Lisa Margonelli

I misread this as Limitless Pedant.

These are both really good.

I gotta let the poets know. They’ll be psyched.

Note to self: Do not search “zip ties near me.”

Opinion | Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events.

I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.

He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...

That hurts.

I am very much alive! Dong-Ding!

This is how you blurb

Why was science’s social contract such a useful myth? Let me count the ways… Or, as Heather Douglas says: “a shield can become a weapon.”

Funny. Yesterday I had the Oscar Meyer baloney song.

“The Ability to Produce Is Just as Important as the Ability to Innovate.” National Academy of Engineering president Tsu-Jae Liu discusses how engineers can help the United States translate new ideas into practical benefits for the nation.

“Rather than saying, as we have traditionally, that engineering is only for people who are good at math and science... It should be more like: ‘Who’s interested in helping invent new things that will solve problems for people?’”

—Tsu-Jae Liu, @nationalacademies.org issues.org/engineering-...

Termites. Termites. Termites. They work at the micro scale and they also remodel land and ecosystems.

A Nation of Innovators The story of how the federal government became an innovation evangelist in the 1960s is an account of fits, starts, and ideological ambiguity.

Amid the political upheaval of 1967, a group of bureaucratic innovators within the federal government released a manifesto. Their message: “Invention and innovation lie at the heart of the process by which America has grown and renewed itself.” Read the story: issues.org/nation-of-in...

STEM-in-Society Programs Deserve Institutional Support STEM-in-society programs have proven their utility and have never been more needed—but they are in jeopardy nationwide.

Did you know Bluesky's founder has an #STS degree? In a new article, Erin Burkett and I explain why, despite current threats to humanities and social science, "STEM-in-Society programs" like STS are more important than ever. And we guide funders and university leaders how to better support them.

Audience of 1.

Hello, professors & teachers! Can't believe it's syllabus season already.

If you assign Meet the Neighbors—perhaps for your human-wildlife conflict, animal studies, animal intelligence, or environmental ethics course?—I'd be glad to Zoom in for a Q&A. Ping me if you're interested!

The Song Between Worlds Indrapramit Das takes us to a future Mars full of wealthy space tourists to explore how tourism commodifies culture.

My 2019 short story 'The Song Between Worlds', about the paths of a 1 percenter space tourist & an indigenous worker crossing in a Martian city, is republished in @issuesinst.bsky.social for @imaginationasu.bsky.social's Future Tense series, w/ a brief new intro by me:

The Willie Nelson version?

Where did you see the announcement?

Me too. Seldane was a miracle that followed Dimetapp, which made me so sleepy. And when they took Seldane away I figured they’d fix up another great molecule. But they never did. Allegra ( and the chirals Zyrtec/xyzal) just don’t do it.

Sure, anteaters are cool, but this is really a story about how important termites, ants, and social insects are—inspiring evolution all around them. Go termites!

And beautiful, too.

That’s not stupid! It’s next step ambition. Also: nice work! And I’m inspired.

I went to Sturbridge Village with Jennifer Beals.

“Call it the Vannevar Index: The greater the pressure on the scientific enterprise, the more one hears about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s science advisor.”

Read @lisamargonelli.bsky.social’s Editor’s Journal for the Summer ISSUES: issues.org/innovation-h...

A take worth reading on #scipol reform debate by
@issuesinst.bsky.social's @lisamargonelli.bsky.social.

Esp by science advocates.

Back to Vannevar Bush or to what's next in the Endless Frontier?

issues.org/innovation-h...

ChatGPT is Joe Gould!

If Your Snark Be a Boojum Does the American public distrust science—or have citizens lost trust in a political system that attempts to use science to resolve problems?

“Trust in science has lately emerged as the Snark of American politics.”

#STS scholar Sheila Jasanoff employs two Lewis Carroll characters—the Snark and the Boojum—in explaining the “strangely undefined” quest to understand public trust in science. issues.org/snark-boojum...

It’s Time for Universities to Redesign Their 75-Year-Old Contract American research universities have unleashed an age of massive technical innovation—but they’ve failed to innovate their own designs to meet the changing needs of society.

“Ironically, although universities unleashed an age of massive technical innovation,” ASU’s Michael Crow, William Dabars, and David Rosowsky argue, “they failed to innovate their own designs to meet the changing needs of society.”

Read their piece in the Summer ISSUES: issues.org/universities...

Portrait of Senator Todd Young by Shonagh Rae

“Our commission envisions a future in which Americans engage with biotechnology the same way they do with cell phones and computers.”

We spoke with Indiana senator Todd Young, chair of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, for the Summer ISSUES: issues.org/interview-se...