The State of the Science

Timothy Lieuwen proposes a framework that universities can use to evaluate potential research funding relationships with oil and gas companies in light of their own values.

Scaling failures are often dismissed as unforeseeable, but it is possible to understand why inventions fail at scale and prevent them. It requires asking—before research begins—why an idea would fail at scale. This process, called “option C thinking,” asks social scientists to consider the big picture and design larger-scale experiments.

As artificial intelligence evolves and strains the bounds of copyright and other areas of the law, a creative legal approach can strike the proper balance between regulating and encouraging this new technology.

Tribal Epidemiology Centers, tasked with analyzing the health data of American Indian and Alaska Native communities and reducing health disparities, are often prevented from accessing public health data that are necessary to respond effectively to crises—including the COVID-19 pandemic. Data-sharing policies and culture must change to prevent further harm.

“When My OB/GYN Said He Didn’t Understand Poetry,” a poem by Christine Stewart-Nuñez.

Biochemist Katalin Karikó won the Nobel Prize for research that laid the groundwork for effective COVID-19 vaccines. She talks about how hard work and focus—rather than innate talent—led to her scientific success, and about the joy of solving interesting puzzles.

Alvin Hathaway Sr. explains what Baltimore’s African Ancestry Neuroscience Research Initiative needed to gain insight, influence, and credibility.

In response to China’s rise, Western governments are acting to limit scientific collaboration—but these measures will not increase economic competitiveness and could inhibit the practice of science itself.

A unique class of scientist-bureaucrats at the National Cancer Institute shows that government science is an asset we can’t afford to lose.

What researching a biography of the celebrated mid-century physician-humanist reveals about technological capability and human frailty.

Including union perspectives in research and development is essential to building effective, equitable technology and public trust.

Demand-pull policies for energy innovation must operate in parallel with traditional supply-push policies to speedily create a higher-performing, cleaner, more affordable, and more secure energy system.

For too long, the science and clinical practice of women’s sexual health have been neglected. Changes are needed to improve research agendas, health care worker training, and care protocols.

The environmental risks embedded in today’s globally integrated economies require an updated approach to scientific and regulatory decisionmaking.

During the era of increasing globalization, science diplomacy was a key tool for addressing global challenges. Today, among fracturing alliances, the field must evolve.

The president of the National Academy of Sciences outlines how to keep the American scientific enterprise strong. With responses from Alexandra Fuentes, Matt Owens, James Manyika, J. Marshall Shepherd, and Stephanie J. Diem.

Issues ran a survey to gain a deeper understanding of the field of science and technology policy today, including career paths, motivations, activities, and opinions on how the field is changing.