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Sep 12, 2023 | 
issues.org | Claire Wardle |Vol. XXXIX
My “ah-ha” disinformation moment came in July 2014, in the hours and days following the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine. I was a senior official in the federal agency that oversees US international broadcasting, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and closely monitoring media reports of the tragedy. Credible reporting quickly emerged that the airliner had been shot down by Russian-controlled forces.
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Aug 31, 2023 | 
issues.org | Marcia McNutt |Michael Crow |Vol. XXXIX
In “Enhancing Trust in Science and Democracy in an Age of Misinformation” (Issues, Spring 2023), Marcia McNutt and Michael M. Crow encourage the scientific community to “embrace its vital role in producing and disseminating knowledge in democratic societies.”We fully agree with this recommendation.
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Aug 22, 2023 | 
issues.org | Vol. XXXIX
The first systematic dissection of the human body has been attributed to the ancient Greek anatomist Herophilus, who lived from 355 BC to 280 BC. Unfortunately, Herophilus was ultimately accused of performing vivisections of living human beings. Dissection then ceased after his days and recommenced only in the mid-sixteenth century.
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Aug 21, 2023 | 
issues.org | Mark Schaefer |Ramona Ausubel |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XXXIX
Review ofThe Last AnimalNew York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2023, 288 pp. Three decades ago, Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park presented readers with the tantalizing question of whether a dinosaur could be brought back to life.
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Aug 14, 2023 | 
issues.org | Travis Whitfill |Mariana Mazzucato |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XXXIX
US drug companies turn taxpayer-funded innovation into astronomical profits. A new agency focused on health innovation could shift the rewards of medical advances to benefit public health. Years before the pandemic began, the US government was a major investor in what would become COVID-19 vaccines. It supplied nearly $350 million to build technologies crucial to mRNA vaccines.
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Aug 9, 2023 | 
issues.org | Jay Lloyd |Vol. XXXIX
By Ivy Kwan Arce Ivy Kwan Arce is a Chinese American activist and artist. Diagnosed as HIV positive in 1990, she has fought for HIV/AIDS causes with AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), Treatment Action Group, People With AIDS Health Group, Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS, and God’s Love We Deliver.
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Aug 2, 2023 | 
issues.org | Lisa Margonelli |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XXXIX
By Lisa Margonelli Since the mid-1970s, DARPA, the oft-copied Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has used a series of eight questions to steer investment decisions. 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?
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Jul 25, 2023 | 
issues.org | Mary E. Maxon |Vol. XXXIX
In “Racing to Be First to Be Second” (Issues, Spring 2023), Mary E. Maxon ably describes the regulatory challenges to the emerging bioeconomy in the United States. The Biden administration has recognized explicitly the transition from a “chemical” economy to one in which inputs, processes, and products are largely the result of “biology,” and has chosen to help facilitate that transition. The United States regulates products, not technologies.
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Jul 24, 2023 | 
issues.org | Fay Cobb Payton |Ann Gates |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XXXIX
Understanding the ways that leadership generates change and accountability is essential to transform a system built upon historical inequities. In 1988, Diana Natalicio became president of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), vowing to prioritize both access and excellence, so that the university, which then had one doctoral program and provided flexible pathways for admission, reflected the demographics of its larger community.
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Jul 18, 2023 | 
issues.org | E. William Colglazier |Vol. XXXIX
Science and innovation have always flourished in times and places where openness prevails. This was true for the ancient Greeks and during the Renaissance, and it remains true today. The United States’ leadership in science and technology is linked to its joint status as a global economic hub and the home of a free and open society. Science is the “seed corn” to many useful and valuable technologies.
