Features
Mechanical Intelligence and Counterfeit Humanity
Reflections on six decades of relations with computers
by Harry R. Lewis
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Brief life of a breakthrough astronomer: 1900-1979
by Donovan Moore
The Federal Fisc
The politics, policymaking, and public consequences of mounting government debt—and how to cope with it
by Karen Dynan , Douglas Elmendorf
The World’s Costliest Health Care
Administrative costs, greed, overutilization—can these drivers of U.S. medical costs be curbed?
by David Cutler
Healthy Plate, Healthy Planet
Frank Hu confronts the triple threats of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change.
by Jacob Sweet
The Authoritarian Reflex
Harvard political scientist Pippa Norris chronicles the rise of populist authoritarians in Western democracies.
by Lydialyle Gibson
Karl May
Brief life of a myth-making writer: 1842-1912
by Eugene Stelzig
History from Below
Vincent Brown writes war, empire, and slaves’ agency into the history of Atlantic slavery.
by Marina N. Bolotnikova
Engineering Life
For synthetic biologists, there appears to be no limit to what they can build.
by Jonathan Shaw
Forum: Doing Less Harm
David Hemenway advocates a pragmatic, public-health-based solution to gun homicides and suicides.
by David Hemenway
Renewing the News
New models for newspaper journalism in the Internet era
by Mark Travis