Navigating the Maze: How Science and Technology Policies Shape America and the World offers a captivating deep dive into the inner workings of the world of public policy. Written by prominent science advocate and renowned physics researcher and educator, Michael S. Lubell, this valuable book provides insights and real-world examples for anyone looking to understand how policy works in reality: for students, scientists, and the public. Well-organized...

With the effects of climate change already upon us, the need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions is nothing less than urgent. It's a daunting challenge, but the technologies and strategies to meet it exist today. A small set of energy policies, designed and implemented well, can put us on the path to a low carbon future. Energy systems are large and complex, so energy policy must be focused and cost-effective. One-size-fits-all approaches simply...

Since its inception in 1958, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has grown to become the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science research and development agency. Created by President Eisenhower to prevent another Sputnik, and to focus primarily on defensive programs against nuclear weapons, the agency--and its imagination and scope--has expanded enormously with each passing year....

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and writer-researcher Avis Lang examine how the methods and tools of astrophysics have been enlisted in the service of war. "The overlap is strong, and the knowledge flows in both directions," say the authors, because astrophysicists and military planners care about many of the same things: multi-spectral detection, ranging, tracking, imaging, high ground, nuclear fusion, and access to space. Tyson and Lang call...

"The tragedy of American science is that its direction is determined by private profit rather than by the desire to improve the human condition. As a result, Conner argues, Big Science has been irredeemably corrupted by Big Money. This corruption threatens the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the medicines we take. The Tragedy of American Science explores how the U.S. economy’s addiction to military spending distorts...

"The exploration of how key government officials were unaware of the implications of developing the first atomic bomb during World War II, leaving the lives of millions of Americans in the hands of a few brilliant scientists"-- "During World War II, the lives of millions of Americans lay precariously in the hands of a few brilliant scientists who raced to develop the first weapon of mass destruction. Elected officials gave the scientists free rein...

"The remarkable life of one of the most influential men of the greatest generation, James B. Conant--a savvy architect of the nuclear age and the Cold War--told by his granddaughter, New York Times bestselling author Jennet Conant. James Bryant Conant was a towering figure. He was at the center of the mammoth threats and challenges of the twentieth century. As a young eminent chemist, he supervised the production of poison gas in WWI. As a controversial...

"This is a story about the closure of a major US research instrument due to posturing politicians, fake facts, scientists untrained in public speaking, and a Federal bureaucracy unable to resist political pressure. The story foreshadows today's episodes of science denial, and offers insights for how to cope with it"--