Issues in Science and Technology

Looking for a distraction during this winter break? Check out our #FutureTenseFiction stories—a speculative fiction series produced with ASU Center for Science and the Imagination, which uses imagination to explore how science and technology will shape our future.

In Alaska, #reindeer are much more real than the fantasy animals that pull Santa’s sleigh. Listen to the latest episode of #TheOngoingTransformation to find out how they ended up in Alaska as an important source of food security and economic opportunity:

“I spend most patient visits explaining that there is insufficient research on women’s sexual health to enable me to counsel women on the true benefits and risks of treatments,” writes Tali Sobel.

Sometimes a simple observation can upend a long-held assumption about the world. Many pieces in the Winter 2025 Issues in Science and Technology do just that.

“With the right investments, we can ... see the medical progress the nation deserves,” writes Robert Otto Valdez, PhD MHSA in response to an essay by Sindy Escobar Alvarez and Sam Gill. “We have the potential to benefit greatly from the interplay between the three scientific paths that lead to medical progress, offering a promising future for health care.”

In Alaska, #reindeer are much more real than the fantasy animals that pull Santa’s sleigh. Reindeer provide food security and economic opportunities for the Alaskan Native community. On the latest episode of #TheOngoingTransformation, University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Jacqueline Hrabok and Bonnie Suaŋa Scheele talk with host Lisa Margonelli about how reindeer herding requires a deep understanding of the needs of Indigenous communities and academic science—as well as how to navigate and influence local, state, and federal policies.

In #neuroscience research, Dr. Al Hathaway notes, “many large genome-wide association studies probing schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, autism, Parkinson’s, and depression that included hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of subjects have failed to include a single Black person.” He is working to change this by leading a transformative participatory research initiative.

In “A Healing at the Triple B Trophy Lodge,” this month’s #FutureTenseFiction story, author Scott Sherman brings readers to a hunting retreat in the Maine wilderness. Except instead of hunting game, guests hunt clones—each produced to stand in for someone from the guest’s past who caused them trauma. When a skeptical journalist visits the cultish retreat to profile its ambitious founder, she inadvertently opens the door to histories she had long endeavored to forget.

“Policymakers should recognize that security alone cannot strengthen Western economic or scientific leadership” argue Tommy Shih and Caroline Wagner; “international collaboration has become an essential ingredient to scientific and technological advancements.”

Tim Lieuwen argues that there is no good one-size-fits-all answer to the question of whether accepting funding from oil and gas companies is ethical or compatible with a university’s objectives. Instead, he proposes a framework that schools can use to evaluate potential research funding relationships with oil and gas companies in light of the school’s own values.