American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt received little recognition during her lifetime, Alana Quinn at the National Academy of Sciences writes. Only decades after Leavitt’s death would “her central role in revealing the scale of the universe” be recognized. Read: issues.org/henrietta-sw...

Henrietta Swan Leavitt: The Woman Who Measured the Universe

American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s research laid the foundation for our understanding of the structure and size of the universe.

issues.org

And, as the first Nurse in Congress and influential member (and chair) of the House Science Committee, Johnson was tremendously consequential. Here’s an interview with @issuesinst.bsky.social. issues.org/eddie-bernic...

“The More Inclusion We Have in Science, the Better Outcomes We’ll Get.”

The congresswoman discusses the 15 minutes that determined her career, how the semiconductor chip transformed Dallas, and the future of science.

issues.org

What does it look like to search for truth across ideological bubbles? “Sunshine Hills Reality Edit”—this month’s Future Tense Fiction story by @tinaconnolly.bsky.social—takes us to a remote cabin where an encyclopedia editor struggles to curate a library of “truthful” information.

Sunshine Hills Reality Edit | Future Tense Fiction

Tina Connolly’s Future Tense Fiction story explores fact-checking, online encyclopedias, and the quest for truth in a polarized world.

issues.org

Our monthly series, Future Tense Fiction with @issuesinst.bsky.social features an original speculative fiction story plus a non-fiction response essay that delves deeper into the themes and real-world resonances that underpin the narrative.

This week's #FreeFictionFriday story is "Sunshine Hills Reality Edit" from @issuesinst.bsky.social by @tinaconnolly.bsky.social. In a remote cabin, an online encyclopedia editor has collected a vast library of books that she hopes can counteract a polarized online information environment.

Professor of history Nikhil Menon writes that “The sharp inequalities in wealth generated by the computing revolution have less to do with technology and innovation itself than with the matrix of global politics and capitalism in which computing emerged in the second half of the twentieth century.”

India’s Pursuit of Tech Self-Reliance

Dwaipayan Banerjee's recent book explores how the forces of global politics and capitalism shaped India’s technological revolution.

issues.org

“The US research enterprise has long been one of the country’s primary drivers of wealth and prosperity.” A deep dive on how Universities contribute to this by Nick Wigginton in @issuesinst.bsky.social issues.org/federal-rese...

Fully Accounting for America’s Research Investments

Universities are not passive recipients of federal research dollars; they pour in substantial resources of their own.

issues.org

In our Summer issue, authors Katherine Loh and Imad Aad from the Center for Digital Trust at EPFL, the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, examine how “the Swiss e-ID system ignited a national debate about how [public] trust is built and how such a system should be used.”

Switzerland’s Trek Toward a National Digital Identity System

The nation’s experience with digital credentials may be helpful for others seeking to build an identity system that reflects civic values.

issues.org

Gwen Ottinger, a professor at Drexel University, asks, “How can scientists and research institutions contribute to social justice?” In contrast to the science in which "scientists are granted sole authority to establish and uphold norms for knowing,” Ottinger suggests “reparative science.”

Repairing Relations With Science

How can scientists and research institutions practice reparative science to contribute to social justice and a functional moral community?

issues.org

ISSUES senior editor Megan Nicholson introduces transmission line engineer Joseph M. Spadoro’s piece on the struggle to represent and modernize the national grid, and how his deep, personal experience in the field informs the piece. Read the full piece here: issues.org/grid-data-in...

As more and more data centers crop up across the country, the tradeoffs they entail are often viewed as unfavorable by local communities. The question that’s pressing now is: How can communities negotiate with Big Tech over data centers to win tangible benefits? Read: issues.org/data-centers...

Have a short story out today about grief and the accessibility issues of actually building a sustainable house that braids plants into the very scaffolding of a home. Also there’s a response essay on it, so much to chew on for academics and plant lovers and cool concept enjoyers alike:

Where the Wild Things Grow | Future Tense Fiction

Osahon Ize-Iyamu’s story takes us to an ambitious green housing project, run by a grief-stricken daughter struggling to keep her mother’s vision alive.

issues.org

Issues in Science and Technology@issuesinst.bsky.social · last mo.

What would it look to construct a house whose walls, roof, and very scaffolding were all made up of living plants? In this month’s Future Tense Fiction story, writer Osahon Ize-Iyamu brings us to a Nigerian housing development pushing the idea of green architecture to new extremes.

What would it look to construct a house whose walls, roof, and very scaffolding were all made up of living plants? In this month’s Future Tense Fiction story, writer Osahon Ize-Iyamu brings us to a Nigerian housing development pushing the idea of green architecture to new extremes.

Where the Wild Things Grow | Future Tense Fiction

Osahon Ize-Iyamu’s story takes us to an ambitious green housing project, run by a grief-stricken daughter struggling to keep her mother’s vision alive.

issues.org

Research Nova Scotia CEO Stefan Leslie spent 15 years managing fisheries, working to “put research to use” and bring about real, practical improvements. “The approach we’d taken to fisheries research applies in other areas: Solving a practical problem has merit as an organizing principle.”

