Understanding Uncertainty
Despite calls to fund reproducibility studies, resources would be better spent on developing tools that enable efficient collection and sharing of experimental protocol details and metadata to enable study comparisons.
Science Education
Twenty years ago, a landmark court case held that intelligent design cannot be taught in science classrooms. What lessons does it offer for conflicts in education?
Biosafety
To effectively prevent future biological threats, biosafety must be flexible, with engaged oversight over the entire research life cycle, and biosafety needs leadership and coordination from the top of the federal government.
Afghanistan
Nasir Andisha, ambassador and permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations, shares the story of what it’s like to lose his nation, but continue to advocate for its people.
AI Regulation
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.
Editor’s Journal
Whatever the future of federally funded science is, it’s no longer “free of strings,” as physicist Harvey Brooks described the relationship between government and scientific research. As the scientific enterprise tries to decide how to respond, it first needs to figure out what happened.
Indirect Costs
When the National Institutes of Health announced its intention to cap the indirect costs of research, an ad hoc group of organizations joined forces to develop a more transparent model.
Space Exploration
NASA’s new directive to design, build, and deploy a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 will require a commitment to implementation, leadership from the White House, and learning from six decades of failures.
Gender Equality
Julisa Tambunan explains why gender inequality is a disaster and how collecting better data—both statistics and stories—can help create a better future for everyone.
Focused Research Organizations
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.
Cannabis Policy
The United States urgently needs a coordinated approach to regulating the use of cannabis that prioritizes product safety and patient well-being.
November 20, 20253:00pm–4:00pm
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Vol. XLII, No. 1, Fall 2025
A remarkable treatment for subdural hematomas involves, essentially, using superglue to repair the brain. The superglue procedure inspires the question of whether there exist analogous policy tools that could help fix systems that suffer from a lack of coordination: the health care bureaucracy, state and federal cannabis regulation, biosecurity, or artificial intelligence.
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Subscribe to the Print EditionIn response to essays published in Issues, our readers weigh in on critical topics in policy related to science, technology, and society.
Fall 2025
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Fall 2025
A Discussion of
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In industries like meatpacking and textiles, human hands do strong, precise, and irreplaceable work. What happens when we pretend technology can replicate them?
Response
What does ethical fashion look like? Gabriela Damián Miravete’s story explores transborder labor and the future of the textile industry.
A conservation researcher responds to Torie Bosch’s “Bigfeet.”
Response
An eccentric billionaire claims he has a chance encounter with Bigfoot. When he decides to offer a reward to anyone who can bring him proof of the creature, he opens the floodgates to Bigfoot sightings—and is stuck with the dilemma of how to classify an animal that isn’t supposed to exist.
Drover, a weather analyst, tracks bat data—including heart rate, flight patterns, food intake, and other behavior—to predict extreme weather events. When the bank where his partner works introduces a system that allows people to bet on weather events, he’s forced to reckon with the line between predicting climate catastrophe and profiting from it.
Insurance involves betting on catastrophe, and it’s the main way our economy interacts with short-term disaster and long-term risk. As climate catastrophes accelerate, what happens when insurers walk away from the table?
Response
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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