Introducing our new podcast miniseries: “Not Now, But Soon”! In the first episode, @boriscrito.bsky.social talks with host @older.bsky.social about his academic life researching data centers, his #speculativefiction life, & how those worlds collide in his book SOLIDEZ. issues.org/hurricane-of...

@older.bsky.social invited me on her podcast mini-series to talk about disaster. It's rare that I get a chance to bring my research on the environmental impact of computing, AI, data centers into conversation with my speculative fiction - especially when it comes to Puerto Rico. #datacenters 🌀🚀✍️

The 1st episode of the new pod-miniseries I'm hosting at @issuesinst.bsky.social is out now! I talk with spec-fic writer & anthropologist of tech @boriscrito.bsky.social about the slow disaster of data centers, the rapid disasters of hurricanes in the Caribbean & the ways we envision the future:

Not Now, But Soon — a new miniseries from @IssuesInST.bsky.social — will challenge the stories we often tell about #disasters and explore how we can use #SpeculativeFiction to create better futures and policies. Learn more and tune in for the September 16 premiere: buff.ly/SDqyE38

"In a #PublicHealth system that is outdated and reactive, Americans are left vulnerable to the next outbreak." Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent outbreaks can teach us how better prevent the next #pandemic. Learn more from @IssuesInST.bsky.social: buff.ly/BpB6bcm

In our Forum section, @stebbins.bsky.social responds to @stuartbuck.bsky.social & @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy’s piece on unfunded grant applications. Read the discussion: issues.org/learning-fro...

To understand modern risk, we have to grapple with emergent and novel aspects of hazard, vulnerability, exposure, and response that comprise risk. Find out more in a new article with @danielaldrich.bsky.social and Daniel Hoyer, just out in @issuesinst.bsky.social. issues.org/mental-model...

“Early detection, effective surveillance, and accurate reporting are essential for controlling [health] threats before they become full-blown public health emergencies,” @khahlil.bsky.social writes. “These are all areas of chronic underinvestment in the United States.” issues.org/public-healt...

The story of how the federal government became an innovation evangelist in the 1960s is an account of fits, starts, and ideological ambiguity. Read an adapted excerpt from "Every American an Innovator" by Matthew Wisnioski: issues.org/nation-of-in... @issuesinst.bsky.social

Side quest # TooMany of this PhD: I co-authored an article for @issuesinst.bsky.social on the need for better soil data to monitor topsoil loss, plus farmland price valuation that reflects the true quality of soil to incentivize topsoil preservation. Feedback most welcome! issues.org/better-soil-...

⚖️ This @issuesinst.bsky.social commentary reflects on the vital role of programs supporting state legislators as lawmakers navigate complex science and technology policy decisions. Read the full commentary ⤵️ #SciencePhilanthropy #SciPol #STEM

Amid the political upheaval of 1967, a group of bureaucratic innovators within the federal government released a manifesto. Their message: “Invention and innovation lie at the heart of the process by which America has grown and renewed itself.” Read the story: issues.org/nation-of-in...

As science rapidly advances, how should we prepare next generation scientists to navigate the intersection of science, ethics, and policy? A new @issuesinst.bsky.social article by @shobitap.org & Erin Burkett, share recommendations to equip scientists. bit.ly/4mUWTqZ

A national network of community bio labs—Callie Chappell, Ana Paulina Quiroz, David Sun Kong, and ‪@drewendy.bsky.social‬ call them “LABraries”—could help build a bioliterate workforce, support community participation in the bioeconomy, and serve as public infrastructure. issues.org/labraries-ch...

Did you know Bluesky's founder has an #STS degree? In a new article, Erin Burkett and I explain why, despite current threats to humanities and social science, "STEM-in-Society programs" like STS are more important than ever. And we guide funders and university leaders how to better support them.

Many farmers rely on outdated data on #SoilQuality, which disincentives the conservation of #topsoil. Learn how improving national #soil data and #conservation practices can encourage more #SustainableAgriculture in a new @IssuesInST.bsky.social article: buff.ly/PxphrMq

My 2019 short story 'The Song Between Worlds', about the paths of a 1 percenter space tourist & an indigenous worker crossing in a Martian city, is republished in @issuesinst.bsky.social for @imaginationasu.bsky.social's Future Tense series, w/ a brief new intro by me:

The chemical industry, once an engine of innovation, has become a dinosaur, argue @rogerturner.bsky.social, Joel Tickner, and Molly Jacobs. In their essay for our Summer issue, they explore what policies might re-awaken the industry and help it become more sustainable: issues.org/safer-sustai...

