The Ongoing Transformation

There is more life in the ocean than anywhere else on Earth. Accounting for over 70% of the planet’s surface, the ocean provides habitat to millions of species, supplies freshwater and oxygen, moderates the climate, and influences the weather. But despite its importance, the ocean is largely unexplored and often misunderstood.  There is growing interest in how art can help people connect with ocean research. The National Academy of Sciences is hosting an immersive video installation called Blue Dreams by Rebecca Rutstein and the Ocean Memory Project. Inspired by the vast microbial networks in the deep sea, the installation is the product of a collaboration between an artist and four scientists. From abstract imagery to stunning undersea video footage and computer modeling, Blue Dreams offers a glimpse into the interconnections and resilience of microbes, our planet’s smallest yet most vital living systems. In this episode, host Alana Quinn is joined by artist Rebecca Rutstein and one of her collaborators, the oceanographer Mandy Joye, to discuss their work and the rich potential of partnerships between artists and scientists to create visceral connections to the deep sea. Resources Register for the DC Art Science Evening Rendezvous at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, DC, on September 7, 2023, to meet Rebecca Rutstein, Mandy Joye, and their collaborators Jody Deming and Tom Skalak. Download the Blue Dreams catalog to learn more about the immersive video installation on view through September 15, 2023, at the NAS building, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC. Visit Rebecca Rutstein’s website to learn more about her artistic practice. Watch her Blue Dreams video here. Visit the Joye Research Group website to learn more about Mandy Joye’s research.

Over the last 40 years, US and Chinese scientists at all levels have been engaged in broad-based diplomacy, publishing hundreds of thousands of scientific papers together. Recently, amid tensions between the two countries and official and unofficial government actions to curtail collaboration, joint publications have fallen. Ernest Moniz, Secretary of Energy during the Obama administration, has been a practitioner of science diplomacy at the highest levels. Trained as a physicist, Moniz worked with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Salehi, on the Iran nuclear agreement in 2015.   In this episode, Moniz talks about the ways that science can provide a common language and a sense of trust during diplomatic negotiations. And he emphasizes the importance of collaboration to scientific discovery. Science, he says, is cumulative, extending far beyond the experience of a single person. If collaborations are prevented, we will never know what knowledge we failed to create.    Moniz is president and CEO of the Energy Futures Initiative and CEO and co-chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. He served as the thirteenth US Secretary of Energy from 2013 to January 2017. He is also the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.     Resources   E. William Colglazier, “The Precarious Balance Between Research Openness and Security,” Issues in Science and Technology 39, no. 3 (Spring 2023): 87–91.   Sylvia Schwaag Serger, Cong Cao, Caroline S. Wagner, Xabier Goenaga, and Koen Jonkers, “What Do China’s Scientific Ambitions Mean for Science and the World?” Issues in Science and Technology (April 5, 2021).

Chronic pain, according to a 2023 study, affects more Americans than diabetes, depression, and hypertension. Yet the disease is poorly understood, often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and effective treatments are in short supply.   A recent study in Nature Neuroscience provides new insights into how the disease affects the nervous system. For the first time, researchers recorded data from inside the brains of individuals who were suffering from chronic pain and found distinct biomarkers for the disease. These insights are an important first step toward better diagnosing and treating chronic pain.   In this episode, the lead author of that study, Prasad Shirvalkar, a neurologist and interventional pain medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, talks with managing editor Jason Lloyd about his research and how it could transform physicians’ understanding and treatment of what Shirvalkar calls a “multi-dimensional beast.”   Resources   ·     Read the article: Prasad Shirvalkar, Jordan Prosky, Gregory Chin, Parima Ahmadipour, Omid G. Sani, Maansi Desai, Ashlyn Schmitgen, Heather Dawes, Maryam M. Shanechi, Philip A. Starr, and Edward F. Chang, “First-in-human prediction of chronic pain state using intracranial neural biomarkers,” Nature Neuroscience 26 (2023): 1090–1099. ·     Prasad Shirvalkar leads the Shirvalkar Pain Neuromodulation Lab at the University of California San Francisco. ·     More about Shirvalkar’s research in the New York Times: “Scientists Find Brain Signals of Chronic Pain.”   Transcript Coming soon!

