This summer, an intelligence report and a new Harvard research project have renewed the public’s interest in UFOs. But neither is likely to change many minds.

The pandemic increased demand and possibilities for automating care, but doing so may deliver racist stereotypes and unemployment for women of color.

A recent government report gave UFOs a rebrand, but so many basic questions remain unanswered.

Justice demands that we think not just about profit or performance, but above all about purpose.

Billionaires such as Musk, Bezos, and Branson peddle the idea that space represents a public hope, all the while reaping big private profits.

Seventy years after the civil preparedness film Duck and Cover, it is long past time to reckon with the way white supremacy shaped U.S. nuclear defense efforts during the Cold War.

Studying the social world requires more than deference to data—no matter the prestige or sophistication of the tools with which they are parsed.

Its authority derives not from unbiased scientists but from the institutions and norms that structure their work. Fighting mistrust requires more public engagement with policy, not unqualified deference to experts.

The more someone knows about us, the more they can influence us. We can wield democratic power only if our privacy is protected.

COVID-19 is not just a public health crisis. It is also a crisis of public reason.

History shows that outbreaks rarely have tidy conclusions.

The UK government’s ultra-cautious approach to “evidence-based” policy has helped cast doubt on public health interventions. The definition of good medical and public health practice must be urgently updated.

For the sake of both science and action in the COVID-19 pandemic, we need collaboration among specialists, not sects.

COVID-19 has revealed a contest between two competing philosophies of scientific knowledge. To manage the crisis, we must draw on both.