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Editor’s Journal

Innovation’s New Catechism

What are you trying to do? Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make? What are the risks? How much will it cost? How long will it take? Called the Heilmeier Catechism, these questions were developed in the 1970s to steer investment decisions at the famed Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. They have since been adopted by the wider world of investors and entrepreneurs as the creed that enables the high priests of scientific innovation to soar above the crowd. But as new ARPAs are created—focused on health, intelligence gathering, and other fields—the catechism is changing in ways that reflect new concerns and uncertainties. Read More

The Ongoing Transformation

Secretary Ernest Moniz on the Diplomatic Role of “Cumulative” Science

Ernest Moniz, secretary of energy during the Obama administration, has been a practitioner of science diplomacy at the highest levels. In the latest episode of our podcast, Moniz talks about the role of science in international negotiations and emphasizes the importance of collaboration to scientific discovery. Science, he says, is cumulative, extending far beyond the experience of a single person. If collaborations are prevented, we will never know what knowledge we failed to create. Read More

Science Governance

Chinese Academics Are Becoming a Force for Good Governance

China’s scientific community is making concerted efforts to actively shape science governance, especially in response to life sciences controversies such as He Jiankui’s use of CRISPR to edit human genomes.Read More

Orbital Debris

Why Space Debris Flies Through Regulatory Gaps

With technical expertise and authority over space activities widely distributed across the US government, officials need to determine the appropriate regulations and policies to address how space is changing. It’s time to clarify which agencies have authority to act to resolve the space debris problem.Read More

Equity and Inclusion

Fay Cobb Payton and Ann Quiroz Gates

The Role of Institutional Leaders in Driving Lasting Change in the STEM Ecosystem

Minority-serving institutions are positioned to play a significant part in driving change across the larger STEM community. In addition to producing STEM graduates, these institutions build research and infrastructure capacity critical to regional and national innovation in bolstering economic mobility.Read More

National Security

Schiffer & Chang

Academia’s Openness Could Strengthen its Partnerships With the Intelligence Community

Done properly, enhancing partnerships between the intelligence community and academia will benefit both national security and the academic research enterprise.Read More

In Focus

Navigating a polluted information ecosystem
  • Navigating a Polluted Information Ecosystem

    Fake news, misinformation, and disinformation have become bywords for problematic online content. But these labels provide little understanding of the ways people create and share information. A new series from Issues explores how to navigate and improve today’s information ecosystems.

    More

The Summer Issue

Cover of the Summer 2023 ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


How can public policy push science, medicine, and technology forward? In the Summer 2023 Issues, contributors offer plenty of ideas. 

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Online Exclusives

Film Review

No Ordinary Documentary

By the time they’re diagnosed, most ALS patients have only months or a few years to live. There are no cures and few effective treatments. But DC lawyer Brian Wallach, who knew nothing about ALS before his diagnosis, sought to make treatment a policy priority. A new documentary chronicles his remarkable success.Read More

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

The Camouflaged Metaphysics of Embryos

Last summer, the Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion in the United States. The ramifications of that decision continue to play out across interpretations of the whole human reproductive process, including in health care and technology. Jane Maienschein sees opportunities for thoughtful reflection and crafting of better informed, more nuanced policies.Read More

The ISSUES Interview

Tristan Harris

“The Complexity of Technology’s Consequences Is Going Up Exponentially, But Our Wisdom and Awareness Are Not.”

Tristan Harris, a technology ethicist and the cofounder of the Center for Humane Technology, talked with Issues editor Sara Frueh about the challenge of online misinformation, ways to govern artificial intelligence, and a vision of technology that strengthens democracy.Read More

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Centering Societal Concerns at NSF

The National Science Foundation has been operating in a hybrid mode of use-inspired research and knowledge-based innovation for most of its history. Examining the new mandates of the CHIPS and Science Act, and their relationship to past experiments at the agency, reveals how NSF can center “ethical and societal considerations” as it reorients the scientific enterprise.Read More

News

Creativity During COVID

cpnas creative responses archive

A Time Capsule of Creative Responses to the Pandemic

Creativity often flourishes in stressful times. A remarkable collection of creative responses from individuals, communities, organizations, and industries is now available to explore in a new archive.Read More

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