Qualities like amazing tensile strength and electrical conductivity offer a huge range of uses for carbon nanotubes. In a new policy brief, fellow Rachel A. Meidl and her co-authors Dana Goerzen and Daniel A. Heller explain that to ensure carbon nanotubes’ role in a circular, sustainable economy, a coordinated system for classifying, testing, and identifying CNTs and a life cycle approach to risk assessments are needed to better understand impacts to facilitate consistent communication among researchers, industries, and policymakers.

The 2024 Mexico Country Outlook report analyzes key policy issues ahead of Mexico’s June 2024 elections, from foreign investment and regulatory challenges to migration and public security.

For research involving human embryos and other controversial subjects, science journals should require ethics statements from researchers detailing research oversight, what embryos were used, how many and for how long. This will help increase transparency and improve communication with the public, writes Science and Technology Policy Fellow Kirstin R.W. Matthews.

The work of Katalin Karikó, 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine recipient, laid a foundation for the development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that saved close to 20 million lives worldwide. But her discoveries almost did not happen, writes Alicia L. Johnson, a civic science postdoctoral associate at the Baker Institute Center for Health and Biosciences. Karikó’s story highlights the vital importance of supporting women in STEM.

The creation of a new industry of brain capital technologies could stimulate major economic activity, create jobs, and contribute to technological advances for the U.S. and its allies, write Harris Eyre, Rachel Meidl and co-authors.

What are the ethical and policy implications of embryoids — cell-based embryo models that mimic the early stages of human development — for use in research? Center for Health and Biosciences experts Ana Iltis and Kirstin R.W. Matthews summarize the concerns and questions raised in the recent literature.

By Ana S. Iltis, Grace Koster, Emily Reeves & Kirstin R. W. Matthews

Abstract

Recent advances in methods to culture…

Breathtaking AI advances necessitate a new suite of brain science-inspired policies to build brain capital.

The market for stem cell therapies is growing, but most of these treatments are still experimental — and patients who undergo them risk experiencing serious side effects. This quick take offers three recommendations to improve patient safety and education around stem cell interventions in Texas.

Brain diseases have profound impacts on our health, our communities and the economy. In this brief, fellow Harris A. Eyre explains why Texas needs to establish a state research institute to tackle a growing brain health crisis.