Q&A: How cartoonists skewer tensions between science and society

Tensions Between Science and Intuition Across the Lifespan

The scientific knowledge needed to engage with policy issues like climate change, vaccination, and stem cell research often conflicts with our intuitive theories of the world. How resilient are our intuitive theories in the face of contradictory scientific knowledge? Here, we present evidence that intuitive theories in 10 domains of knowledge-astronomy, evolution, fractions, genetics, germs, ma...

Agricultural Science and Technology: Tensions and Contradictions

How computational physics is uniting science and revolutionizing society

Computers are now much more than tools for analysis. They provide us with innumerable intellectual challenges, ranging from algorithm development to allowing us to explore novel concepts such as self-organized criticality. Simulational science in particular continues to grow as a major subfield. Three-dimensional studies ranging from fluids to dynamical molecular systems are becoming routine. I...

Bridging science and society.

THE THEME OF THIS YEAR’S ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT of Science (AAAS) seems especially timely: Bridging Science and Society. Virtually every major issue now confronting society has a science and technology component, and this means that “the need for general scientifi c understanding by the public has never been larger, and the penalty for scientifi c illiter...

Society, science, and values.