• INNOVATIONMIx Helps Innovators Tackle Challenges in National Security

    By Zach Winn

    Startups and government defense agencies have historically seemed like polar opposites. Startups thrive on speed and risk, while defense agencies are more cautious. Mission Innovation x creates education and research opportunities while facilitating connections between defense agencies and MIT innovators.

  • TARGETING SCIENCEACIP Draft Agenda Revives Anti-Vaccine Boilerplate Topics

    By Lisa Schnirring

    RFK Jr. replaced scientists on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with anti-vaxx activists. On Wednesday, true to form, the new ACIP members issued a draft meeting agenda which contains topics which have become common talking points of vaccine-efficacy deniers.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHNIH Terminates GoF Research; OMB Proposes 54% Cut to CDC Budget in FY 2026

    HHS announced it would terminate funding for gain-of-function (GoF), while OMB proposed budget includes 54% cut to CDC budget in FY 2026. The cuts include a $1.4 billion cut to chronic disease prevention and $794 million in cuts to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, STD, and TB prevention.

  • RARE EARTHChina and Rare-Earth Elements: Is Trump Blinking on Tariffs?

    By Ajey Lele

    On 2 April 2025, President Trump announced a significant shift in the US trade policy, imposing tariffs on multiple countries, with special emphasis on China. In response, on 4 April 2025, China placed export restrictions on REEs, which are also known as rare metals.

  • TRGETING SCIENCEFederal R&D Funding Boosts Productivity for the Whole Economy − Making Big Cuts to Such Government Spending Unwise

    By Andrew Fieldhouse

    Large cuts to government-funded research and development can endanger American innovation – and the vital productivity gains it supports. If the government were to abandon its long-standing practice of investing in R&D, it would significantly slow the pace of U.S. innovation and economic growth.

  • FOREIGN OWNERSHIPExamining State Legislation on Foreign Ownership of U.S. Farmland

    By Kim Ward

    Foreign entities now hold 3.5% of privately owned U.S. agricultural land, prompting growing attention from lawmakers. In 2023 alone, more than 30 U.S. states introduced bills seeking to restrict foreign ownership of farmland. An MSU study shows that these legislative efforts are driven more by national security concerns and political ideology than by economic factors.

  • DEPORTATIONSDeportations to Add Almost $1 Trillion in Costs to the “Big Beautiful Bill”

    By David J. Bier

    The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1). will direct an astounding $168 billion of the budget to immigration and border law enforcement, and there is even more for agencies that indirectly support immigration law enforcement. But the CBO’s cost estimate is deficient in three ways, not to mention the fact that immigrants are reducing the deficit and debt, so removing them will dramatically increase future debt.  

  • CRITICAL MINERALSNevada Lithium Mining Expands with Estimated $87B Project

    By Liam Hibbert, The Center Square

    Amidst widespread speculation and local pushback, northern Nevada has taken another step toward realizing its lithium potential with an estimated $87 billion Elko County mine.

  • BATTERIESTrump’s Second Term Is Creating ‘a Limbo Moment’ for U.S. Battery Recyclers

    By Maddie Stone

    Since January, President Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to the Biden administration’s efforts to grow America’s clean energy industry. At the same time, citing economic and national security reasons, Trump has sought to advance efforts to produce more critical minerals like lithium in the United States. That is exactly what the emerging lithium-ion battery recycling industry seeks to do, which is why some industry insiders are optimistic about their future under Trump.

  • PATHOGEN SMUGGLINGChinese Nationals Charged with Conspiracy and Smuggling a Dangerous Biological Pathogen into the U.S. for their Work at a University of Michigan Laboratory

    Two Chinese nationals were charged with smuggling into America a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHEconomic Impact Report Warns of Setbacks to Public Health Progress Amid Federal Budget Cuts

    A new report details the far-reaching impacts of 2025 federal funding cuts on public health infrastructure, research institutions, workforce development, and the broader US economy. The report provides the first comprehensive look at how widespread grant freezes, budget reductions, and agency restructurings are destabilizing academic public health institutions nationwide.

  • CRITICAL MINERALSMicrobes That Extract Rare Earth Elements Also Can Capture Carbon

    By Krisy Gashler

    A small but mighty microbe can safely extract the rare earth and other critical elements for building everything from satellites to solar panels – and it  has another superpower: capturing carbon dioxide.

  • FOOD SECURITYU.K. Government Not Sufficiently Prepared for the Increasing Risk from Animal Disease

    Outbreaks of animal diseases have occurred in each of the past six years and the U.K. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) have worked hard to manage them. It’s likely that DEFRA and APHA would struggle to cope with a more severe outbreak of animal disease. Long term resilience is being undermined by the necessity of focusing on increasingly frequent outbreaks and there is no long-term strategy.

  • ARGUMENT: AI-DESIGNED BIOWEAPONS LOOMAre We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?

    Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”

  • ACADEMIC ENTANGLEMENTSA British University’s Technology Entanglements with Russia and China

    By Bethany Allen, Danielle Cave, and Adam Ziogas

    A major British research university’s joint venture campus in China maintains partnerships and close links with entities sanctioned by Britain, the US, EU and others for supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and assisting China’s military modernization and human rights violations. The links to sanctions highlight the risks posed by foreign science, technology and academic partnerships in China in a period of heightened geopolitical rivalry, intensifying technological competition and deepening China-Russia cooperation.