industry on Earth. The project highlights again the need, as two Arizona specialists in sustainable engineering have argued in Issues, to “start thinking about how factory-grown meat might transform our food system, the environment, and even our culture.”

A growing number of private companies are working to harness nuclear fusion as a practical, affordable, safe, and environmentally sound way to produce electricity, says a Bloomberg report that provides a tour of the general landscape. In Issues, a nuclear engineer turned venture capitalist recently offered an insider’s look at one these innovative efforts, calling it perhaps “the riskiest and most significant venture project of my career” that “if it succeeds, would change the world in profound ways.”

Robert Redford, the director of A River Runs Through It, recently chided the Trump administration for repealing the so-called Waters of the United States rule and proposing “a flimsy substitute that would leave half the nation’s wetlands and millions of miles of streams without the protection they need.” In Issues, a longtime environmental consultant examined the rule’s backstory, finding that “historical perspective points toward both the abiding importance of wetlands for the nation and the need for a policy framework that can assure stewardship of wetlands even in the face of changing political winds.”

The women’s 800-meter race at the World Athletics Championships now under way was marked by the absence of the previous champion and Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya, who along with all other females with elevated natural testosterone levels was banned from competing in races of this distance. In Issues, two researchers who have studied the interconnections between science, sport, and sex lay out in detail why the ban is fundamentally flawed and propose a more inclusive classification approach that better serves female athletes with genetic variations.