The latest

The Issues Interview

Shonagh Rae's portrait of Marcia McNutt and Michael M. Crow

“Universities Are the Invisible Hand.”

Marcia McNutt,Michael M. Crow

Recently, the leaders of the Issues editorial board—Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, and Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University—met on Zoom to offer their thoughts on the challenges facing the scientific enterprise in the early days of the second Trump administration, and how the institutions of science should respond.Read More

The Ongoing Transformation

Music and Health: Your Brain on Music

J. D. Talasek,Sweta Adatia,Fred Johnson

What happens in your brain when you hear your favorite song? On this episode ofMusic and Health, Sweta Adatia and Fred Johnson discuss how music impacts the brain, and how music can go beyond entertainment to create stronger, healthier communities.Read More

The Ongoing Transformation

the emerging threat of fungal pathogens

The Rise of Deadly Fungal Pathogens

On our latest podcast episode, Angel Desai talks about what fungal pathogens are, why they are becoming more dangerous, and how the public health community can respond.Read More

Poem

Shonagh Rae’s illustration for "The Ants"

The Ants

Matthew Rohrer

Nothing is more important to the ant
whose exoskeleton has been breached
by mushroom spores that are now
controlling his nervous system …Read More

Book Review

science communication in a crisis

When Nuance Is the Enemy

Pete Nelson

How can scientists communicate effectively during a crisis—a moment when attitudes toward science shift from lukewarm interest to a demand for immediate answers?Read More

Sea Level

Illustration for Sea Level Rise article by Shonagh Rae

Our Bases Are Precarious!

Wilko Graf von Hardenberg

Sea level rise has become a standard indicator of how humans are transforming the planet. But our ideas about sea level, why we measure it, and how it varies have changed radically over the centuries.

Read More

Future Tense Fiction

Rey Velasquez Sagcal's illustration for "Coda" by Arula Ratnakar

Coda

Arula Ratnakar

When Ray discovers a secret that a powerful quantum computing company would rather keep hidden, she’s forced to question the very nature of her reality—and the memories that make it up.

Read More

The SPRING Issue

Join the Conversation

Social Media

Follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Podcast

Listen toThe Ongoing Transformation for conversations with today’s most exciting thinkers.

See Episodes

Forum

Read responses to our published essays from experts around the world.

Read Forum

Attend Events

Connect with our dynamic community of experts and policy-makers.

See Events

Forum

In response to essays published inIssues, our readers weigh in on critical topics in policy related to science, technology, and society.

Send a Response

Current Issue

The New Currency of Power

Winter 2025

Science and technology have often come to policymakers’ rescue when the United States was worried about threats to national security or competitiveness—think of the US response to Sputnik, or more recently, the CHIPS and Science Act after the COVID-19 pandemic. But industry, not government, is now the biggest funder of scientific research and technological development. How can the country coordinate this vast and unwieldy conglomerate in order to maintain its global preeminence? Fortunately, the scientific enterprise has been continually reinventing itself for decades, and essays in the Winter 2025 issue document this process and consider what insights we might glean for the future.

Browse the Issue

Winter 2025 ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

For faster access to our full journal and to see the beautiful artwork that accompanies our feature essays, subscribe to the print edition today.

Subscribe to the Print Edition

From This Issue

When Nuance Is the Enemy

Pete Nelson

Our Bases Are Precarious!

Wilko Graf von Hardenberg

The Ants

Matthew Rohrer

Foiling the Growing Threat of Fungal Pathogens

Angel N. Desai,George R. Thompson III

Attempting a Democratic Technology

John M. Logsdon

Nurturing Deeper Ways of Knowing in Science

Sergio Carbajo

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

Florian Metzler,Jonah Messinger

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

Aditi Verma,Katie Snyder,Shanna Daly

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?

Jessica Lovering,Suzanne Hobbs Baker

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

Başak Saraç-Lesavre

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

News

Featured Art Galleries

Browse our recent issues

Explore Issues By Topic