The Criminalization of Immigration
In the cover story for the Fall 2016 Issues in Science and Technology, Mary C. Waters contends that the problems of mass incarceration and undocumented immigration have created legal forms of oppression that, although not formally racist, disproportionately exclude African Americans and Latinos from the formal economy. Waters argues that we need a social movement not based on civil rights—having legally excluded former prisoners and the undocumented from civil society—but on the human right for social inclusion. Accompanied by photographer David Harriman’s portraits of deported immigrants, the essay is a powerful call for policymakers and researchers to rethink how they understand immigration and incarceration.
Editor's Journal
Middle Class Muddle
The fate of the US middle class has taken center stage in political and economic discussions. Donald Trump promises to bring back the well-paying jobs that he says were lost to foreign… Read More
From the Hill
From the Hill – Fall 2016
Republican 2016 Party Platform On July 18, the delegates to the Republican National Committee formally adopted the official 2016 Republican platform, which includes numerous policies and principles involving science policy issues. In… Read More
Perspectives
The Benefits of Technocracy in China
Since the Reform and Opening initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, any casual observer of China’s leaders might note how many of them were educated as engineers. Indeed, at the highest level,… Read More
Features
The Importance of Middle-Skill Jobs
Globalization and advances in science and technology are transforming nearly every aspect of modern life, including how we communicate with each other, how we shop, how we make things, and how and… Read MoreDefining Skilled Technical Work
The nation needs to better understand and more effectively develop this essential component of the US workforce. Humans were generally poor until the industrial revolution unleashed a flurry of innovative activity. Many… Read MorePathways to Middle-Skill Allied Health Care Occupations
Better information about the skills required in health occupations and the paths to career advancement could provide opportunities for workers as well as improved health care. Health care has been a “job… Read MoreBetter Jobs Information Benefits Everyone
Economic growth and full employment require well-functioning labor markets—ones that enable workers to acquire skills that are in demand and employers to hire workers with necessary skills. Accurate and detailed information is… Read MoreNot ’Til the Fat Lady Sings: TSCA’s Next Act
The newly enacted revision to the failed chemical safety law marks a rare recent example of bipartisanship, but whether it will lead to improved environmental protection remains to be seen. When President… Read MoreA Second Act for Risk-Based Chemicals Regulation
The Toxic Substances Control Act amendments put risk assessment at center stage. How will it perform? At a time when partisan squabbles and election-year politics dominate the headlines, Congress did something remarkable… Read MoreBiosecurity Governance for the Real World
In 2011, controversy erupted over the publication of two peer-reviewed papers that discussed how to convert a deadly strain of influenza in birds (H5N1) to one that could be spread among mammals.… Read MoreCrime and Immigration: New Forms of Exclusion and Discrimination
Mary C. Waters gives a lecture on The War on Crime and the War on Immigrants: New Forms of Legal Exclusion and Discrimination in the United States In the United States today,… Read More
Book Reviews
Visualize Whirled Peas
Imagine the scene: you’re Everett Dolman, a faculty member at the US Air Force’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies with significant security and military experience, and an eager publisher suggests… Read More
Making Sense of the World
In 1831, Michael Faraday discovered magnetic induction, where a magnet moving in a coil of wire produces an electric current. Faraday’s insight eventually led to both electric power generators and motors. When… Read More
The Thrill of Discovery
During my first year of college, my organic chemistry professor assigned us Anda Brivin’s book Gun Down the Young, a slim fictional account of professional academic life at an unnamed university.… Read More
Defending Expertise
Science studies scholar Harry Collins sets the stage for this short-form analysis by explaining why so many people have a sense of being experts by default. Over the past half-century, even as… Read More