Overlooked Disasters
Steven Gonzalez compares the dramatic and immediate impacts of Hurricane Maria to the slower, overlooked disasters of environmental destruction and exploitation of human labor that support our data infrastructure.
A Scientific Revolution
Emerging technologies suggest we are only just beginning to realize the quantum revolution and its myriad applications.
Artificial Intelligence
Singapore relies on existing laws and voluntary guidelines to govern AI. Will this relaxed approach be sufficient as AI advances?
Disaster Research
An integrated, interdisciplinary national research strategy is urgently needed to strengthen the country’s efforts to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.
Complex Risk
Disasters are no longer isolated events. This demands a fundamental change in how we think about and respond to complex risk.
data infrastructure
During the pandemic, small shifts in health data regulation revealed big insights for disease prevention.
Poetry
The 3-D printer
worked overtime
sculpting lemon trees
complete with bees
on budding flowers.
Book Review
A new biography of US Army physician William Crawford Gorgas—a giant in the field of global health—describes some of the first steps in the long struggle to control yellow fever.
Bureaucratic Innovators
The story of how the federal government became an innovation evangelist in the 1960s is an account of fits, starts, and ideological ambiguity.
Science and Technology Education
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.
Vol. XLI, No. 4, Summer 2025
How can Americans “engage with biotechnology the same way they do with cell phones and computers”? In an interview for the Summer 2025 issue, Senator Todd Young explains why the emerging bioeconomy should be understood as an urgent opportunity as well as a potential military and security vulnerability. As chair of the National Security Commission on the Emerging Bioeconomy, Young is optimistic that both parties are willing to foster the bioindustries of the future in order to create “a more informed, empowered, and resilient society capable of leveraging science and technology to solve a wide range of global challenges.”
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In response to essays published in Issues, our readers weigh in on critical topics in policy related to science, technology, and society.
Summer 2025
A Discussion of
Responses By
Summer 2025
A Discussion of
Response By
As climate change and labor challenges reshape how food makes it to our table, we’re forced to ask whether we really want to “optimize” our culinary experiences.
Response
When a luxury restaurant’s owner brings in a robot sous-chef, the human staff protest—all but the head chef, who is left alone to navigate how to cook and serve in a human-robot team. The story explores the future of luxury dining, the role of humans in an automated workplace, and what we really crave from a culinary experience.
An astronomer responds to Indrapramit Das’ new short story “The Song Between Worlds.”
Response
On a future Mars overrun by wealthy tourists, a young explorer ventures out to hear an elusive Martian song vocalized by the long-time residents of the planet. But they quickly run up against what it really means to seek—and share—intangible cultural goods.
An expert on algorithmic bias responds to Deji Bryce Olukotun’s “When We Were Patched.”
Response
Deji Bryce Olukotun’s “When We Were Patched” imagines a futuristic tennis-like sport officiated by a blend of humans and machines. When the machine-augmented assistant suspects its human partner isn’t following the sport’s rules to a tee, they clash over the meaning of unsportsmanlike conduct and fair play.
The United States has focused on preventing the transfer of sensitive technology to adversarial nations rather than on improving its ability to collaborate internationally.
A recent case in Norway demonstrates how dual-use controls can constrict international scientific collaboration without offering commensurate protections.
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
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
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