Meeting New Challenges for U.S. Industry
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 Ehlers Report
To be fair, one should be realistic about what can be achieved in a relatively brief overview of all U.S. science and technology (S&T) policy. When House Speaker Newt Gingrich directed the… Read More
From the Hill
From the Hill – Winter 1999
R&D is big winner in 1999 federal budget A last-minute congressional spending frenzy helped boost federal R&D funding significantly in the FY 1999 year to $80.2 billion-$4.1 billion or 5.3 percent more… Read More
Perspectives
Facing Up to Family Violence
For an alarming number of Americans, the family is a source of fear and physical violence. The 1996 National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect found 2.8 million reported cases of… Read MoreEnvironmental Alarmism: The Children’s Crusade
The next generation of Americans has long been a focus of attention for policymakers and policy advocates, but in the past several years, children have been so frequently cited as the beneficiaries… Read More
Features
Archives – Winter 1999
U.S. Geological Survey Our photo shows the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, conducted by Ferdinand V. Hayden, on the trail between the Yellowstone and East Fork Rivers in 1871.… Read MoreSandia’s Science Park: A New Concept in Technology Transfer
When Sandia National Laboratories announced plans for a new science and technology (S&T) park, it opened a new avenue for partnership with private industry. For years, the national laboratories have been urged… Read MoreWhy Standards Matter
Today the United States is the world’s most prolific exporter, its strongest competitor, and its most productive innovator. Yet there are no guarantees that this hard-won mantle of competitive success will remain… Read MoreThe New Competitive Landscape
Only a decade ago, global competition shook U.S. self-confidence to the core. U.S. industry seemingly could not match the price and quality of manufactured goods that surged into the domestic market. As… Read MoreWinter 1999 Update
Crisis in U.S. organ transplant system intensifies More than 10 Americans die each day while awaiting organ transplantation. The U.S. organ transplant system has been in “crisis” for decades, but recently its… Read MoreFixing the Research Credit
Even as economists describe the importance of R&D in a knowledge-based economy and policymakers increase their fiscal commitments to other forms of R&D support, the United States has yet to take full… Read MoreAntitrust and Technological Innovation
The courtroom drama of U.S. v. Microsoft, now playing in Washington, D.C., has drawn hyperbolic press notices. Some observers portray the trial as the first test in the dawning Information Age of… Read MoreToward a Learning Economy
More Americans now work in physicians’ offices than in auto plants. Roughly as many work in retailing as in all of manufacturing. The service sector now encompasses three-quarters of U.S. jobs, and… Read MoreThe Image of Engineering
Something’s wrong with the public perception of engineering. A recent Gallup poll found that only 2 percent of the respondents associated engineers with the word “invents” and only 3 percent associated them… Read More
Book Reviews
EPA analyzed
To the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is faced with legislative requirements to better explain its goals and achievements under the Government Performance and Results Act as well as numerous other independent… Read More
Nuclear Reckoning
After a truly admirable research effort, Stephen Schwartz and his colleagues have calculated for the first time the cost of all aspects of the U.S. nuclear weapons program, from its inception in… Read More
A stressful world
Pundits and other policy sophisticates in Washington love to lampoon Americans who worry about preserving national sovereignty. Although there are extremists whose paranoid fantasies are absurd, we do live in a world… Read More
The Future of the US Economy
Barely a decade ago, many if not most commentators portrayed the U.S. economy as reeling under the onslaught of foreign competition. In industry after industry, on virtually every measure of competitiveness from… Read More