Preparing for the Bioconvergence

Singapore relies on existing laws and voluntary guidelines to govern AI. Will this relaxed approach be sufficient as AI advances?

STEM-in-society programs, which help students understand the complex relationships among science and technology and society, have never been more needed—but they are in jeopardy nationwide.

Relying on outdated soil quality data to value farmland creates a disincentive for farmers to invest in conserving topsoil.

The Trump administration’s overhaul of federal science policy will impact all Americans. What does the public think about these changes to federal research budgets and policies?

American research universities have unleashed an age of massive technical innovation—but they’ve failed to innovate their own designs to meet the changing needs of society.

The 3-D printer
worked overtime
sculpting lemon trees
complete with bees
on budding flowers.

The intramural research program at the National Institutes of Health generates benefits far beyond the property lines of its facilities and laboratories.

An integrated, interdisciplinary national research strategy is urgently needed to strengthen the country’s efforts to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.

Disasters are no longer isolated events. This demands a fundamental change in how we think about and respond to complex risk.

During the pandemic, small shifts in health data regulation revealed big insights for disease prevention.

The story of how the federal government became an innovation evangelist in the 1960s is an account of fits, starts, and ideological ambiguity.

Much as local libraries laid a foundation for the information age by building American literacy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, community bio labs could usher in the bio-age by building bioliteracy.

The chemical industry’s last century is a story of highs and lows—both provide lessons that can be used to design its future.

How Navajo Tech’s advanced manufacturing program fights brain drain from ancestral lands.

Diné entrepreneurs entwine economic renewal with mutual obligation, providing a model of regional economic development that serves the community.

The United States has focused on preventing the transfer of sensitive technology to adversarial nations rather than on improving its ability to collaborate internationally.

The controversy around a ban on “mirror life” should lead to a more nuanced public conversation about how to manage the benefits and risks of precursor biotechnologies.