Category: Technology and Society

New research suggests that politicians systematically misperceive constituent perspectives on a range of issues. Lawmakers and their legislative priorities are remarkably unpopular with the public as a result. How can politicians and government organizations better understand and represent citizen perspectives?…

How can researchers engage the public on complex, profoundly important science and technology issues? First, throw out the deficit model of science communication and listen to the concerns of everyday citizens. Kettering Foundation research has long found that there is…

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,…