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• Spring 2024

  The Roots That Ward Off Disaster

  Samantha Montano

  Every summer I take my undergraduate emergency management students to Louisiana to learn about disasters in the Gulf. One of our most valuable experiences is volunteering with local organizations that are replanting… Read More

• February 25, 2025

  Music and Health: Dancing Together

  J. D. Talasek, David Leventhal, Constantina Theofanopoulou

  “People always say, ‘Well, if I could only do one art form, what would it be?’ And I always say dance.” —Susan Magsamen  In our podcast miniseries Music and Health… Read More

• Summer 2022

  A Prehistory of Social Media

  Kevin Driscoll

  Over the past few years, I’ve asked dozens of college students to write down, in a sentence or two, where the internet came from. Year after year, they recount the same stories… Read More

• Winter 2025

  Supporting Science and Innovation in Central America and the Caribbean

  Jorge A. Huete-Perez, Douglas Massey, Anthony Clayton

  Since 2018, Nicaragua has experienced a deep, multifaceted political crisis that has brought severe restrictions for academic institutions. The government has shuttered universities, canceled permits for collaborating with international institutions, revoked the… Read More

• June 27, 2025

  Tunnel Fever

  On the floor of the Arctic Ocean, an isolated roadside bar buried in a vast network of tunnels is staffed by a claustrophobic waitress who dreams of life above the surface. When a pair of outlaws tries to rob the bar, its patrons and employees are forced to work together to stave them off—pushing the boundaries of survival and trust in extreme environments.

• January 28, 2025

  Music and Health: The Creative Arts and Healing

  Renée Fleming, Susan Magsamen, J. D. Talasek

  From lullabies to movie soundtracks to workout playlists, music has the capacity to change how we feel. But what is the evidence that music’s effects can transform physical health? On our new… Read More

• Winter 2025

  Could an ARPA Help Resurrect US Manufacturing?

  William B. Bonvillian

  The United States will not regain its leadership in manufacturing by doing more of the same. The country must pursue new paradigms to invoke technological surprise and spur leaps in productivity.

• 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

• June 13, 2025

  All That Burns Unseen

  When a government worker is charged with collecting data from the fire-ravaged community she grew up in, she gets help from an unexpected ally: a fire-fighting drone.

• May 30, 2025

  The Shade Technician

  In a heat-sieged city whose residents have become functionally nocturnal, an essential worker labors during the day to fix private shade structures designed to provide shelter from the grueling sun for anyone who can pay.

• Fall 2023

  Transforming Research Participation

  In “From Bedside to Bench and Back” (Issues, Summer 2023), Tania Simoncelli highlights patients moving from being subjects of biomedical research to leading that research. Patients and their families no… Read More

• Winter 2025

  Searching for a New Protopia

  Lisa Margonelli

  As scientists and government officials reinvent science politics and policies for a new era, the country will need to tell a new story about its future.

• Summer 2024

  Industrial Terroir Takes on the Yuck Factor

  Christy Spackman

  Illustration by Shonagh Rae Would you drink water you knew was made from your own poop or pee? What if that water showed up in a glass of award-winning beer? Perhaps you’ve… Read More

• May 30, 2025

  The Limits of Heat Resilience

  How resilient to extreme heat can humans really be? Our bodies have a limit—and our response to climate change should reflect that.

• May 9, 2025

  Ride

  Jasmine, a hotel worker in a future climate-ravaged Hawaii, is desperate for a change to her monotonous routine. When a guest tells Jasmine about a secret hack to tinker with the taxi-share system the island’s workers rely on, she’s forced to ride with some unusual fellow commuters, who change her mind about what her true destination should be.

• December 17, 2024

  Reindeer!

  Jacqueline Hrabok, Bonnie Scheele, Lisa Margonelli

  In Alaska, reindeer are much more real than the fantasy animals that pull Santa’s sleigh. Introduced to Alaska from Siberia by the US government in the 1890s, reindeer were part of a… Read More

• Fall 2024

  The Trap of Securitizing Science

  Tommy Shih, Caroline S. Wagner

  In recent years, science and technology have emerged as critical domains reshaping the landscape of international relations and national security. In particular, the United States and the European Union have sought to… Read More

• July 9, 2024

  A Road Map for a New Era in Biology and Medicine

  Lydia Contreras, Monya Baker

  Most people are familiar with DNA, but its cousin, RNA, has become widely known only recently. In 2020, of course, RNA was in the news all the time: the COVID-19 virus is… Read More

• Fall 2024

  Will It Scale?

  Omar Al-Ubaydli, John A. List

  During the bloodiest battles of the First World War, a young French sergeant named André Maginot was injured in the fighting, earning him a medal for valor. He later rose to the… Read More

• April 25, 2025

  Automated Justice?

  The emerging applications of artificial intelligence promise huge social benefits: significant gains in detecting breast cancer that allow radiologists to focus on other patient needs, the deciphering of text inside a 2,000-year-old… Read More

• April 25, 2025

  The 28th

  In a future legal system in which the investigators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and juries are all replaced or supervised by artificial intelligence, who can be trusted? And are the contradictions and flaws inherent in human decisionmaking actually an asset?

• Fall 2024

  Who Is Responsible for AI Copyright Infringement?

  Michael P. Goodyear

  Twenty-one-year-old college student Shane hopes to write a song for his boyfriend. In the past, Shane would have had to wait for inspiration to strike, but now he can use generative artificial… Read More

• April 11, 2025

  The Minnesota Diet

  In a future city complete with vertical farms, rooftop gardens, and no carbon footprint, the city’s survival still depends on regular food deliveries from the outside. What happens when those deliveries suddenly stop showing up?

• January 16, 2024

  Ground Truths Are Human Constructions

  Florian Jaton

  Artificial intelligence algorithms are human-made, cultural constructs, something I saw first-hand as a scholar and technician embedded with AI teams for 30 months. Among the many concrete practices and materials these algorithms… Read More

• Summer 2023

  ARPA-H Should Zero In on Pandemic Prevention

  Jassi Pannu, Janika Schmitt, Jacob Swett

  More than 20 years ago, Robert Cook-Deegan asked in this magazine, “Does NIH Need a DARPA?” The article described the innovation funding model pioneered by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency—created during… Read More

• Winter 2017

  Of Sun Gods and Solar Energy

  Kartikeya Singh

  Come, O Surya, of thousand rays, the store-house of all energies, the Lord of the world, have mercy on me thy devotee, accept this Arghya, O, Mother of the day. —Invocation of the Spiritual… Read More

• March 28, 2025

  Coda

  When Ray discovers a secret that a powerful quantum computing company would rather keep hidden, she’s forced to question the very nature of her reality—and the memories that make it up.

• March 14, 2025

  When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis

  Robot, a disease-detecting drone, has been meticulously trained to gather public health data in hard-to-reach communities—and to use that data to stymie the spread of dangerous viruses. But when the public health authorities responsible for Robot are defunded, it’s forced to assemble a new team to keep its communities safe.

• Fall 2024

  The Puzzle of Pricing the Future

  R. David Simpson

  Liliana Doganova describes her book, Discounting the Future: The Ascendency of a Political Technology, as a study in the “historical sociology” of discounting. Discounting—determining what value to place on income in… Read More

• May 7, 2024

  To Fix Health Misinformation, Think Beyond Fact Checking

  Tina Purnat, Elisabeth Wilhelm, Monya Baker

  When tackling the problem of misinformation, people often think first of content and its accuracy. But contering misinformation by fact-checking every erroneous or misleading claim traps organizations in an endless game of… Read More