Science
Reason magazine
THE BIOMEDICAL TESTING REVOLUTION
“CANCER SIGNAL NOT detected.” That was the happy finding of my Galleri multicancer early detection (MCED) blood test from the Silicon Valley biotech company GRAIL. The Galleri test presages an emerging wave of new precision biomedical tests produced by a panoply of biotech startups.
2 min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
Diana Alvarez Knows She's 'Doing the Right Thing' Running a D.C. Smoke Shop
Diana Alvarez’s son always wanted to go to college, so she started working in a smoke shop to earn some extra cash.
2 min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
Fighting the Feds in the American South
JEFFERSON COWIE IS a prodigious researcher who often shows sensitivity to historical complexities, and his narrative skills shine. The Vanderbilt historian’s latest book, Freedom’s Dominion, is readable and often provocative. But it superimposes a dubious thesis about Southern his tory over the facts, arguing that “land dispossession, slavery, power, and oppression do not stand in contrast to freedom— they are expressions of it.”
5 min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
Who Owns Your Brain Data?
WE ARE RAPIDLY heading toward a world of brain transparency, in which scientists, doctors, governments, and companies may peer into our brains and minds at will,” Duke University bioethicist Nita A. Farahany declares in The Battle for Your Brain. As a defense against this neuro surveillance, her timely book argues for a right to cognitive liberty that includes “mental privacy, freedom of thought, and self-determination”—a right that allows us to track and hack our own brains but bars us from trespassing on other minds.
5 min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
MARC ANDREESSEN ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FUTURE
Is the A.I. breakthrough for real this time?
10+ min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
ZEROT AMERICA
SECRECY IS THE DEGRADED CURRENCY OF THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT.
10 min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
The Most Hated Person on Campus
HOW A SHAKY ALLEGATION IGNITED A FRENZY AND DESTROYED A YOUNG WOMAN'S LIFE
10+ min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
WILL 2024 BRING THE RETURN OF THE NEOCONS?
THE GOP NOMINEE CAN FORGE A HUMBLER PATHOR TURN BACK TO FAILED NEOCONSERVATISM.
10+ min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM IS MOSTLY MEANINGLESS
THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE DOESN'T FIT ON A SIMPLE MAP.
10+ min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
Storks Don't Take Orders From the State
FALLING BIRTHRATES, PRO-NATALIST POLICIES, AND THE LIMITS OF POPULATION CONTROL
10+ min |
June 2023
Reason magazine
Where's Your Adderall?
Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, prescriptions for Adderall, the stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), skyrocketed.
2 min |
April 2023
Reason magazine
A.I. Is Here
ChatGPT can create everything from novel dad jokes to fairly well-written computer code. At my prompting, it wrote a serviceable sonnet describing Gilgamesh’s failed quest for immortality.
3 min |
April 2023
Reason magazine
THE EXPENSIVE SEDUCTIVE NOSTALGIA OF FIELD OF DREAMS
WHY ARE SO MANY FILMGOERS AND POLITICIANS EAGER TO PROP UP BASEBALL'S BOONDOGGLES?
10+ min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PUBLIC UNIONS VS.THE PUBLIC GOOD
ELECTED LEADERS COME AND GO, BUT PUBLIC UNIONS JUST SAY NO.
10+ min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: BE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE WORLD
AFFIRMATIVE: Optimism Is the Rational Approach
4 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: BITCOIN IS THE FUTURE! OF FREE EXCHANGE
AFFIRMATIVE: Bitcoin Is an Effective Tool for Liberty
7 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: MENTALLY ILL HOMELESS PEOPLE MUST BE LOCKED UP FOR PUBLIC SAFETY
AFFIRMATIVE: Choosing the Streets Over Shelters Is Dangerous for Everyone
6 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: THE U.S. SHOULD INCREASE FUNDING FOR THE DEFENSE OF UKRAINE
AFFIRMATIVE: Ukraine's Liberal Democracy Deserves Our Aid
5 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: THE E.U. WAS A MISTAKE
AFFIRMATIVE: Small States Are Best, and the E.U. Is Huge
6 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: TO PRESERVE INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, GOVERNMENT MUST AFFIRMATIVELY INTERVENE IN THE CULTURE WAR
AFFIRMATIVE: You May Not Be Interested in the Culture War, But the Culture War Is Interested in You
9 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: DEMOCRACY IS THE WORST FORM OF GOVERNMENT EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS
AFFIRMATIVE: When We Are Governed, Ballots Are Best
6 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SHOULD BE REGULATED
AFFIRMATIVE: Don't Trust Governments With A.I. Facial Recognition Technology
7 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
PROPOSITION: IT'S TIME FOR A NATIONAL DIVORCE
AFFIRMATIVE: A National Divorce Is an Opportunity for Peaceful Coexistence
9 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
DEBATE IS FOR THE COOL KIDS
\"STUDIES SHOW THAT debate is good for you\" is exactly the sort of thing you'd expect someone in an ill-fitting blazer and awkward shoes to say at a high school debate competition.
5 min |
May 2023
Reason magazine
'All the Parents Want Is a Chance To Make That Choice'
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears wants state education dollars "to follow the child instead of the brick building."
10+ min |
April 2023
Reason magazine
Sen. Pat Toomey on Cryptocurrency and FTX's Collapse
Former Sen. Pat Toomey’s time in Congress, which began in 1999 after he won a House seat in eastern Pennsylvania, officially ended on January 3 when the new Senate session began.
2 min |
April 2023
Reason magazine
Is Online Illness Culture Keeping People Sick?
WHILE THE FDA KEEPS EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENTS OUT OF REACH, THE SPOONIE WORLD MAKES A DIAGNOSIS INTO AN IDENTITY.
10+ min |
April 2023
Reason magazine
SHODDY RESEARCH REINFORCES ANTI-VAPING NARRATIVE
Three years later, the World Journal of Oncology published a study that claimed vapers face about the same cancer risk as smokers. The authors said “prospective studies should be planned to mitigate the risk.”
5 min |
April 2023
Reason magazine
THE BUDGET BATTLE BOOK
That job includes authoring, debating, and passing a budget for the astounding amount of discretionary federal spending that Congress is charged with managing each year—in this case, about $1.7 trillion.
4 min |
April 2023
Reason magazine
NEW LAWS STOP COPS FROM LYING TO KIDS
Maryland and Washington state already enforce such a rule. And in 2021, Illinois and Oregon became the first two states to ban police from lying to minors during interrogations.
2 min |