Affordable National Security
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 – Summer 2011
Budget bill cuts R&D spending R&D funding escaped major cuts in the bill signed by President Obama on April 15 that funds the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY)… Read More
Perspectives
Agriculture’s Role in Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Agriculture is responsible for 7% of total emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in the . Although agriculture is not the major source of greenhouse gas emissions—that title belongs to industrial… Read MoreScience and the Arab Spring
As we all know, this has been the “Arab Spring.” Ordinary citizens have toppled autocrats and still battle dictators, armed with little more than their convictions. Ultimately, they cannot be denied, for… Read MoreDisappearing Bees and Reluctant Regulators
Imagine this: You’re a commercial beekeeper, who relies entirely on keeping honeybees for making a living. You head out one morning to examine your bees and find that thousands of your previously… Read More
Features
Archives – Summer 2011
LEE LAWRIE, Floor Cover Medallion for the Great Hall of the National Academy of Sciences (detail), Bronze, 1924. Photo by Mark Finkenstaedt. This bronze medallion is one of many sculptural and bas-relief… Read MoreApprenticeships Back to the Future
Concern about the rising costs of college education, the growing need for remedial and developmental education among new college students, and the low persistence and graduation rates among at-risk students have prompted… Read MorePromoting Research and Development: the Government’s Role
The Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert E. Lucas Jr. wrote that once one starts thinking about long-run growth and economic development, “it is hard to think about anything else.” Although I don’t think… Read MoreThe Little Reactor That Could?
A week before Halloween 2009, John R. Deal, an entrepreneur who goes almost exclusively by “Grizz,” took the stage at the Denver Art Museum to deliver the headline talk at an evening… Read MoreSolving the Nation’s Security Affordability Problem
There is a clash coming in the next few years between the multiplicity and complexity of the security concerns facing the United States and the shrinking resources available to address them. Unfortunately,… Read MoreScience for Natural Resource Management under Climate Change
Emerging applications of climate change research to natural resource management show how science provides key information for agencies to take action for vulnerable ecosystems. Climate change poses a fundamental challenge for natural… Read MoreInvesting in Perennial Crops to Sustainably Feed the World
The dramatic increases in yields of annual crops are approaching their limits. But similar advances are possible in hundreds of underused perennial species. The world’s food supply is insecure and inadequate and… Read MoreReforming Regulation of Research Universities
In recent years, research universities and their faculty have seen a steady stream of new federal regulations and reporting requirements imposed on them. These new requirements, in combination with other factors, have… Read MoreBig Rockets Become Big Business
7/20/17 – In yet another manifestation of the changing space enterprise portrayed recently in Issues, a new generation of powerful rockets built by private companies will soon head skyward, marking… Read More
Book Reviews
The Human Future
Michio Kaku is the rare individual who is both a top-flight scientist (he is a theoretical physicist who has done pathbreaking work in string theory) and a successful popularizer of science and… Read More
The Life of Feynman
The general public may recall physicist Richard Feynman for his televised demonstration when he was a member of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. He dipped a rubber O-ring… Read More