News Updates

Marking 10 years since the scientific debut of the gene-editing tool CRISPR, the New York Times takes a deep look at how it is yielding advances in medicine, agriculture, and more, while also raising questions about tinkering with the human genetic code. In an interview with Issues, Jennifer Doudna, who won a Nobel Prize for codiscovering the revolutionary technology, provides a true insider’s perspective on these matters. Above all, she holds that scientists, policymakers, and the public alike must be closely involved in ensuring that CRISPR can fulfill its potential in a safe and ethical manner.

Citing software testing problems, NASA has indefinitely delayed sending a spacecraft to study the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, viewed as a promising target for extracting minerals for use in future space applications. Still, the time is right for the United States to lead in developing policies to guide this and other types of space resource extraction when they become feasible, as Ian Christensen and his colleagues write in Issues. To help, the authors propose a set of principles to underpin a policy framework that will support a vibrant new industry that is sustainable and whose benefits extend beyond a few spacefaring nations.

Emissions of carbon dioxide from cement production have doubled over 20 years, new global data show, and now contribute more than 7% of emissions of the heat-trapping gas that can drive climate change. Contributing to the problem, as Colin Cunliff writes in Issues, is that it has been technically difficult to cut carbon emissions from cement production, as well as from several other sectors of the economy. He calls on US policymakers to increasingly focus on these hard-to-decarbonize areas, and lays out an innovation agenda to “put the United States and the world on a path to net-zero carbon emissions.”

Country music legend Dolly Parton is donating $1 million to pediatric infectious disease research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. This follows other gifts she has made to the center, including $1 million in April 2020 for COVID vaccine research. The donations illustrate how philanthropy plays a distinctive role in sustaining and shaping America’s scientific enterprise. As Robert W. Conn writes in Issues, philanthropy can bring new perspectives to science policy and strategy, especially by underwriting scientific ideas well before they are sufficiently developed to earn government support.

Cities across the American Southwest hit record high temperatures over the weekend, and scientists say heat waves will likely become even more frequent and intense with climate change. In Issues, Nicholas Weller, Mahmud Farooque, and Michelle Sullivan Govani detail how they are using what’s called participatory technology assessment to explore policy solutions to extreme heat in Phoenix. The process, they write, brings together policymakers and public citizens in a structured manner designed to “elicit good-faith discussion, shared understandings, and new ideas.” The deliberative process, they add, can also be usefully applied to other dilemmas involving science, technology, and uncertainty.

The Biden administration wants to designate the Hudson Canyon—a vast underwater chasm off the coast of New York that hosts an array of marine wildlife—as the newest national marine sanctuary. The plan, now open for public comment, would give the government more control over activities allowed in the area. Writing in Issues, Tundi Agardy was an early proponent of marine sanctuaries. Along with protecting key habitats, she explains, sanctuaries provide models for integrating the management of coastal and marine resources across various jurisdictions and for furthering scientific understanding of how marine systems function and how to aid them.

Reflecting the complexity of climate change and possible ways to “geoengineer” solutions to it, two new groups have formed to examine matters. One group comprises former world leaders and is looking at governance strategies to address climate intervention; the other is composed of scientists and is exploring ethical dimensions of geoengineering technologies. In Issues, David Keith examines both the governance and ethical aspects of one of the leading candidates for climate intervention: solar geoengineering. He offers some “cross-cutting principles” that the United States and other countries might find useful in developing a solar geoengineering research program to help guide future mitigation programs.

Across the United States, cyclists are being killed by motor vehicles at a record rate, and experts say a major reason is that roadways are designed primarily to handle automotive traffic. In Issues, Megan S. Ryerson and her colleagues suggest an approach to make urban streets safer. As a basic step, they argue, collecting and analyzing data on the everyday experiences of cyclists and other nonmotorists as they navigate streets would shift the way safety is measured. “This approach,” they write, “will fundamentally change the way safety countermeasures are designed, evaluated, and prioritized by federal, state, and local transportation authorities.”

“What if we banned beef cattle worldwide starting today?” a North Carolina inventor and futurist asks, explaining that cows are major emitters of gases that can drive climate change. He calls instead for “bioreactor beef” grown from animal cells in meat factories. This aligns with ideas that Alex Smith and Saloni Shah explore in Issues. “The government should accelerate innovation in alternative meats to benefit the environment, public health, workers, rural communities, and the ethical treatment of animals,” they write. The government should also commit to “easing the social and economic disruptions that could accompany a transition away from traditional livestock production.”