Feeding a Growing World Population
Every issue explores cutting-edge developments in technology, medicine, education, climate change, and much more. Articles provide in-depth analyses of science and technology’s impact on public policy, the economy, and society—bringing today’s best minds to bear on tomorrow’s most critical topics.
Editor's Journal
The Power of the Individual
The life of Leo Szilard has important lessons for scientists eager to influence public policy. William Lanouette’s fascinating biography of Leo Szilard, Genius in the Shadows, does more than reveal the… Read More
From the Hill
From the Hill – Fall 1997
House, Senate endorse big increases in FY 1990 R&D budgets In the wake of the balanced budget agreement, this summer both the House and Senate endorsed big increases in the FY 1990… Read More
Features
Saving Nature’s Legacy Through Better Farming
The obvious environmental problems and solutions are not necessarily obvious at all. Organic farming and the time-proven techniques of traditional agriculture hold great emotional attraction. Pure foods without chemical fertilizers and pesticides… Read MoreThe Unfinished Work of Arms Control
The world got through the half century since Hiroshima and Nagasaki with no further use of nuclear weapons in conflict and with a degree of restraint in avoiding major war among the… Read MoreThe Global University
Let’s establish some basic principles. First, business is going global. Information, people, and capital flow quickly and copiously without respect to borders. Skilled workers and industrial infrastructure can be found in a… Read MoreThe Politics of Education Reform
The recently released Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which made international comparisons of math and science performance among fourth- and eighth-grade students, strengthened the case of those who are calling… Read MoreEnvironmental Policy: The Next Generation
A generation ago the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so contaminated that it caught fire, air pollution in some cities was thick enough to taste, and environmental laws focused on the obvious… Read MoreFederal Power Dinosaurs
New power-generating technologies and low natural gas prices are spurring competition in the electricity market. This has led a growing number of lawmakers to want to help break up the utility industry’s… Read MoreToward a “Greener” Revolution
Thanks in large part to the now-legendary green revolution, most people in the world today get enough calories from food for their subsistence. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that the green… Read MoreA Jeffersonian Vision for Mapping the World
About 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson sat down with a young military officer named Meriwether Lewis to plan an expedition to survey the broad expanse of territory between the then-frontier post of… Read MoreFall 1997 Update
The privacy of medical records A year ago, the issue of federal preemptive legislation to protect personal health data was mired in a heated debate within the health care community (Issues… Read More
Book Reviews
A Science Funding Contrarian
The premise of Terence Kealey’s book-that scientific research would do better without government support-has naturally attracted a lot of attention and generated a lot of emotion. Kealey is an impassioned advocate of… Read More
Pesticides: Kids at Risk
Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill living things-insects, fungi, and weeds that attack crops and other vegetation, cause infectious diseases in humans and animals or act as vectors of infectious agents. Not… Read More