Artificial intelligence’s remarkable advances, along with the risks and opportunities the technology presents, have recently become a topic of feverish discussion. Along with contemplating the dangers AI poses to employment and information ecosystems, there are those who claim it endangers humanity as a whole. These concerns are in line with a long tradition of cautionary tales about human creations escaping their bounds to wreak havoc.   But several recent novels pose a more subtle, and in some ways more interesting, question: What does our interaction with artificial intelligence reveal about us and our society? In this episode, historian Deborah Poskanzer speaks with managing editor Jason Lloyd about three books that she recently reviewed for Issues: Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, and The Employees by Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitken). She talks about the themes that unite these novels, the connections they draw with real-world politics and history, and what they reveal about our moral imagination.   Resources   Read Deborah Poskanzer’s book reviews in Issues: ·     “Not Your Father’s Turing Test”: review of Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, and The Employees by Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitken). ·     “Exploring the Depths of Scientific Patronage”: review of Science on a Mission: How Military Spending Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know About the Ocean by Naomi Oreskes. ·      “A Planet-Changing Idea”: review of The Environment: A History of the Idea by Paul Warde, Libby Robin, and Sverker Sörlin. ·      “Oh, the Humanities!”: review of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life by William Deresiewicz and College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be by Andrew Delbanco.   Transcript coming soon!

The concept of distinct races came from European naturalists in the 1700s and it’s now recognized as a social construct, rather than a biological classification. Nonetheless, genetics researchers sometimes use race or ethnicity to stand in for ancestry. This practice has been criticized for creating discrete categories where none exist and for underemphasizing the ways that environment and other nongenetic factors can contribute to ill health. In March, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine weighed in with a consensus report. It documented the problems of using race as a biological category in genetics studies and suggested more appropriate approaches. One of the report’s authors is Ann Morning, a professor of sociology at New York University. Over a decade ago she wrote the book The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference. She spoke with Issues editor Monya Baker about why race is a poor—but persistent—shorthand in genetics studies.   Resources Read the National Academies’ consensus report Using Population Descriptors in Genetics and Genomics Research: A New Framework for an Evolving Field.   Books by Ann Morning: The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference and An Ugly Word: Rethinking Race in Italy and the United States (coauthored by Marcello Maneri).

What does intuitive, emotional poetry have in common with rational, empirical science? On this episode, host J. D. Talasek talks to poet Jane Hirshfield and neuroscientist Virginia Sturm to understand how they came to work together, and the connections they’ve found between poetry, neural science, and society. They discuss what Hirshfield calls the “mutual delight” they’ve found between poets and scientists as they consider how the microscope and the metaphor can be used to explore the world. Hirshfield and Sturm also explore how poetry affects the brain, and what that reveals about the science of emotions and the complex ways that humans process language. Together they connect the dots on the surprising connection between poetry, empathy, science, and policy change. Resources: ·      Visit the Poets for Science exhibit at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, DC, until September 8, 2023. Learn more about Jane Hirshfield’s work and find upcoming exhibitions on the Poets for Science website. ·      Visit the University of California San Francisco’s Clinical Affective Neuroscience Lab website to find more of Virginia Sturm’s work.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere, growing increasingly accessible and pervasive. Conversations about AI often focus on technical accomplishments rather than societal impacts, but leading scholar Kate Crawford has long drawn attention to the potential harms AI poses for society: exploitation, discrimination, and more. She argues that minimizing risks depends on civil society, not technology. The ability of people to govern AI is often overlooked because many people approach new technologies with what Crawford calls “enchanted determinism,” seeing them as both magical and more accurate and insightful than humans. In 2017, Crawford cofounded the AI Now Institute to explore productive policy approaches around the social consequences of AI. Across her work in industry, academia, and elsewhere, she has started essential conversations about regulation and policy. Issues editor Monya Baker recently spoke with Crawford about how to ensure AI designers incorporate societal protections into product development and deployment. Resources Learn more about Kate Crawford’s work by visiting her website and the AI Now Institute. Read her latest book, Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. Visit the Anatomy of an AI System artwork at the Museum of Modern Art, or see and learn about it virtually here. Working with machine learning datasets? Check out Crawford’s critical field guide to think about how to best work with these data.

