Computing Solutions to Airline Safety and Other Policy Dilemmas
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
Postdoctoral Training and Intelligent Design
“Kids, I’m here today to tell you why you should become scientists. In high school, while your friends are taking classes such as the meaning of the swim suit in contemporary TV… Read More
From the Hill
From the Hill – Winter 2005
Federal R&D spending to rise by 4.8 percent; defense dominates The federal R&D budget for fiscal year (FY) 2005 will rise to $132.2 billion, a $6 billion or 4.8 percent increase over… Read More
Perspectives
Unleashing the Potential of Wireless Broadband
Broadcast TV, once vilified by former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton Minnow as a “vast wasteland,” can now also be characterized as a vast roadblock—specifically, a roadblock to the rapid expansion… Read More
Features
Archives – Winter 2005
Montgomery C. Meigs Montgomery C. Meigs, a career soldier in the Army Corps of Engineers, distinguished himself as an engineer and military planner and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences… Read MorePreventing a Nuclear 9/11
In their presidential contest, President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry agreed that the most deadly danger facing the United States is the possibility that terrorists could obtain a nuclear bomb.… Read MoreNo Country Left Behind
“Economic Time Bomb: U.S. Teens Are Among Worst at Math,” blared the December 7, 2004, Wall Street Journal headline over a story about the disheartening results of the latest international assessment of… Read MoreManaging the Triple Helix in the Life Sciences
Over the past four decades, the increased financial, intellectual, personal, and legal interaction of academe, industry, and government has dramatically changed the structure of the life science enterprise, but the management systems… Read MoreCartoon – Winter 2005
Economics, Computer Science, and Policy
Perhaps as little as a decade ago, it might have seemed far-fetched for scientists to apply similar methodologies to problems as diverse as vaccination against infectious disease, the eradication of email… Read MoreAgricultural Biotechnology: Overregulated and Underappreciated
The application of recombinant DNA technology, or gene splicing, to agriculture and food production, once highly touted as having huge public health and commercial potential, has been paradoxically disappointing. Although the gains… Read MoreA New System for Moving Drugs to Market
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most successful components of the U.S. economy. In recent years, however, critics have increasingly blamed the industry for setting prices too high, for earning too… Read More
Real Numbers
Underage drinking
Alcohol use by young people is dangerous, not only because of the risks associated with acute impairment, but also because of the threat to their long-term development and well-being. Traffic crashes are… Read More
Book Reviews
Internet for all
The Internet seems to be everywhere. The daily news chronicles its advance on the economy; social, civic, and personal activities can increasingly be pursued online; and cyberspace options are portrayed as cooler,… Read More
Global challenge
The past quarter century has witnessed a momentous global transformation occasioned by the rise of new economic powers. China has experienced the most rapid economic expansion in world history, its output of… Read More
The Constitution versus security
Among those analyzing the tensions between our constitutional values and modern terrorism, Philip B. Heymann is in a class by himself. A distinguished academic with substantial government service during the period when… Read More