Nova Scotia’s Experiment in Research That Solves Real Problems

Locally focused research investments enable coalitions of scientists and citizens to serve community needs.

issues.org

In December 1968, Apollo 8 became the first crewed mission to leave Earth’s orbit and circle the Moon. After the spacecraft’s fourth orbit around the Moon, astronaut Bill Anders scrambled to capture the moment. The photograph came to be known as “Earthrise.” Image credit: NASA

Issue 58 of #rdmweekly is out! 📬 ➡️ OSF is Changing @cos.io ➡️ Agentic Workflows with Claude Code @jhelvy.bsky.social ➡️ Who Will Keep Research Data Infrastructure Open and Running? @issuesinst.bsky.social and more! rdmweekly.substack.com/p/rdm-weekly...

RDM Weekly - Issue 058

A weekly roundup of Research Data Management resources.

rdmweekly.substack.com

Benchmarks and measurements for AI oversight can be valuable, but “they also share a critical structural vulnerability that AI governance has not yet adequately absorbed,” authors Urs Gasser, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, and Fabienne Marco write. Read: issues.org/ai-measureme...

“A century ago, the arrival of the automobile threw cities out of balance,” Lina Moe and Clinton J. Andrews from Rutgers University write. Today, urban centers are being disrupted by another new technology: urban robots. Read: issues.org/urban-robots...

What can #robotaxis learn from a century of aviation safety? A new @issuesinst.bsky.social essay explores how lessons from #aviation could help improve autonomous vehicle safety. 🧵

🤖 Robots are increasingly sharing our sidewalks, streets and skies. How should cities respond? Prof. Clint Andrews and PhD candidate Lina Moe offer a framework to help policymakers govern robots and identify where new rules are needed. @issuesinst.bsky.social issues.org/urban-robots...

In “Prompts for a Perfect Daughter,” this month’s Future Tense Fiction story, writer @aijiang.bsky.social takes this idea literally, imagining a brain implant system that allows parents to embed a sort of operating manual for living. Read here: issues.org/futuretensef...

This week’s #FreeFictionResponse essay is “From Gospel to Guide” by @yenooi.bsky.social in response to “Prompts for a Perfect Daughter” by @aijiang.bsky.social from @issuesinst.bsky.social. Ooi is a narrative designer, writer, editor, and researcher specializing in life, storytelling, and philosophy

This week's #freefictionfriday is "Prompts for a Perfect Daughter" from @issuesinst.bsky.social by @aijiang.bsky.social. A young protagonist is forced to follow strict prompts embedded deep in her brain via an implant installed by her parents in the hopes of guiding their child to live a good life.

The Dana Foundation is supporting a collection of articles in @issuesinst.bsky.social exploring science's social contract. The authors propose strategies for strengthening the relationship between science and society in the years ahead. #neurosociety #scicomms #neurosky #sciencepolicy

An Exploration of Science's Social Contract

dana.org

In their revised emissions standards for stationary combustion turbines, “EPA estimated the costs the regulation would impose on industry but did not estimate the health benefits of reducing exposure to air pollution,” writes Jana B. Milford, professor emerita at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Counting the Benefits of Clean Air Regulations

By abandoning estimations of the costs of health benefits from pollution reduction, the EPA questions the future of evidence-based policy.

issues.org

“Surveillance used to be associated with the work of trench-coated government agents conducting wiretaps from vans. It now hides inside sleek packaging, personalized recommendations,” Big Tech accountability advocate J.B. Branch writes.

Incriminating Ourselves

J. B. Branch reviews a book on how modern technology produces potential risks to privacy and ushers in an age of self-surveillance.

issues.org

A comment letter in @issuesinst.bsky.social by Eion Lys discusses why American research universities should grow activities supporting their home communities, states, and regions. issues.org/navigate-cha... #HigherEducation #Universities #ResearchPolicy #RegionalStrategy

How to Navigate Challenges to the University

The pressure on US research universities is intense and increasing. How can these institutions adapt and thrive under these circumstances?

issues.org

M. Anthony Mills, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, looks at the recent firing of the National Science Board as an opportunity to “establish a new balance between democratic accountability and protection from partisan meddling.” Read the piece here: issues.org/nsb-nsf-demo...

Who Should Decide How to Use Taxpayer Dollars to Fund Scientific Research?

Legislators have an opportunity to establish a new balance between democratic accountability and protection from partisan meddling.

issues.org

“I am an unabashed optimist when it comes to thinking about the long-term future of science,” Neil Shubin, the new president of the National Academy of Sciences says. “When you look at what science has been able to accomplish, increasingly so over the millennia it’s truly stunning and remarkable.”

“I Am an Unabashed Optimist About the Long-Term Future of Science.”

The new president of the National Academy of Sciences talks about learning to see as a scientist and communicating science in a noisy information landscape.

issues.org

Join Future Tense Fiction and Andrés Martinez for a live conversation about how once-fictional technology is coming to life in the World Cup, from video-assisted refereeing to AI agents that make match-tailored recommendations and analyze opponents. Register Here: open.substack.com/live-stream/...