Download PDF The Bridge: 50th Anniversary Issue December 20, 2020 Volume 50 Issue S This special issue celebrates the 50th year of publication of the NAE’s flagship quarterly with 50 essays looking forward to the next 50 years of innovation in engineering. How will engineering contribute in areas as diverse as space travel, fashion, lasers, solar energy, peace, vaccine development, and equity? The diverse authors and topics give readers much to think about! We are posting selected articles each week to give readers time to savor the array of thoughtful and thought-provoking essays in this very special issue. Check the website every Monday! Articles In This Issue President's Perspective: Unintended Consequences Thursday, January 7, 2021 AuthorJohn L. Anderson In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is.[1] The intention to “do good” is not always realized in the engineering of artifacts, processes, and systems. Innovations have led to many improvements in health, security, and quality of life, ... Temptations of Technocracy in the Century of Engineering Thursday, January 7, 2021 AuthorSheila Jasanoff Keynote Chemistry, physics, and biology took turns shaping the frontiers of industrial development from the mid-19th century onward, but this century’s future belongs squarely to engineering. This is an era of unprecedented convergence across multiple fields, propelled by breakthroughs in ... Healthy Buildings in 2070 Wednesday, January 6, 2021 AuthorJoseph G. Allen and John D. Macomber Fifty years seems a very long time in the future for most industries. Not so in buildings and real estate; built structures routinely last decades if not hundreds of years, as long as they are economically competitive. Any discussion of the 50-year future has to consider existing stock as well as ... Empowering Future Engineers with Ethical Thinking Wednesday, January 6, 2021 AuthorTom H. Byers and Tina L. Seelig Now more than ever it is critically important for engineering graduates to be prepared to evaluate the consequences of the technologies they invent and scale. In the past the impacts of new technologies—from nuclear power to genetic engineering—emerged over decades, and government ... Imagining the Future of Vaccine Development Wednesday, January 6, 2021 AuthorArup K. Chakraborty and Bernhardt L. Trout Human history is inextricably linked with infectious diseases. Smallpox and plague pandemics and epidemics have afflicted humans since antiquity. As recently as the 19th century, roughly one in 100 people living in New York City died of tuberculosis. To an inhabitant of the 19th century, the early ... Consciousness and Convergence: Physics of Life at the Nanoscale Thursday, December 24, 2020 AuthorAnita Goel The consciousness with which science is pursued plays a critical role in shaping scientific worldviews, the fundamental questions asked, and the technologies created and their ultimate impacts on society. My childhood exposure, while growing up in the rural landscapes of -Mississippi, to ... Precision Medicine in Cardiology through Research, Innovation, and Intellectual Property Thursday, December 24, 2020 AuthorIk-Kyung Jang, Monica S. Jang, and Ronald M. Latanision Over 4 million people are admitted to hospitals annually with a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which includes unstable angina and acute heart attack. The three most common underlying mechanisms for ACS are plaque rupture (40–60 percent), plaque erosion (40–60 percent), and ... A New Categorical Imperative Thursday, December 24, 2020 AuthorDaniel Metlay In 1973 the German philosopher Hans Jonas posed the central ethical test for modern technological society. He observed that previously the “good and evil about which action had to care lay close to the act, either in the praxis itself or in its immediate reach,” whereas a new ... Beyond Engineering for Sustainable Global Development Tuesday, December 22, 2020 AuthorKentaro Toyama About 5 years ago the number of mobile phone accounts in the world exceeded the total human population (ITU 2019). Nomadic pastoralists in East Africa and tribal communities in South Asia make fluent use of cellphones, even where life is otherwise preindustrial, even preagrarian. As measured by the ... Building the Nexus Between Electronics and the Human Body for Enhanced Health Tuesday, December 22, 2020 AuthorSihong Wang Over the past few decades information technology (IT) has suffused every corner of society and reshaped the way people live, communicate, work, and entertain themselves. The next 50 years are likely to yield another generational change in electronics, and corresponding changes in people’s ...
President's Perspective: Unintended Consequences Thursday, January 7, 2021 AuthorJohn L. Anderson In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is.[1] The intention to “do good” is not always realized in the engineering of artifacts, processes, and systems. Innovations have led to many improvements in health, security, and quality of life, ...
Temptations of Technocracy in the Century of Engineering Thursday, January 7, 2021 AuthorSheila Jasanoff Keynote Chemistry, physics, and biology took turns shaping the frontiers of industrial development from the mid-19th century onward, but this century’s future belongs squarely to engineering. This is an era of unprecedented convergence across multiple fields, propelled by breakthroughs in ...
Healthy Buildings in 2070 Wednesday, January 6, 2021 AuthorJoseph G. Allen and John D. Macomber Fifty years seems a very long time in the future for most industries. Not so in buildings and real estate; built structures routinely last decades if not hundreds of years, as long as they are economically competitive. Any discussion of the 50-year future has to consider existing stock as well as ...
Empowering Future Engineers with Ethical Thinking Wednesday, January 6, 2021 AuthorTom H. Byers and Tina L. Seelig Now more than ever it is critically important for engineering graduates to be prepared to evaluate the consequences of the technologies they invent and scale. In the past the impacts of new technologies—from nuclear power to genetic engineering—emerged over decades, and government ...
Imagining the Future of Vaccine Development Wednesday, January 6, 2021 AuthorArup K. Chakraborty and Bernhardt L. Trout Human history is inextricably linked with infectious diseases. Smallpox and plague pandemics and epidemics have afflicted humans since antiquity. As recently as the 19th century, roughly one in 100 people living in New York City died of tuberculosis. To an inhabitant of the 19th century, the early ...
Consciousness and Convergence: Physics of Life at the Nanoscale Thursday, December 24, 2020 AuthorAnita Goel The consciousness with which science is pursued plays a critical role in shaping scientific worldviews, the fundamental questions asked, and the technologies created and their ultimate impacts on society. My childhood exposure, while growing up in the rural landscapes of -Mississippi, to ...
Precision Medicine in Cardiology through Research, Innovation, and Intellectual Property Thursday, December 24, 2020 AuthorIk-Kyung Jang, Monica S. Jang, and Ronald M. Latanision Over 4 million people are admitted to hospitals annually with a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which includes unstable angina and acute heart attack. The three most common underlying mechanisms for ACS are plaque rupture (40–60 percent), plaque erosion (40–60 percent), and ...
A New Categorical Imperative Thursday, December 24, 2020 AuthorDaniel Metlay In 1973 the German philosopher Hans Jonas posed the central ethical test for modern technological society. He observed that previously the “good and evil about which action had to care lay close to the act, either in the praxis itself or in its immediate reach,” whereas a new ...
Beyond Engineering for Sustainable Global Development Tuesday, December 22, 2020 AuthorKentaro Toyama About 5 years ago the number of mobile phone accounts in the world exceeded the total human population (ITU 2019). Nomadic pastoralists in East Africa and tribal communities in South Asia make fluent use of cellphones, even where life is otherwise preindustrial, even preagrarian. As measured by the ...
Building the Nexus Between Electronics and the Human Body for Enhanced Health Tuesday, December 22, 2020 AuthorSihong Wang Over the past few decades information technology (IT) has suffused every corner of society and reshaped the way people live, communicate, work, and entertain themselves. The next 50 years are likely to yield another generational change in electronics, and corresponding changes in people’s ...