Editor's Journal Archives | Issues in Science and Technology https://issues.org/section/editors-journal/ The best minds on the most important topics. Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:14:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://issues.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-issues-favicon-32x32.png Editor's Journal Archives | Issues in Science and Technology https://issues.org/section/editors-journal/ 32 32 Innovation’s Hidden Scaffolds https://issues.org/innovation-hidden-scaffolds-margonelli/ https://issues.org/innovation-hidden-scaffolds-margonelli/#respond Thu, 17 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=46468 Call it the Vannevar Index: The greater the pressure on the scientific enterprise, the more one hears about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s science advisor. The New York Times has mentioned Vannevar Bush… Read More

The post Innovation’s Hidden Scaffolds appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/innovation-hidden-scaffolds-margonelli/feed/ 0 Who Owns Science? https://issues.org/who-owns-science-margonelli/ https://issues.org/who-owns-science-margonelli/#respond Wed, 09 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=45602 Why has the public not shown much outrage at—or even interest in—the dismantling of the national research project that they’ve been bankrolling for the past 75 years?

The post Who Owns Science? appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/who-owns-science-margonelli/feed/ 0 Searching for a New Protopia https://issues.org/searching-new-protopia-margonelli/ https://issues.org/searching-new-protopia-margonelli/#respond Wed, 08 Jan 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=44629 As scientists and government officials reinvent science politics and policies for a new era, the country will need to tell a new story about its future.

The post Searching for a New Protopia appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/searching-new-protopia-margonelli/feed/ 0 Science Policy: No Longer an “Exotic Nice-to-Have Thing” https://issues.org/science-policy-survey-margonelli/ https://issues.org/science-policy-survey-margonelli/#respond Mon, 28 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=43627 The community of people who do science policy has long been something of a cipher. In the late 1960s, journalist Dan Greenberg reported that it comprised a “remarkably small number of people”—he… Read More

The post Science Policy: No Longer an “Exotic Nice-to-Have Thing” appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/science-policy-survey-margonelli/feed/ 0 Supporting Scientific Citizens https://issues.org/supporting-scientific-citizens-margonelli/ https://issues.org/supporting-scientific-citizens-margonelli/#respond Wed, 31 Jul 2024 10:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=42863 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… Read More

The post Supporting Scientific Citizens appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/supporting-scientific-citizens-margonelli/feed/ 0 Mud, Muddling, and Science Policy https://issues.org/mud-muddling-science-policy-margonelli/ https://issues.org/mud-muddling-science-policy-margonelli/#respond Wed, 17 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=41996 Looking across the clam flat and the remains of a fishing weir toward the tidal marsh at Squirrel Point, Arrowsic, Maine. Photo by Lisa Margonelli.

Most days, I think about science policy… Read More

The post Mud, Muddling, and Science Policy appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/mud-muddling-science-policy-margonelli/feed/ 0 Living Computers https://issues.org/living-computers-computer-science-margonelli/ https://issues.org/living-computers-computer-science-margonelli/#respond Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=41037 In 1967, the idea of computer science as a distinct discipline seemed outlandish enough that three leaders of the movement felt the need to write a letter to Science addressing the question,… Read More

The post Living Computers appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/living-computers-computer-science-margonelli/feed/ 0 A 40-Year Conversation https://issues.org/issues-40-year-conversation-margonelli/ https://issues.org/issues-40-year-conversation-margonelli/#respond Wed, 08 Nov 2023 11:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=40343 In the fall of 1984, National Academy of Sciences president Frank Press introduced the first copy of Issues in Science and Technology, writing that this magazine would be “dedicated to the… Read More

The post A 40-Year Conversation appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/issues-40-year-conversation-margonelli/feed/ 0 Innovation’s New Catechism https://issues.org/innovation-new-catechism-margonelli/ https://issues.org/innovation-new-catechism-margonelli/#respond Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=39552 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… Read More

The post Innovation’s New Catechism appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/innovation-new-catechism-margonelli/feed/ 0 Finding the Human in the Node https://issues.org/human-node-margonelli/ https://issues.org/human-node-margonelli/#respond Mon, 01 May 2023 10:00:00 +0000 https://issues.org/?p=38813 In 1949, in a garage near London, an economics student with a background in electrical engineering named Bill Phillips fashioned a collection of hydraulic pumps and pipes into a model of the… Read More

The post Finding the Human in the Node appeared first on Issues in Science and Technology.

]]> https://issues.org/human-node-margonelli/feed/ 0