The CHIPS and Science Act aims to secure American competitiveness and innovation by investing $280 billion in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, scientific innovation, and regional development. But if past government investments in science and technology are any guide, this will affect American life in unexpected and profound ways—well beyond manufacturing and scientific laboratories. On this episode, Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, talks to host Lisa Margonelli about the CHIPS and Science Act in the context of previous American security investments. Investments in food security and agriculture in the 1860s and nuclear security in the 1940s and 50s created shared knowledge that benefitted all Americans. Early agricultural programs, for example, turned farmers into innovators, resulting in an agricultural sector that can feed many people with very little labor. In similar ways, today’s quest for digital security could make the country more secure, while also changing how individuals live and work with information.   Resources:   Read perspectives on How the CHIPS and Science Act Can Deliver on its Promises   Read A. Hunter Dupree’s Science in the Federal Government: A History of Policies and Activities   Read Michael Crow and William Dabars on The Emergence of the Fifth Wave in American Higher Education. 

Miami is so renowned for its warm weather that its professional basketball team is the Miami Heat. But extreme heat can be life-threatening, even in cities like Miami that are used to high temperatures. And within cities, lower-income and minority neighborhoods feel the effects of extreme heat more acutely due to a lack of shade and green spaces. What can be done to protect vulnerable communities from extreme heat? The world’s first chief heat officer, Jane Gilbert, who leads Miami-Dade County’s efforts to deal with extreme heat, is working on the answers. She recently spoke with Issues editor Jason Lloyd about the need for win-win solutions (more air conditioning alone can’t solve the problem), the difficulties of planting trees on busy streets, and engaging with citizens on solutions for keeping communities safe in a warmer future. Resources · Miami Dade County’s extreme heat resource page · National Integrated Heat Health Information · Visit Arsh-Rock’s Heat Action Platform to find more resources to combat extreme heat on the regional and municipal level, and learn more about Chief Heat Officers. Transcript Coming soon!

Recent conversations about scientific misinformation have concentrated on what is new: social media and algorithms that spread all kinds of information—reliable and unreliable—surprisingly fast. But misinformation has long been an issue for scientists who study sharks. The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week has anchored the idea of predatory, dangerous sharks in the public consciousness for 35 years, often wrapping its entertainments in the legitimizing cloak of science. In this episode, we talk with Arizona State University marine biologist David Shiffman, who studies sharks and the impacts of misinformation on shark conservation. Resources · Read David Shiffman’s book, Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World’s Most Misunderstood Predator. · Follow David on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. · What are the Odds?Compare shark attacks to other risks.

In 2022, there were more than 2 million electric vehicles, or EVs, on the road in the United States. In 2005, there were only about 1,000. The conventional wisdom credits better batteries with this remarkable growth. In the 2010s, engineers delivered batteries that cost less and could go many miles further. Consequently, driving range increased, costs decreased, and sales soared. EVs now compete with vehicles powered by traditional internal combustion engines. But Matthew Eisler (University of Strathclyde) challenges this narrative. He argues that the US resurgence in EVs had little to do with technology and much more to do with public policies, business models, and social conditions. On this episode, Eisler talks with host Jason Lloyd about the complex history of EV adoption, how a powerful metaphor invited new players into car manufacturing, and what the EV revival might mean for infrastructure such as electric grids. Resources Matthew N. Eisler’s recent book, Age of Auto Electric: Environment, Energy, and the Quest for the Sustainable Car (MIT Press, 2022) Read an excerpt from the book, published in the Winter 2023 Issues in Science and Technology: “Computers on Wheels?”

