Category: Technology and Society

New technologies present mind-bending possibilities for human “optimization.” But should we use them? From self-driving cars to the recent Equifax cyberattacks, headlines about emerging technologies remind us that the world is quickly changing in complex and unpredictable ways. The biomedical…

Held annually during the United Nations General Assembly week, the Social Good Summit unites global citizens and progressive thought leaders around technology and new media’s impact on human progress. This year I had the opportunity to serve as a United…

Before Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Aug. 25, there was little doubt that its impact would be devastating and wide-ranging. Unfortunately, Harvey delivered and then some with early estimates of the damage at over $190 billion, which would make it…

Know your enemy, Sun Tzu reminds us in The Art of War. Science is in a war, but not the one many think. To avoid costly mistakes, scientists and those who support them need to know and understand the forces…

This holiday season, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is estimating that over one million small “Unmanned Aerial Systems” (sUAS’s) – drones, to the rest of us – will be sold to consumers. But as hordes of novice pilots take to…

The publication of the first scholarly book is likened to giving birth to a first child. Springer recently delivered my firstborn–A History of Biophysics in Contemporary China–a truncated monograph from my doctoral dissertation. A History of Biophysics in Contemporary China…

How a lack of imagination in technology keeps the world inaccessible to huge numbers of people.   This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. At noon on Wednesday, March 4,…

United Airlines Flight 173 crashed in Portland, Ore. roughly six miles from the airfield killing two crewmembers, eight passengers and seriously injuring 21 of the 189 people aboard the McDonnell-Douglas DC-8. It was Dec. 28, 1978, when Captain Malburn McBroom…

by Heather Ross, HSD Student The White House’s announcement on Friday that it has Ebola “under control” is patently ridiculous. As we witnessed with the case in Dallas last week, and have been reminded by the failure of a properly…