Editor’s Journal
Innovation’s Hidden Scaffolds
In this time of political, economic, and technological upheaval, what does it mean that so many advocates for science are pointing to an 80-year-old report by Vannevar Bush?
Read More
Book Review
Where Are the Moonshots?
Despite alarm bells over threats to American technological supremacy, no national effort has materialized. We have iPhones, Netflix, and ChatGPT, but where are the moonshots? The space programs and Manhattan projects? Alexander Karp, the billionaire cofounder and CEO of the software company Palantir, grapples with this state of affairs in The Technological Republic.
The Latest
Mirror Life
Building Decision Points Into Research’s Slipperiest Slopes
The controversy around a ban on “mirror life” should lead to a more nuanced public conversation about how to manage the benefits and risks of precursor biotechnologies.
Research Universities
It’s Time for Universities to Redesign Their 75-Year-Old Contract
American research universities have unleashed an age of massive technical innovation—but they’ve failed to innovate their own designs to meet the changing needs of society.
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.
Chakaia Booker: Treading New Ground
As Chakaia Booker finds beauty in refuse, her reclamation of discarded tires offers a fresh perspective on her materials and on humanity’s relationship with and responsibility to the environment.
The Ongoing Transformation
What Does a Cormorant Feel?
Brandon Keim discusses animal personhood, movements around animal representation, and cormorants—one named Cosmos in particular.
Book Review
Documenting a Carbon Bust
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, 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.
Risk Assessment
How Dual Use Puts Research Under the Microscope
A recent case in Norway demonstrates how dual-use controls can constrict international scientific collaboration without offering commensurate protections.
Research Proposals
Proposals as Partnerships
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.
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.”
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Forum
In response to essays published in Issues, our readers weigh in on critical topics in policy related to science, technology, and society.
Summer 2025
Fixing a Dysfunctional Food System
A Discussion of
The Ozempic Era Could Shift Blame for Obesity From Individuals to Commercial Food Systems
Responses By
Summer 2025
If Your Snark Be a Boojum
A Discussion of
The Strange New Politics of Science
Responses By
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When We Were Patched
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.
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Algorithms Could Create an Even Playing Field—if We Insist on It
An expert on algorithmic bias responds to Deji Bryce Olukotun’s “When We Were Patched.”
Response
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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.
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Resisting Tunnel Vision
To work toward better climate policy and governance, we need to expand our vision of what’s possible.
Response
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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.
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Firefighting Chemicals Are Dangerous for the Environment. Can That Change?
A journalist who covers wildfires responds to Premee Mohamed’s “All That Burns Unseen.”
Response
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?
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Foiling the Growing Threat of Fungal Pathogens
Climate change, changing migration patterns, and our agriculture system have created a perfect environment for fungal pathogens to thrive.
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Channels for Arctic Diplomacy
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
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Behind the Bougainvillea Curtain: Wildfires and Inequality
More equitable approaches to preparation and relief efforts for wildfires and other disasters must include undocumented Latino and Indigenous migrants.
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A Climate Equity Agenda Informed by Community Brilliance
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.
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