Stem Cells, Life, and the Law
A federal court steps into the debate.
Posted: Wednesday, August 25, 2010
On August 23, a federal judge ruled that the Obama administration's stem cell policy is in violation of a federal law prohibiting taxpayer funding of embryo-destructive research. The ruling puts in sharp relief the moral debate about embryo research, and the administration's dogged refusal to defend human life from exploitation and destruction.  [Full Story]

Feynman and the Futurists

Posted: Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Two very different kinds of nanotechnology are regularly conflated in the press. One is essentially a specialized form of materials science; the other aims to remake the world.  [Full Story]

When Folly Is Forever

Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009
Before the digital era, remembrance was expensive: recording the past required trained scribes or artists in ancient times, and even in recent centuries incurred high costs. But now, argues Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, forgetting is too costly: we don't even bother deleting old e-mails or digital photographs, since doing so would waste our time. How much should we worry about the constant presence of our digital pasts? And do we need to relearn how to forget?  [Full Story]

The Synapse and the Soul

Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008
In his latest book, eminent neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga argues that science can explain "what makes us unique." But what should we do with the knowledge we receive from cutting-edge brain research -- how ought we to act? Gazzaniga offers no insights into what neuroscience means for how we live, except to offer up some unattractive visions of a future age of brain implants and mind-machine interfaces.  [Full Story]

Redeeming NASA
How the president saved the space program
Posted: Monday, February 4, 2008
Five years ago this month, the space shuttle Columbia was lost over Texas. Seven astronauts -- six Americans and one Israeli -- died as Columbia broke to pieces in the sky and fell aflame to earth. It was a terrible moment that could have marked the end of America's manned space program -- but the Bush administration offered a new vision for NASA that has set the troubled space agency aright and given it a new purpose.  [Full Story]

The March of the Machines

Posted: Thursday, June 7, 2007
In his new book, A Culture of Improvement, historian Robert Friedel surveys the entire past millennium of technological advancement. It's an ambitious project, seeking to explain how the West moved from horsepower to jet engines, from Gothic vaults to skyscrapers, from Gutenberg to Google.  [Full Story]

Nanoethics as a Discipline?

Posted: Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Growing ranks of academics, analysts, and advocacy groups are focusing their attentions on the social and ethical implications of nanoscale science and technology. But what exactly is there for “nanoethics” to study? Adam Keiper considers the contrasts with the emergence of bioethics four decades ago, and casts a skeptical eye at the proliferation of professional nanotechnology criticism.  [Full Story]

The New Atlantis, Winter 2006
With articles on man and machine, scientific corruption, guerrilla media, and much more...
Posted: Monday, February 20, 2006
The latest issue of The New Atlantis includes major essays on Man, Mind and Machines and the challenge to define "human"; a search for the connection between domestic tranquility and our domestic technology; how the blogger "Davids" are slaying the mainstream media "Goliath"; the scientific corruption at the heart of the Korean stem cell scandal and much more.  [Full Story]

The Age of Neuroelectronics

Posted: Monday, January 30, 2006
The potential merging of mind and machine thrills, frightens, and intrigues us. For decades, experiments at the border between brains and electronics have led to sensationalistic media coverage, vivid science fiction portrayals, and dreams of cyborgs and bionic men. But recently, this area of science has seen remarkable advances—from robotic limbs controlled directly by brain activity, to brain implants that alter the mood of the depressed, to rats steered by remote control. Adam Keiper explores the peculiar history and present directions of this research, and considers the challenges of staying human in the age of neuroelectronics.  [Full Story]

The New Atlantis, Fall 2005
With articles on modern medicine, missile defense, Einstein's Annus Mirabilis, and much more...
Posted: Thursday, November 17, 2005
The latest issue of The New Atlantis includes major essays on the future of modern medicine, the moral education of our doctors, buggy software and missle defense, our perception of reality in the age of Photoshop, Einstein's Annus Mirabilis, and much more. Visit www.TheNewAtlantis.com today!  [Full Story]