“We have iPhones, Netflix, and ChatGPT, but where are the moonshots?” In his review of THE TECHNOLOGICAL REPUBLIC, @newamerica.org senior policy analyst Gordon LaForge puts the US government’s “decoupling of technological innovation from larger societal goals” in context. issues.org/moonshots-ar...

A recent @IssuesInST.bsky.social piece proposes a framework for how and whether to advance "mirror life" in a way that avoids potential harms while still pursuing the benefits that motivate the science. Read: buff.ly/hCbT83p

For two decades, Navajo Technical University has helped Navajo Nation become a leader in advanced manufacturing. H. Scott Halliday shares how the school’s pedagogical innovations and metal additive manufacturing program fight brain drain from ancestral lands: issues.org/navajo-tech-...

Building an advanced manufacturing hub in Navajo Nation requires a radically different kind of regional economic development model, @maryannfeldman.bsky.social & Alaina Kayaani-George‬ write—one that centers around prioritizing community well-being. issues.org/indigenous-e...

In his review of a new book examining the 100-year legacy of the Scopes “monkey” trial on teaching evolution in public schools, @glennbranch.bsky.social writes that the authors provide an “insightful and detailed legal history,” but finds their argument overly pessimistic:

‪ “One way to stay grounded is to remember that we still have to meet our vocational obligations—to teach.”  In our forum section, @oiyanpoon.bsky.social responds to David Asai’s essay reflecting on the current state of DEI in science education: issues.org/inclusive-sc...

In April, @sciencecenters.bsky.social surveyed 1,017 US adults in an initial effort to better understand public attitudes toward the scientific ecosystem—and found “no significant ‘anti-science’ coalition.”

During the era of increasing globalization, science diplomacy was a key tool for addressing global challenges. Today, among fracturing alliances, the field must evolve. @nationalacademies.org’s Vaughan Turekian & @sciencecouncil.bsky.social’s Peter Gluckman write:

The impacts of NIH’s external grant programs are well documented—but the research conducted at the agency generates outsized social and economic outcomes, too. @techiewonk.bsky.social & Rossana Zetina-Beale led retrospective analyses that found “enormous economic benefit”: issues.org/nih-intramur...

🤔How does ADHD affect adults? 🎙️Sara Frueh, an editor at @issuesinst.bsky.social , sat down with @hopkinsmedicine.bsky.social ’s professor, David Goodman to talk about the complexities in how it’s diagnosed and treated. issues.org/how-adhd-aff...

“It is not possible for philanthropy to fill the funding gap created by the retreat of the federal government,” Richard Meserve writes. Read perspectives from Meserve, France Córdova, @k8lowry.bsky.social, Keith Yamamoto, and @danafoundation.bsky.social’s Caroline Montojo: issues.org/science-phil...

In his essay describing the state of US science diplomacy, @colesci.bsky.social outlines the political and procedural hurdles that “create an atmosphere where ambitious ideas are frequently downgraded to more achievable, lower-effort projects.” issues.org/science-dipl...

“Call it the Vannevar Index: The greater the pressure on the scientific enterprise, the more one hears about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s science advisor.” Read @lisamargonelli.bsky.social’s Editor’s Journal for the Summer ISSUES: issues.org/innovation-h...

While ultraprocessed food companies pursue profits at the cost of making populations obese, pharmaceutical companies pursue profits with drugs promising to make the same people thin. Why not make money off both sides of the world's obesity crisis?

A take worth reading on #scipol reform debate by @issuesinst.bsky.social's @lisamargonelli.bsky.social. Esp by science advocates. Back to Vannevar Bush or to what's next in the Endless Frontier? issues.org/innovation-h...

“When people do not eat healthfully, several industries profit—food, drug, and diet, for starters. Eating healthfully means taking on all of them.” @marionnestle.bsky.social responds to @drlauraschmidt.bsky.social & Luc Hagenaars’s essay on #GLP-1 drugs: issues.org/dysfunctiona...

