Douglas Duncan is an astronomer who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. He is also an eclipse fanatic. Since 1970, he has been to 11 total solar eclipses. When April 8, 2024, comes around, he’ll experience his twelfth with his 600 best friends as he leads a three-day eclipse viewing extravaganza in Texas. “It looks like the end of the world,” he says, and a total eclipse can be a source of intense fascination. He uses the emotional experience of the eclipse as a gateway to learning more about science.  On this episode, Lisa Margonelli talks to Duncan about how he has used this sense of experiential wonder, particularly in planetariums, as a way to invite the public into the joy of science. In previous generations, planetariums were seen as “old fashioned” and isolated from the work of modern astronomers. But Duncan pioneered a career track that combined public teaching at a planetarium with a faculty position at the University of Colorado. Now many planetariums have become places where academic astronomers can share their knowledge with the public.  Resources:  Visit Doug Duncan’s website to learn more about his work.  Read about his work at NASA.  Want to photograph the solar eclipse? Duncan has made an app for that called Solar Snap.  Learn more about using eclipses to engage the public.  See the itinerary for Duncan’s “Totality Over Texas” trip, which will be attended by 600 people. The trip offers three days of eclipse-related activities. 

The Science Policy IRL series pulls back the curtain on who does what in science policy and how they shaped their career path. In previous episodes we’ve looked at the cosmology of science policy through the eyes of people who work at federal agencies and the National Academies, but this time we are exploring think tanks.  Walter Valdivia describes how a chance encounter while he was getting a PhD in public policy at Arizona State University led him into science policy. Since then he’s worked at think tanks including Brookings and the Mercatus Center and is now at the Science and Technology Policy Institute, which does research for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this episode, we’ll talk to Walter about what think tanks do in the policy world and how policy sometimes creates inherent paradoxes.  Resources:  Visit the Institute for Defense Analysis’ Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) to learn more about Walter’s current work.  Check out the book, Between Politics and Science by David Guston, to see what inspired Walter’s career in science policy. Here is the first chapter. Visit the Center for Nanotechnology in Society’s website.  Read Walter and David Guston’s paper, “Responsible innovation: A primer for policymakers.” Read “Is Patent Protection Industrial Policy?” to learn more about policy paradoxes.  Check out The Honest Broker by Roger Pielke, Jr. to learn more about the role of impartial expertise.  Interested in learning more about Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs)? Read this primer.

Monique Verdin discusses using art and science to understand the Gulf's transformation by climate and industry. She highlights the impact of climate, fossil fuels, and Gulf waters on her ancestral landscape, emphasizing community building and activism in Louisiana. Verdin's work focuses on environmental concerns, corporate roles, and Indigenous voices, creating space for marginalized communities and bridging with science. She explores collaborative relationships, nature's wisdom, and the heart-mind connection in community building.

Explore the impact of Alta Charo shaping science policy on stem cells, CRISPR, and more. Learn about science policy's real-life impact, her experience at the science policy table, and how science policy can inspire techno optimism. Delve into ethical debates, HIV prevention research, challenges in biotechnology, and the importance of public involvement in scientific discussions.

NASA's ethics for Mars landings and living in space, Zach Pirtle's journey from engineering to space ethics, importance of science policy in agencies, challenges of balancing safety and scientific goals, cultural considerations in space activities, and ethical dilemmas in space exploration.

Erica Fuchs shares the journey of her policy idea becoming a pilot project, collaborating with academia, industry, and government contributors. The podcast explores the need for a national technology strategy, better data and analytics, and the importance of asking the right questions to optimize resource allocation. It also discusses building support for a national technology strategy and the attractiveness of a stand-up capacity for target technologies. Additionally, they delve into the process of turning a policy idea into legislation and finding another opportunity through the National Science Foundation.

Apurva Dave, climate policy expert at the National Academies of Sciences, explores the intersection of climate change and national security. He discusses the complexities of science and policy, the objectives of the Climate Security Roundtable, his day-to-day responsibilities, and his unconventional journey to his current role.

Stuart Buck, a venture capitalist for better science, discusses how to make reforms in science more efficient and accountable. He explores the role of metascience in fueling reform and the need to assess scientific reforms. The podcast also delves into improving science infrastructure, the influence of evidence-based policy and medicine on better science, and the challenges of measuring scientific progress and implementing changes in science funding.

Since 1984, Issues in Science and Technology has been a journal for science policy—a space to discuss how to best use science for the benefit of society. But what is science policy, exactly? Our new podcast series, Science Policy IRL, explores what science policy is and how it gets done. “Science” is often caricatured as a lone person in a lab, but the work of science is supported by a community of people who engineer its funding, goals, coordination, and dissemination. They include people in legislative offices, federal agencies, national labs, universities, the National Academies, industry, and think tanks—not to mention interest groups and lobbyists.  In this series, we will explore the work of science policy by speaking to people who have built careers in it.   For the first episode in this series, host Lisa Margonelli is joined by Quinn Spadola, the deputy director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, a unique office that coordinates the development of nanotechnology across the entire federal government. Spadola, who has a Ph.D. in physics from Arizona State University,  now uses “soft power” to bring groups together to coordinate their efforts so that taxpayers get the most from their investments in science. In practice, she brings all of her life experiences to bear on the task of shaping technology so that it benefits society.  Is there something about science policy you’d like us to explore?  Let us know by emailing us at podcast@issues.org, or by tagging us on social media using the hashtag #SciencePolicyIRL.  Resources On science policy: - Harvey Brooks, “Knowledge and Action: The Dilemma of Science Policy in the ’70s,” Daedalus 102, no. 2 (Spring 1973): 125–143. - Deborah D. Stine “Science and Technology Policymaking: A Primer,” Congressional Research Service, RL34454 (May 27, 2009).  On nanotechnology: - The website of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, A Quadrennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative: Nanoscience, Applications, and Commercialization (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2020), https://doi.org/10.17226/25729.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, hundreds of scientists fled the country and hundreds more remained behind. Those scientists who stayed are trying to continue their research and engage with the global scientific community under often difficult circumstances, with the ultimate goal of being able to help rebuild Ukraine when the war ends.  Since the early days of the war, Vaughan Turekian, the director of the Policy and Global Affairs Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, has been leading efforts to support Ukrainian scientists and their research, enlisting the help of international science academies and philanthropic partners. Turekian has spent much of his career in science diplomacy. Before joining the Academies, he served as the fifth science and technology advisor to US Secretary of State John Kerry and was also the founding director of the Center for Science Diplomacy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  In this episode, recorded on October 5, Turekian joins host Molly Galvin to discuss efforts to support Ukrainian scientists and why such efforts are important for the future of Ukraine.  Resources National Academies, “Supporting Ukraine’s Scientists, Engineers, and Health Care Workers.” Interview with the president of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jerzy Duszyński, “What I’m Mostly Afraid of Is That There Will Be Two Sciences—Democratic Science and Autocratic Science,” (Issues, Summer 2022). Daniel Armanios, Jonas Skovrup Christensen, and Andriy Tymoshenko, “What Ukraine can Teach the World About Resilience and Civil Engineering” (Issues, Fall 2023).