News Updates

Edward O. Wilson, the Harvard biologist who championed the importance of preserving diverse species and ecosystems, has died. He was 92. Wilson made his case partly in Issues, in a 1985 article he called “among the first to document and assess the problem of biodiversity in the context of public policy.” He later wrote in Issues that advances in technology, particularly information technology and genomics, could make it possible to create “an electronic encyclopedia of life designed to organize and make immediately available everything known about each of the millions of species.” Scientists and policymakers could use the information “to meet the concerns of greatest importance to the geographic region in which the research is conducted, being equally relevant to agriculture, medicine, and economic growth.”

A new report puts a dollar amount on how the heat in Phoenix affects people and businesses, and on the costs and benefits of potential remedies. Three area researchers are also on the case. In Issues, Nicholas Weller, Michelle Sullivan Govani, and Mahmud Farooque describe how they use a process called participatory technology assessment to bring citizens together with scientists and policymakers to explore mitigation options for the region’s extreme heat. The process, the authors write, can also be applied at the federal level to examine complex challenges such as gene editing and warding off asteroids that involve science, technology, and uncertainty.

Nations pushing to regulate or ban lethal autonomous weapons that use artificial intelligence and operate without meaningful human control are meeting this week, in the face of continuing setbacks. In Issues, Amitai Etzioni and Oren Etzioni examine this matter as part of a broader look at when and how to regulate AI and other smart technologies. Regarding autonomous weapons, the authors propose adopting a tiered decisionmaking system that pairs conventional practices with new AI oversight tools. These “AI Guardians” would prevent the weapons from acting in ways that violate accepted safety parameters, such as relying on single-source information or targeting schools.

Older Americans not only have been most likely to die from COVID-19, but they continue to endure “the isolation and fear associated with the pandemic” long after younger people have largely resumed normal lives, says a New York Times report. Writing in Issues early in the pandemic, Colleen Galambos saw this threat emerging. Her remedy, which still applies, sees the health care system as key in identifying isolated and lonely seniors and stepping in to help them. And to extend the reach, health professionals can enlist social workers and community leaders in overcoming social isolation, especially among vulnerable populations.

Most scientists now believe the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 emerged in a wild animal, possibly a bat, then jumped to humans, says an AP news report. In Issues, Leah R. Gerber offers a deeper look at this zoonotic, or animal-to-human, link. “Environmental degradation, and especially habitat destruction, is the underlying problem that creates conditions favorable to zoonotic jumping,” she writes. Among a number of policy suggestions, she calls for establishing a global organization with “scientific heft and enforcement teeth” to guide conserving the habitat and biodiversity that helps protect against zoonotic transmission.

In a new study, researchers repeated 50 early-stage cancer experiments reported in major journals a decade ago, but they were unable in roughly half the cases to reproduce the initial scientific claims. Indeed, irreproducibility is a problem across biomedical research, Shannon Brownlee and Bibiana Bielekova write in Issues. As a remedy, the authors propose a tool that uses artificial intelligence to assess the methodological rigor, reproducibility, and utility of studies. Its widespread use, they argue, “can help transform the scientific enterprise into a self-regulating system that increases the rate at which it produces scientific breakthroughs that have meaningful impacts for society.”