-
Sep 20, 2024 | 
issues.org | Vol. XL
In “Reform Federal Policies to Enable Native American Regenerative Agriculture” (Issues, Spring 2024), Aude K. Chesnais, Joseph P. Brewer II, Kyle P. Whyte, Raffaele Sindoni Saposhnik, and Michael Kotutwa Johnson provide a useful baseline into the history of regenerative agriculture and its use on tribal lands.
-
Sep 18, 2024 | 
issues.org | Vol. XL
Celebrating the centennial of the National Academy of Sciences building, 1924–2024. A photograph captures a historic moment on the back steps of the National Academy of Sciences building: Marie Curie, codiscoverer of radium and polonium, stands alongside President Herbert Hoover in the fall of 1929. The president had presented her with a gift of $50,000, earmarked for purchasing a gram of radium for her oncology institute in Warsaw, Poland.
-
Sep 16, 2024 | 
issues.org | Aditi Verma |Katie Snyder |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XL
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. Engineering education has long prioritized technical mastery above all else.
-
Aug 28, 2024 | 
issues.org | Eric Trump |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XL
Review ofR.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial LifeCambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2023, 312 pp. In 1920, what might be the most successful anthology in German-language publishing history appeared. Menschheitsdämmerung, or“Twilight of Humanity,” collects 275 poems, many of which rage against the Machine Age.
-
Aug 21, 2024 | 
issues.org | Vol. XL
Inspired by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) building, which turns 100 this year, sixth-grade students at the Alain Locke School in West Philadelphia created the Promethean Sparks mural. The students collaborated with artist and educator Ben Volta to imagine how scientific imagery in the NAS building’s Great Hall—from the Prometheus mural by Albert Herter and the golden dome by Hildreth Meière—might look if recreated in the twenty-first century.
-
Aug 20, 2024 | 
issues.org | Carolyn Russo |Vol. XL
One of the remarkable qualities of space art is its ability to amplify the mysterious intangibility of the cosmos (as with the late-nineteenth-century French artist Étienne Trouvelot) and at the same time make the unrealized technologies of the future and the worlds beyond our reach seem to be within our grasp (as with the mid-twentieth-century American artist Chesley Bonestell).
-
Aug 5, 2024 | 
issues.org | Christy Spackman |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XL
Reusing wastewater is a scientifically and technologically sound method of producing drinking water, and it may become necessary in water-stressed regions. But will the public accept it? Would you drink water you knew was made from your own poop or pee? What if that water showed up in a glass of award-winning beer? Perhaps you’ve never asked yourself these questions.
-
Jul 31, 2024 | 
issues.org | Lisa Margonelli |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XL
What do nuclear fusion power plants, artificial intelligence, hydrogen infrastructure, and drinking water recycled from human waste have in common? Aside from being featured in this edition of Issues, they all require intense public engagement to choose among technological tradeoffs, safety profiles, and economic configurations. Reaching these understandings requires researchers, engineers, and decisionmakers who are adept at working with the public.
-
Jul 22, 2024 | 
issues.org | Jay Lloyd |Vol. XL
For generations, New York City engineers have consulted a hand-colored map of Manhattan’s waterways from 1865, a masterwork that depicts creeks and canals, marshes and meadows in vivid shades of blue, green, and pink. If you want to know whether a property might flood, where ground might be unstable, or whether a basement is likely to fill up with water, the map has your answers. “A swell lithograph, long as a Buick,” one admirer enthused.
-
Jul 16, 2024 | 
issues.org | Vol. XL
Refik Anadol Studio in Los Angeles maintains a research practice centered around discovering and developing novel approaches to data narratives and machine intelligence. Since 2014, the studio has been working at the intersection of art, science, and technology to advance creativity and imagination using big data while also investigating the architecture of space and perception.
