Health Care Touchstones: Cost and Quality
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.
From the Hill
From the Hill – Spring 2008
Bush proposes 3.3% increase in FY2009 R&D budget After a rocky end to the fiscal year (FY) 2008 appropriations process, in which R&D funding was hit hard, President Bush on February 4… Read More
Perspectives
The R&D Future of Intelligence
The United States has long depended on its capability to develop and use technology for collecting and analyzing intelligence in order to protect national security. Indeed, the intelligence community has a remarkable… Read MoreA New System for Preventing Bridge Collapses
On August 1, 2007, the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed catastrophically during rush hour, killing 13 people and severing a crucial connection across the Mississippi River. Before an investigation… Read More
Features
Archives – Spring 2008
KATHERINE SHERWOOD, Golgi’s Door, mixed media on canvas, 20 × 20 inches, 2007. Golgi’s Door In 1873, Italian physician and scientist Camillo Golgi developed a method of staining nerve tissue that… Read MoreStrengthening Nuclear Safeguards
As events in Iran and elsewhere illustrate, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is confronting a crisis in its ability to detect nuclear weapons programs and to safeguard peaceful nuclear programs. This… Read MoreLearning to Deliver Better Health Care
Most Americans assume that the health care they receive is determined by firm medical evidence, that the practice of medicine is fundamentally scientific. But this is far from true. For over 30… Read MoreTime to Act on Health Care Costs
Popular discussions of the long-term fiscal challenges confronting the United States usually misdiagnose the problem. They typically focus on the government expenses related to the aging of the baby boomers, with lower… Read MoreAsian Successes vs. Middle Eastern Failures: The Role of Technology Transfer in Economic Development
In 1960, Korea, Taiwan, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt were in roughly the same economic position. Average per capita income was about $1,500 in 1995 U.S. dollars, and none of these… Read MoreFrom Medical Malpractice to Quality Assurance
Every decade or so, the United States is seized with a fervor to reform medical malpractice. Unfortunately, this zest is typically motivated by circumstances that have little to do with the fundamental… Read MoreAnimal Migration: An Endangered Phenomenon?
Animal migrations are among the world’s most visible and inspiring natural phenomena. Whether it’s a farmer in Nebraska who stops his tractor on a cold March morning to watch a flock of… Read More
Book Reviews
Environmental stalemate?
The past decade and a half have been marked by bitter battles over environmental policy, forged in large part by fundamental disagreements about how to balance environmental and economic concerns. The result… Read More
Can the Bomb Be Banned?
Since the publication of his 1982 book The Fate of the World, a dark vision of the horrors of nuclear war that helped to launch the nuclear freeze movement, Jonathan Schell… Read More