The Need for Geoengineering Research
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
Goddam Humans
The social sciences have long been considered the runt in the litter of the science family, if not the bastard child of wild conjecture with deluded mathematics. Broad-minded practitioners of the physical… Read More
From the Hill
From the Hill – Fall 2010
House approves bill to reform offshore oil drilling After holding dozens of hearings on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and well rupture in the Gulf of Mexico, the House on July… Read More
Perspectives
The Dismal State of Biofuels Policy
Biofuels policy in the United States remains controversial and much debated. In the months since BP’s catastrophic deep-water oil rig explosion, the international debate over energy, ever inclined to drift on the… Read MoreReinventing Technology Assessment
As the pace of technological change continues to accelerate worldwide, the far-reaching social ramifications are frequently not understood until after new technologies become entrenched. Historically, this has resulted in important lost opportunities;… Read More
Features
Strengthening Global Nuclear Governance
Motivated in large part by climate change and the need for carbon-free energy sources, governments and companies around the world are pushing to revive nuclear energy. Developed and developing countries alike have… Read MoreArchives – Fall 2010
CHERYL GOLDSLEGER, Perspective, Great Hall Constuction, National Academy of Sciences, Graphite on paper, 2009. Perspective Cheryl Goldsleger’s work stems from an interest in architectural space and what it reveals about how… Read MoreThe Need for Climate Engineering Research
Like it or not, a climate emergency is a possibility, and geoengineering could be the only affordable and fast-acting option to avoid a global catastrophe. Climate change triggered by the accumulation of… Read MoreNuclear Waste Disposal: Showdown at Yucca Mountain
If the nation is to seriously confront a growing inventory of highly radioactive waste, a key step is to determine the merits of its geologic repository project at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.… Read MoreWhere Are the Health Care Entrepreneurs?
Health care in the United States is notorious for market imperfections. Costs are higher and outcomes worse than almost all analyses of the industry suggest are reasonable. Indeed, few other industries perform… Read MoreTransforming Education in the Primary Years
When more than two-thirds of students cannot read at grade level and barely three-quarters are graduating from high school on time, it is time to reevaluate not just how well our schools… Read MoreIs the Smart Grid Really a Smart Idea?
It is hard to quarrel with the idea that it is good to be smart. That presumably is why the proponents of some radical changes in the design of the U.S. electrical… Read More
Book Reviews
Costly water
Obsession may not be the best word to describe Americans’ attitude toward bottled water. Few people are preoccupied with the product; many purchase it without a second thought. But therein lies the… Read More
Drug Kingpin
Daniel Carpenter’s magnum opus about the origins, operations, and organizational nuances of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) represents in many respects superb historical scholarship. A former chief counsel for the regulatory… Read More
Technophilia’s Big Tent
As the effects of climate change and other environmental stresses become more apparent, some technological prophets are alarmed, while others are more sanguine than ever. Jared Diamond has gone from Guns, Germs, … Read More