Search Results 200 Results Found for April 27, 2023 The Camouflaged Metaphysics of Embryos Jane Maienschein In the United States, diverging interpretations of what constitutes life coexist across public, policy, and legal environments. Many draw on what I call a hypothetical embryo, an entity that is almost… Read More January 31, 2022 Episode 7: Shaky Science in the Courtroom Eyewitness testimony and forensic science are forms of evidence frequently relied upon in criminal cases. But over the past few decades DNA analysis—and the exonerations it has prompted—has revealed how flawed these… Read More October 20, 2020 The Real Reason Young People Don’t Vote Sunshine Hillygus In the 2020 US elections, young people seem poised for unprecedented levels of participation. “Young voters are going to be key to winning 2020,” declared one CNN headline. “These 7 Million Young… Read More Winter 2026 Fully Accounting for America’s Research Investments Nicholas S. Wigginton Far from being passive recipients of federal research dollars, universities pour in substantial resources of their own. It’s time to do a better job of documenting those investments. Fall 2024 Second-Order Effects of Artificial Intelligence In “Governing AI With Intelligence” (Issues, Summer 2024), Urs Gasser provides an insightful survey on regulating artificial intelligence during a time of expanding development of a technology that has both… Read More Winter 2025 Remembering Lewis Thomas “The Lives of Lewis Thomas” (Issues, Fall 2024), by Joseph J. Fins, stirred powerful memories. As an intern at Bellevue Hospital in New York City in 1971, I eagerly awaited The … Read More Spring 2026 Something Missing in the Numbers How much do universities invest in research? Greater financial transparency could better illuminate their vital role in America’s scientific enterprise. Summer 2025 A Century of Conflict Over Evolution Education Glenn Branch In July 1925, a young science teacher named John Thomas Scopes was on trial in Dayton, Tennessee, for violating a recently enacted state law, the Butler Act. The law forbade public school… Read More Fall 2025 Addiction Revisited Susan M. Fitzpatrick Two recent books on addiction “weave an overlapping synthesis of the current state of addiction scholarship,” writes Susan Fitzpatrick—and identify where that scholarship falls short. Spring 2026 Same Storm, Different Boats Adam Briggle Adam Briggle examines how disasters can disproportionately affect vulnerable people in his review of Angela Frederick’s recent book. Spring 2026 We Created a Survey to Measure Community Well-Being and Activated a “Messy Middle” Natalie Bomstad How a Wisconsin county realized that systems change requires shared sensemaking as much as innovative metrics. Winter 2025 Reconsidering Research Security John C. Gannon, Richard A. Meserve, Maria T. Zuber The United States’ global leadership in research was built on the foundation of substantial government investments in science and technology (S&T) made during World War II. In the subsequent decades, S&T has… Read More December 20, 2022 Episode 23: Shirley Malcom – Where Science and Society Meet Shirley M. Malcom Shirley M. Malcom is a trailblazer in the area of broadening participation in science. Currently senior advisor and director of the SEA Change initiative at the American Association for the Advancement of… Read More Fall 2025 AI Companions Are Not Your Teen’s Friend J. B. Branch Despite broad agreement that young people should be protected from threats posed by algorithms designed to act as friends, romantic partners, or therapists, federal regulation is dangerously limited. Fall 2025 Field Notes on Moving Focused Research Organizations Forward Adam Marblestone, Anastasia Gamick, Mary Wang, Joseph Fridman Four years ago, we founded a new kind of scientific organization to build fundamental technologies and accelerate discovery. Almost a dozen launches later, we have an idea of what works—and what doesn’t. Spring 2025 When That Chickadee Is No Longer “A Machine With Feathers” Brandon Keim New research on animal intelligence is leading to a clash of worldviews that has implications for policy. Summer 2025 Updating Mental Models of Risk Rod Schoonover, Daniel P. Aldrich, Daniel Hoyer Disasters are no longer isolated events. This demands a fundamental change in how we think about and respond to complex risk. Summer 2025 A Nation of Innovators Matthew Wisnioski The story of how the federal government became an innovation evangelist in the 1960s is an account of fits, starts, and ideological ambiguity. Fall 2024 A Very Different Voice Xavier Cortada, Underwater HOA Elevation Drive: 7, aerial photograph of paint on asphalt, 2018. Xavier Cortada recruited art students from four local high schools to help him paint Elevation Drive at… Read More Summer 2023 “Real Policymaking Involves a Lot of Other Things Besides Pure Technical Analysis.” Ben S. Bernanke, William Kearney Economist Ben S. Bernanke served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, was one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 2022, and is currently… Read More Previous