In his @issuesinst.bsky.social review of The Technology Republic, a book by #Palantir's Alexander Karp and Nicholas Zamiska, @newamerica.org senior policy analyst Gordon LaForge urges for greater public capacity for #AI to deliver the benefits we hope it will.

How should scientists navigate research that lies somewhere on a slippery slope between “unquestionably morally acceptable” and a “dystopian scenario that must be avoided”? A group of biologists and ethicists discuss a controversial call for a ban on “mirror life”: issues.org/mirror-life-...

The Summer ISSUES has shipped! It explores the hidden scaffolding of US innovation—for ethical slippery slopes, the bioeconomy, the chemical industry, science diplomacy, in Navajo Nation, and more—and is, as usual, filled with art, book reviews, & poetry. Browse and subscribe: issues.org/issue/41-4/

“Ironically, although universities unleashed an age of massive technical innovation,” ASU’s Michael Crow, William Dabars, and David Rosowsky argue, “they failed to innovate their own designs to meet the changing needs of society.” Read their piece in the Summer ISSUES: issues.org/universities...

“Trust in science has lately emerged as the Snark of American politics.” #STS scholar Sheila Jasanoff employs two Lewis Carroll characters—the Snark and the Boojum—in explaining the “strangely undefined” quest to understand public trust in science. issues.org/snark-boojum...

“Our commission envisions a future in which Americans engage with biotechnology the same way they do with cell phones and computers.” We spoke with Indiana senator Todd Young, chair of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, for the Summer ISSUES: issues.org/interview-se...

Wild animals are just as uniquely individual as our pets, with their own quirks, likes, and dislikes. Author Brandon Keim discusses animal personhood, animal representation, and the story of a cormorant named Cosmos in a new @IssuesInST.bsky.social interview: buff.ly/lZIC9gi

Guys I got a preview of the cover of @issuesinst.bsky.social and let me tell you, I could not be more thrilled. A) Corn! B) Space! C) Implied need for space traffic coordination! D) Science Diplomacy needs fixing/needs to be less myopic (by yours truly)!!!! Hope you’ll read it when it comes out.

Our latest podcast features the story of Cosmos, a deformed cormorant who’d groom his rescuer’s sideburns (it was the ’80s) and turn the pages of his science journals. @brandonkeim.bsky.social & @lisamargonelli.bsky.social talk animal personhood, policy, and cormorants: issues.org/brandon-keim...

On the ocean floor, an isolated roadside bar buried in a vast network of tunnels is staffed by a claustrophobic waitress who dreams of life above the surface. Read “Tunnel Fever,” our new #FutureTenseFiction short story by Margrét Helgadóttir: issues.org/futuretensef... #speculativefiction

Fungi are getting better at infecting humans. Angel N. Desai & @grthompsonmd.bsky.social warn that as extreme weather happen more frequently, the threat of often-deadly fungal pathogens, aka mycoses, will continue to grow.

“Research security isn’t only about defending against external threats,” John C. Gannon, Richard A. Meserve, and @maria-zuber.bsky.social argue—it also requires “investing in the future workforce and providing the foundation for scientific and technological advances.”

The “loop of avoidance” around women’s sexual health: Research funders avoid “the treacherous whirlpool of female sexuality,” medical education neglects the issue, and clinicians don’t bring it up. ‪@drjewelk.bsky.social‬, Sara Collina, & Lindy Elkins-Tanton write:

“Rarely, if ever, do ideas—academic or otherwise—blaze a trail in the sky and leave a clear mark where their impact has occurred.” Now that impact is a goal in #academia, social scientist David H. Guston proposes a “catechism” for understanding, measuring, & creating it:

The richest 1% of Americans live 10 to 15 years longer, on average, than the poorest 1%—despite the billions spent annually on biomedical innovation. So if the US innovation system isn’t innovating for societal equity, what is it innovating for? Read @shobitap.org:

“I found Greenleaf’s challenge to broadly accepted policy narratives extremely stimulating. It made me question the assumptions on which much modern conservation discourse rests.” Read Beren Ilgaz Ünsal’s review of Maron Greenleaf’s @dukepress.bsky.social book FOREST LOST: issues.org/forest-lost-...