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Foiling the Growing Threat of Fungal Pathogens

As fires, floods, and other weather events exacerbated by climate change become more frequent and intense, the spread of fungal pathogens are likely to become increasingly common and harmful to public health. What makes this trend particularly concerning is that mortality associated with invasive fungal pathogens exceeds 40%, and few drugs are currently available to treat these infections. A coordinated response will be essential to mitigating and reversing their adverse health impacts.Read More

The Shuttle Program

the people's spaceship

Attempting a Democratic Technology

John M. Logsdon reviews Amy Paige Kaminsky’s book about the development of and justification for NASA’s space shuttle program.

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STEM Education

Nurturing Deeper Ways of Knowing in Science

Efforts to diversify representation in science and engineering require initiatives that increase diversity of thought as well.

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Higher Education

Don’t Rank Research Universities—Compare Them

If the United States is to depend on research universities as the drivers of discovery, innovation, workforce development, and economic competitiveness, a national conversation about the future of these institutions is necessary.Read More

Regional Development

How Some Universities Translate Inclusive Innovation into Regional Growth

How Some Universities Translate Inclusive Innovation into Regional Growth

Positioning universities as hubs of inclusive innovation, particularly in less inventive places, can shift local workforce demographics and accelerate growth.

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Future Tense Fiction

Rey Velasquez Sagcal's illustration for "Mothering the Bay"

Mothering the Bay

When a busy BART train suddenly screeches to a stop deep under the San Francisco Bay, passengers turn to personalized AI agents to understand what’s happened—but they begin to realize that those agents may obscure more than they illuminate.

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The Winter Issue

Winter 2025 ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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The Future of Nuclear Power

The US Department of Energy and big tech companies such as Google and Amazon have announced their support for the development of advanced nuclear reactors. Do their efforts prefigure a nuclear renaissance? And what would such a renewal of the nuclear sector mean for society?

Nuclear Innovation

An Ambidextrous Approach to Nuclear Energy Innovation

An Ambidextrous Approach to Nuclear Energy Innovation

Tension between the promise of new nuclear technologies and uncertainty about their feasibility requires a diversified, balanced research portfolio that can be adjusted locally in concert with global progress.Read More

Engineering Education

Educating Engineers for a New Nuclear Age

Radical designs for fission and fusion energy systems require engineers who are grounded in technical knowledge, adept at engaging communities in participatory design, and fluent in ethical, equity-centered communication.Read More

Decentralized Nuclear?

Can Nuclear Power Go Local?

With origins in the Cold War military-industrial complex, nuclear power struggles to reinvent itself as part of the inclusive, democratic future envisioned by progressives.Read More

Nuclear Waste

nuclear regulatory commission

Deep Time: The End of an Engagement

For all its flaws, US nuclear waste policy at least relied on a sense of a moral responsibility toward the present and future. That may now be changing.Read More

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