How can scientific data be made more tangible, visceral, and experiential? Collaboration! Over the course of a four-year project, Arctic Ice: A Visual Archive, artist Cy Keener, landscape researcher Justine Holzman, climatologist Ignatius Rigor, and scientist John Woods integrated field data, remote satellite imagery, scientific analysis, and art to create visual representations of disappearing Arctic ice. Being deeply embedded in each other’s processes helped the artists and scientists foster new ideas and unexpected outcomes. On this episode, host J. D. Talasek is joined by Keener and Rigor to discuss how to build successful collaborations across different disciplines and how creative practices can contribute to scientific research and communication. Resources: · See images from Arctic Ice and read more about the collaborative project in Issues in Science and Technology. · Visit the Arctic Ice: A Visual Archive exhibition through February 15, 2023, by visiting the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, DC. Check out the CPNAS website to learn more about the exhibition and download a virtual catalogue. · See more of Cy Keener’s work on his website. · Visit the International Arctic Buoy Programme’s website to learn more about the program’s buoy maps, data, research, and publications.

The challenge of transforming regional economies through technological innovation is at the heart of current discussions about science and industrial policy—not to mention the CHIPs and Science Act itself. To think about what regional transformation means, it’s worth revisiting the story of how a network of “fruit men” used the peach, and later the pimento, to change the South after the Civil War. Starting with a biotechnological invention—a shippable peach named the Elberta—this group built railroads, designed shipping methods, educated farmers, and eventually built factories that transformed the landscape and economy of the region. But this story isn’t only about tangible actions: the network used powerful storytelling and ideology to accomplish this revolution. On this episode, host Lisa Margonelli talks with historian and journalist Cynthia Greenlee about the role of technological innovation, storytelling, and myth in regional transformation. They also discuss how the peach paved the way for the invention of the pimento—now part of a beloved regional cheese spread—and harnessed cultural as well as technological forces. Resources: · Reach Cynthia R. Greenlee’s Issues essay, Reinventing the Peach, the Pimento, and Regional Identity. · Visit Cynthia’s website to find more of her work. She has written on food, history, politics, and more.

How can music composition help students learn how to code? How can creative writing help medical practitioners improve care for their patients? Science and engineering have long been siloed from the humanities, arts, and social sciences, but uniting these disciplines could help leaders better understand and address problems like educational disparities, socioeconomic inequity, and decreasing national wellbeing. On this episode, host Josh Trapani speaks to Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech, about her efforts to integrate humanities and social sciences with science and engineering. We also discuss her pivotal role in establishing the National Science Foundation’s Science of Science and Innovation Policy program, and why an integrative approach is crucial to solving societal problems. Recommended Reading · Read Kaye Husbands Fealing, Aubrey DeVeny Incorvaia, and Richard Utz’s Issues piece “Humanizing Science and Engineering for the Twenty-First Century” for for our series “The Next 75 Years of Science Policy," supported by the Kavli Foundation [KS1]Think this is enough to justify using Kavli funds to promote this episode of the podcast? · Visit Kaye Husbands Fealing’s webpage at Georgia Tech · Read Julia Lane’s Issues piece “A Vision for Democratizing Government Data” · Read National Science Board members Ellen Ochoa and Victor R. McCrary’s Issues piece “Cultivating America’s STEM Talent Must Begin at Home” · Read John H. Marburger’s 2005 piece in Science “Wanted: Better Benchmarks” · Look at the National Academies 2014 summary of the Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) principal investigators conference · View the webpage for the SciSIP program (renamed Science of Science: Discovery, Communication, and Impact) at the National Science Foundation

Clinical trials are crucial to the development of new drugs, medical treatments, and therapeutics. The knowledge gained from these trials helps ensure that treatments are safe and effective. Trials are also sometimes the only way for patients to access the most cutting-edge therapies for a disease. However, wide swaths of the American population, including Black and Latino Americans who often face the greatest health challenges, are not adequately represented in the clinical trials and do not benefit equitably from this research. In this episode, host Sara Frueh is joined by Gloria Coronado, an epidemiologist with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, and Jason Resendez, president of the National Alliance for Caregiving, to discuss the causes and consequences of this underrepresentation, and steps researchers and policymakers should take to remedy it. Resources: Read the May 2022 consensus report from the National Academies, Improving Representation in Clinical Trials and Research: Building Equity for Women and Underrepresented Groups.

