News Updates

Facing a rising China, the Trump administration blocked China from acquiring advanced technologies owned by US companies, and the Biden administration may follow suit. But a Bloomberg Opinion analyst warns that such efforts will backfire. A better approach, MIT president L. Rafael Reif argues in an Issues online exclusive, will be for the United States to bolster its own science and technology enterprise. Congress can help by dramatically boosting funding aimed at generating long-term technological progress that will give the nation a competitive edge.

Many current and prospective college students reportedly aren’t taking advantage of information about which schools and majors offer the best prospects for return on their educational investments. Perhaps this isn’t surprising. In Issues, two experts on workforce education argue that the nation’s labor market information system is broken. They call for a national online “jobs navigation system” to help students—and displaced workers—identify skills needed by industry and how to obtain them, and to alert employers to newly trained workers who fit their needs.

Even as some people see cities being made obsolete by the COVID-19 pandemic, New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo argues that “not only are cities worth saving, they are also ripe for rebirth.” He adds that the nation “should make rebuilding our urban landscape a top priority.” In Issues, an economist, entrepreneur, and longtime observer of cities provides a blueprint for doing just that. Cities certainly have problems, Carl Schramm writes, but adds that new research points to better approaches for urban revitalization, with restoring their competitiveness being the key.

A proposed balloon flight to advance research on reflecting sunlight to cool the atmosphere and curb global warming is meeting resistance from critics who say such geoengineering poses unacceptable risks. One scientist involved in the test, Harvard’s David Keith, acknowledges potential risks, but says “understanding them requires a range of activities including experiments.” In Issues, he lays out a framework of basic principles to guide research on solar geoengineering as part of a package that includes reducing the drivers of atmospheric warming and studying climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The first patients successfully treated for a genetic disorder using the gene-editing tool CRISPR are doing fine. Treated in July 2019, the 10 patients had sickle cell disease or a related blood disorder, beta thalassemia. “They appear to be cured of their disease, which is simply remarkable,” says Jennifer Doudna, who shared a Nobel Prize this year for codiscovering CRISPR. In an Issues interview, she surveys the technology’s broad potential in health and other fields, and calls for public input to ensure its responsible use for the benefit of society.

The Amazon-owned company Zoox is rolling out an electric autonomous vehicle that the company hopes will, at some point, become commercially viable robotic taxis. And in the current pandemic, some observers like the prospect of hailing your own self-contained vehicle to move around town. But not everyone is ready to ride. In Issues, experts say that self-driving vehicles of all types still face fundamental concerns about safety, that there is no agreement on what “safe” even means, and that the industry should avoid a hasty dash for commercial profit.

The Federal Communications Commission will award $9.2 billion to a handful of companies—including SpaceX—to expand high-quality broadband internet access in rural areas. The agency said the awards, to be spread over 10 years, will help millions of people “who for too long have been on the wrong side of the digital divide.” Teenagers may especially benefit. In Issues, a scholar of technology’s impact on society says teens who regularly gather information and communicate online see gains in reproductive and mental health, professional development and economic security, and civic engagement.

World Athletics, the governing body of track and field competition, should stop sex testing female athletes, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The group argues that testing is based on “arbitrary definitions of femininity and racial stereotypes.” The oversight body isn’t budging. In Issues, two scholars (one an Olympian) push against sex testing. Focusing on the case of the South African champion runner Caster Semenya, now infamously banned from competition, they detail how sex testing is misguided, how it got that way, and how the process might be improved.

Singapore becomes the first country to approve meat grown from animal cells for commercial sale. Produced by a San Francisco-based company, the new chicken bites with breading and seasoning will be followed early next year by cultured burgers. In Issues, two analysts examine possible benefits of this emerging technology, including sustainably feeding a hungry world and countering climate change. They suggest that society needs to more actively consider how the nascent industry “might transform our food system, the environment, and even our culture.”

Conservation biologists are teaming up with computer scientists to map the migratory routes of mule deer in the American West. Wildlife managers and policy-makers are using the information to help the animals circumvent human-made obstacles along their journeys. This success illustrates gains envisioned in Issues by a zoologist who calls for biological researchers to reach beyond their usual networks. By joining with experts from diverse fields—architecture, engineering, mathematics, medicine, robotics, and more—they can find novel technological tools for protecting biodiversity and ecosystem health.