Issues in Science and Technology

Shonagh Rae's portrait of Senator Todd Young

The ISSUES Interview

“There’s a Real Urgency to Be Ready When That Bioconvergence Happens.”

Senator Todd Young shares his vision for how emerging biotechnologies can revolutionize agriculture, industry, and warfighting.

The Ongoing Transformation

What Does a Cormorant Feel?

Brandon Keim, Lisa Margonelli

Brandon Keim discusses animal personhood, movements around animal representation, and cormorants—one named Cosmos in particular.

Book Review

Maron E. Greenleaf’s research in Forest Lost: Producing Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon “demonstrates how the rhetoric of sustainability, efficiency, and market-driven conservation often obscures the material consequences and lived experience of these policies.”

The Ongoing Transformation

Neil Chilson Helps Turn Knowledge Into Benefits for Humanity

Neil Chilson, Jason Lloyd

Neil Chilson, head of AI policy at the Abundance Institute, discusses what it’s like to work at a policy think tank, the questions about artificial intelligence that motivate his work, and why he is optimistic about our technological future.

Poem

A Toast

Ilya Kaminsky

To your voice, a mysterious virtue,
to the 53 bones of one foot, the four dimensions of breathing,

to pine, redwood, sworn-fern, peppermint,
to hyacinth and bluebell lily …

Risk Assessment

How Dual Use Puts Research Under the Microscope

Håvard Rustad Markussen

A recent case in Norway demonstrates how dual-use controls can constrict international scientific collaboration without offering commensurate protections.

Research Proposals

Proposals as Partnerships

Ryan Meyer, Evan S. Michelson

As grantmakers and universities strive for more engaged and societally responsive research, the proposal process could be a place for innovation—and an avenue for institutional change.

Skilled Technical Workforce

Retooling the Definition of the Skilled Technical Workforce

Guy Leonel Siwe, Vicki Lancaster, Sarah McDonald, Cesar Montalvo

Why don’t job classification systems recognize what skills today’s occupations really require?

Real Numbers

What We Learned From 25,775 Environmental Lawsuits

Christopher Rea

Lawsuits play a critical role in enforcing and upholding environmental laws. Whose concerns are prioritized? What environmental harms are litigated—and which are overlooked?

The Ongoing Transformation

How ADHD Affects Adults

David Goodman, Sara Frueh

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is the second most prevalent psychiatric disorder in adults. David Goodman explains how ADHD affects adults, the complexities in how it’s diagnosed and treated, and open questions for research in the field.

Open Science

Let Unfunded Grant Applications See the Light of Day

Stuart Buck, Christopher Steven Marcum

Showing which proposals do and don’t receive federal funding can improve research and advance open science.

Preparing for the Bioconvergence

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.”

Browse the Issue

From This Issue

“There’s a Real Urgency to Be Ready When That Bioconvergence Happens.”

Todd Young, Molly Galvin

Building Decision Points Into Research’s Slipperiest Slopes

Craig Callender, Farren J. Isaacs, John H. Evans, Neal K. Devaraj, Gregory E. Kaebnick

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Science By Those Who Made It Happen
A Discussion of
Using Storytelling to Investigate Scientific Questions
Response By
Joel I. Cohen
Spring 2025
Sea Level Rise Affects Coastal Access
A Discussion of
Our Bases Are Precarious!
Response By
Cornelia Dean

Beyond the Headlines

Even Better Obesity Drugs on the Horizon

Researchers are making rapid progress on more than a dozen new drugs for obesity that may prove even more powerful and easier to use than today’s revolutionary medications, The New York Times… Read More

Court Removes Hurdle for Nuclear Waste Disposal

The US Supreme Court has removed a major legal roadblock to plans to build several facilities for temporarily storing nuclear wastes produced by power plants, even as plans for permanent storage remain… Read More

New Report Lowers Chesapeake Bay Health Grade

The “health of the Chesapeake Bay declined” in an annual report card from scientists at the University of Maryland, who add that “the changing climate is definitely having an effect.” Making lasting… Read More

Revamping Nuclear Engineering for a Complex World

President Trump recently issued executive orders with the stated goal of dramatically ramping up nuclear energy. All the more reason why, as Aditi Verma and Denia Djokić maintain in Issues, the… Read More

Future Tense Fiction

Future Tense Fiction is a speculative fiction series that uses imagination to explore how science and technology will shape our future. It features short stories written by acclaimed authors across a wide range of styles. Each story is paired with original artwork by Rey Velasquez Sagcal and a response essay from an expert who connects the fictional narrative to real-world policy debates.

Tunnel Fever

Margrét Helgadóttir

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.
Resisting Tunnel Vision

Anna Pigott

To work toward better climate policy and governance, we need to expand our vision of what’s possible.

Response
All That Burns Unseen

Premee Mohamed

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.
Firefighting Chemicals Are Dangerous for the Environment. Can That Change?

Meg Duff

A journalist who covers wildfires responds to Premee Mohamed’s “All That Burns Unseen.”

Response
The Shade Technician

Harrison Cook

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.
The Limits of Heat Resilience

Pope L. Moseley

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

Response

Collection

Climate and Health

Expore the Collection

Climate change poses a significant threat to human health. Extreme heat, stronger storms, new pathogens, food and water insecurity, and many other stressors pose dangers to human well-being. In addition, these health risks are not evenly distributed: They will affect society’s most vulnerable people most. What can be done to keep all people healthy on a warmer planet?

Foiling the Growing Threat of Fungal Pathogens

Angel N. Desai, George R. Thompson III

Climate change, changing migration patterns, and our agriculture system have created a perfect environment for fungal pathogens to thrive.
Channels for Arctic Diplomacy

Nataliya Shok, Katherine Ginsbach

Illustration by Shonagh Rae During the summer of 2016, in Russia’s arctic Yamal Peninsula, a heat wave resurfaced anthrax bacteria long buried in the permafrost. The bacteria then killed thousands of reindeer… Read More
Behind the Bougainvillea Curtain: Wildfires and Inequality

Michael Méndez

More equitable approaches to preparation and relief efforts for wildfires and other disasters must include undocumented Latino and Indigenous migrants.
A Climate Equity Agenda Informed by Community Brilliance

Jalonne L. White-Newsome

With every heat wave and flood, the failure to translate climate science into insight and action puts the health and well-being of people in vulnerable communities at risk. Intentional partnerships between residents, scientists, government, industry, and philanthropy can fix this disconnect.