The typical history of the internet tells a story that emphasizes experts and institutions: government, industry, and academia. In this origin story, the internet began as a product of the military during the Cold War, was adopted by academia and research institutions, and then Silicon Valley and the private sector brought it to the masses. What this history ignores, however, are the many computer enthusiasts and hobbyists of the 1980s who used modems to connect to bulletin board systems—creating thriving online communities well before most people ever heard about the “information superhighway.” On this episode, host Jason Lloyd is joined by professor Kevin Driscoll from the University of Virginia to discuss how the forgotten history of bulletin board systems can help us understand today’s social media-dominated internet and build healthier, more inclusive online communities. Resources: · Read Kevin Driscoll’s Issues essay, “A Prehistory of Social Media,” and his book, The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media, to learn more about early social networks. · Check out Kevin’s first book, Minitel: Welcome to the Internet, coauthored with Julien Mailland, on the French precursor to the internet. They also have a great websitefor the book.

Food is an essential part of our lives, but for many people fresh food is something they find in a grocery store, not growing in their communities. How can art and advances in agricultural science create new food resources, connect communities, and create more resilient food systems? On this episode, host J. D. Talasek is joined by artists David Allen Burns and Austin Young of Fallen Fruit and professor Molly Jahn from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to explore how creativity and systems thinking can change the food system. Resources: Read about the “Subversive Beauty of Fallen Fruit” in Issues, and learn more about the Fallen Fruit collective’s artwork and projects by visiting the group’s website. Explore the Endless Orchard to collaborate in creating the largest public orchard in the world. Read Molly Jahn’s Issues article, “How ‘Multiple Breadbasket Failure’ Became a Policy Issue,” on her journey from making new squash varieties to trying to improve global food security. Learn more about risk in food systems by visiting the Jahn Research Group, and take her free courses on “Systems Thinking.”

This summer, Congress is trying to reconcile the differences between two massive bills focused on strengthening US competitiveness and spurring innovation: the House-passed COMPETES Act and the Senate-passed USICA bill. In this episode, we speak with Mitch Ambrose from FYI, the American Institute of Physics’ science policy news service, about the historic conference aimed at negotiating the House and Senate bills. What are the competing visions for US competitiveness in the bills? How do the details get worked out, and what happens if Congress fails to reach an agreement? Recommended Reading: Follow FYI’s coverage and subscribe to their newsletters at aip.org/fyi.

Who gets to be a scientist? At BioJam, a free Northern California summer camp, the answer is everyone. This week we talk with Callie Chappell, Rolando Perez, and Corinne Okada Takara about how BioJam engages high school students and their communities to create art through bioengineering. Started as an intergenerational collective in 2019, BioJam was designed to change the model of science communication and education into a multi-way collaboration between the communities of Salinas, East San Jose, and Oakland, and artists and scientists at Stanford. At BioJam, youth are becoming leaders in the emerging fields of biodesign and biomaking—and in the process, redefining what it means to be a scientist. Resources: Read their essay, "Bioengineering Everywhere, For Everyone," and see the youth artwork. Visit the BioJam website to learn more.

When it comes to exploring the mind-boggling complexity of living systems—ranging from the origins of human consciousness to treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s—Susan Fitzpatrick has long been a critic of reductionist thinking. In this episode we talk with Fitzpatrick, who has spent three decades supporting brain research as president of the James S. McDonnell Foundation, about new ways to understand the human brain, the difficulty of developing an effective Alzheimer’s treatment, and how scientific research can successfully confront complex problems. Further reading: The James S. McDonnell Foundation website Susan Fitzpatrick’s review of Metazoa by Peter Godfrey-Smith and Life’s Edge by Carl Zimmer Her review of Brains Through Time by Georg F. Striedter and R. Glenn Northcutt Her review of Mind Fixers by Anne Harrington Her review of Chasing Men on Fire by Stephen G. Waxman and Understanding the Brain by John E. Dowling “Asking the Right Questions in Alzheimer’s Research,” her Feature essay in the Fall 2018 Issues in Science and Technology