Space Policy
A Vision for America’s Next Era in Space
Maintaining the United States’ leadership in space requires discipline, continuity, and a clear division of responsibilities between government and industry.
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The Ongoing Transformation
The Future of Making Babies
Assisted reproductive technologies have helped many people have children, but the egg donors behind this process are often overlooked. Emily Packard Dawson discusses donors and the donation process, along with the ethical and policy challenges raised by advances in reproductive technologies.
The Latest
The Ongoing Transformation
Edward You Protected America From Bioterror
Edward You worked at an unexpected place for science policy: the FBI. He shares how his experience as an agent helped reframe how the country protects biosecurity and supports innovation.
Grand Challenges
Repurposing Grand Challenges in Tumultuous Times
As research budgets tighten, priorities evolve, and new funding models emerge, the grand challenge framework can restore coherence, direction, and shared purpose across the scientific enterprise.
Tech Sovereignty
Building Bridges—Not Walls—for Technological Sovereignty
Today’s emerging economies need to carefully manage tradeoffs to achieve technological sovereignty and a globally competitive position.
The Ongoing Transformation
Building a Tech Innovation Ecosystem in Newark
Newark, New Jersey is working to build a new, inclusive tech innovation ecosystem. Fay Cobb Payton and Lyneir Richardson share how Newark is pioneering data-led innovation with a diverse group of entrepreneurs.
Engineering Culture
Who Will Build It?
Restoring US manufacturing leadership requires a culture shift in how engineers, technologists, and technicians translate ideas into production.
Digital Infrastructure
Why the Cloud Needs Competition
To ensure the nation’s leadership in artificial intelligence, cloud computing infrastructure must be regulated to encourage competition and enable innovation, building on lessons from other sectors.
The Ongoing Transformation
Who Sets the Standard?
Technical standards are the “the invisible infrastructure of modern life,” underpinning public safety, consumer protection, interoperability, and innovation. Laurie Locascio explains how standards enable innovation, and why more researchers should be involved with the standards community.
Regulatory Burden
Simplify Research Regulations
The current policy environment offers a unique opportunity to act swiftly on the longstanding issue of burdensome research regulations.
Real Numbers
Connecting the Dots for Defense STEM Workforce Development
The United States should treat STEM talent development as a core pillar of national security, but opportunities for STEM workforce training and education have not developed in a coordinated manner.
Publicly Funded Science
Research That Solves North Carolina’s Problems
The North Carolina Collaboratory is “working proof” of how state-directed research at universities can make publicly funded science accountable to the people of the state.
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Weaving Data and Community
Vol. XLII, No. 3, Spring 2026
There are big, open questions about the changing relationship between science and society: How should the public fund science, and what kind of science should it fund? What should society expect in return for its support? What is the role of research universities in the scientific ecosystem? And the relationship between science and society looks very different at the local, or even personal, level—and the questions are different too: How can research improve the quality of life in my community? Should I be worried about the refinery in my neighborhood? Is my town able to assist the most vulnerable when the power goes out during a storm? The essays in the Spring 2026 Issues explore all these questions to better understand how the social contract with science is evolving.
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Forum
In response to essays published in Issues, our readers weigh in on critical topics in policy related to science, technology, and society.
Winter 2026
Reducing the Potential Harms of AI Companions
A Discussion of
AI Companions Are Not Your Teen’s Friend
Responses By
Winter 2026
For Space Nuclear Power, Go Big or Go Home
A Discussion of
A Strategy for Building Space Nuclear Systems That Fly
Responses By
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The Pocket Box™
What happens when a technology moves from groundbreaking scientific discovery to mass consumer product? Gunnar Anderson’s story explores a mysterious new discovery that breaks the bounds of physics as we once understood them. But quickly, scientific awe morphs into commercial prospecting—with little regulation and horrifying consequences.
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What Happens When a Groundbreaking Invention Falls Victim to Human Impulse?
Even inventions with the loftiest of goals can be commandeered for unscrupulous—or nefarious—ends. Where does that leave the inventors?
Response
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What Would Akanda Do?
An Indian actor in a future Mumbai has authorized politicians, entertainers, and businesses to use his likeness. When he discovers his image is being used as a tool for repression—and when two kids he’s close to disappear—the actor is forced to confront what he really gave away.
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The Dividing Towers of Mumbai
Moira Shourie returns to Mumbai, the city she once called home while working at MTV India. She reflects on how a culture of celebrity, rampant inequality, and complex urban design divide some residents and bring others together.
Response
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Deficiency Agent
How will artificial intelligence transform warfare? Andrew Liptak’s story brings us to the front lines to see how a glitchy combat AI deals with the tricky task of balancing the demands of a mission with the unpredictability of the battlefield.
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The Algorithmic Fog of War
What happens as AI systems become embedded in military operations? Candace Rondeaux explores how command structures are already reorganizing around AI black boxes—and what it would look like to design decisionmaking structures that combine technical capacity with human expertise.
Response
Over four decades, Issues has hosted many articles discussing science’s “social contract”—the idea, as physicist Harvey Brooks articulated it in 1988, that the scientific enterprise would provide “social benefits in exchange for an unusual degree of self-governance and financial support free of strings.” Today, this contract is clearly defunct: The federal government has cut funding for science, cast doubt on scientific findings, and prioritized investment in research outside the university system. Whatever the future of federally funded science is, it’s no longer “free of strings.” As the scientific enterprise tries to decide how to respond, it first needs to figure out what happened.
The collection of these articles is part of an exploration of science’s social contract that is generously supported by The Kavli Foundation.
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Discussing Science’s “Social Contract”
If the public funds science and gives it autonomy to govern itself, then benefits such as economic growth, innovation, and national security will follow. This unwritten social contract was long thought to underpin policymakers’ relationship to the scientific enterprise, but recent events suggest those days are over.
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No Longer Free of Strings
Why has the idea of an implicit social contract between society and science had a hold on scientists’ imaginations for so long? And what does it mean now that the relationship has frayed?
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It’s Time for Universities to Redesign Their 75-Year-Old Contract
American research universities have unleashed an age of massive technical innovation—but they’ve failed to innovate their own designs to meet the changing needs of society.
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“The More Inclusion We Have in Science, the Better Outcomes We’ll Get.”
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson spent five decades in public service, during which she ushered through landmark science and technology legislation and helped to advance opportunities for all Americans.
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