News Updates

As part of a test program aimed at fighting insect-borne diseases such as Zika, Florida is releasing thousands of genetically engineered mosquitoes. They are all males, which don’t bite humans. And they carry a gene that prevents their offspring from surviving to adulthood, thus suppressing future populations—including the females that do bite. In Issues, Robert M. Friedman, John M. Marshall, and Omar S. Akbari explore the risks and benefits of genetic pest management. They focus particularly on an emerging suite of “gene drive” technologies that they consider highly promising but deserving of heightened review by policymakers.

Apple has announced plans to build a $1 billon engineering campus in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The hub is expected to create thousands of good jobs—primarily in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and software development—over the next five years. These are precisely the kinds of jobs Lena Abu-El-Haija and Fay Cobb Payton have in mind when arguing for education reform in North Carolina. They call for all high schools in the state to offer computer science classes to prepare students for high-skilled careers. And importantly, schools should ensure that all students, especially those from underrepresented groups, are welcome and given support to succeed.

Under proposed legislation, government agencies could no longer bypass current data-gathering restrictions by tapping commercial brokers to buy user identification information collected from smartphones; they’ll first need a court order to acquire the information. About time, say Lauren Sarkesian and Spandana Singh of New America’s Open Technology Institute. In an Issues online exclusive, they explore the potential problems and call on Congress to adopt safeguards to prevent data brokers and government agencies—especially law enforcement—from doing surveillance by skirting the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

More than 160 former government leaders and Nobel Prize winners are calling for President Biden to back a temporary waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. They say this would boost manufacturing and speed immunizations and treatments in poorer countries. But in an Issues online exclusive, Ken Shadlen argues that relaxing patents might not achieve more equitable global access. For particularly complex pharmaceutical products—such as vaccines—where speed and quality are essential, he favors manufacturing partnerships to aid the transfer of knowledge and technology more quickly and safely.

The Senate Commerce Committee just held another round of hearings on the proposed Endless Frontier Act. The act would expand the role of the National Science Foundation and provide ramped-up funding for research on advanced technologies, among other actions. In a series of essays on the Endless Frontier Act, Issues explores the act’s potential benefits, such as helping the United States compete with China, and possible downsides, such as how science and technology can be a regressive factor in the economy. Suggestions for improving the legislation also figure in the mix.

A grandmother in Chicago recently received a phone call from a nurse in a local hospital’s “friendly caller” program, created to help lonely seniors cope with isolation during the pandemic. It worked: the recipient dubbed the nurse “my angel.” The program’s success reinforces a proposal in an Issues online exclusive by Colleen Galambos. She argues that health care professionals are well positioned to identify people at risk of isolation and loneliness, especially among underserved populations, and deliver care tailored to their health and social needs.

President Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan devotes $174 billion to encourage US drivers to switch to electric vehicles. The plan aims to lower the cost of EVs by offering new tax credits and rebates and to fund construction of many more charging stations, among other actions. But recent Issues articles suggest the road ahead might be rough. The United States has fallen behind the rest of the world, particularly China, in making EVs an attractive consumer option and in helping automakers and battery builders expand their EV operations.