Science & Technology

In the wake of Sunday's contested parliamentary elections, the Russian security services have made obvious and clumsy efforts to shut down independent news sources. But controlling information online will prove impossible, and continued attempts to do so will only backfire.

The world cannot let the March disaster at Japan’s Fukushima power plant scare it into forgoing the benefits of nuclear energy -- a cheap, reliable, and safe source of electricity. Still, writes a former U.S. undersecretary of energy, the United States does need to update its safety standards and reform its handling of nuclear waste.

Non-communicable diseases have rapidly become a global concern: The World Economic Forum has identified NCDs as one of the top threats to worldwide development.

Discussion of the political impact of social media has focused on the power of mass protests to topple governments. In fact, social media's real potential lies in supporting civil society and the public sphere -- which will produce change over years and decades, not weeks or months.