Category Archives: Uncategorized
Funding the News: Summary of Shorenstein Center study on foundations and nonprofit media
Written on June 18, 2018 at 11:44, by Matthew Nisbet
June 18, 2018–In a new Shorenstein Center study conducted with colleagues at Northeastern University, we assess major patterns in foundation support for nonprofit journalism and media in the half decade leading up to the 2016 election, focusing specifically on support for digital news nonprofits. Launched over the past fifteen years, digital news nonprofits at the Continue Reading »
Strategic philanthropy in the post cap-and-trade years: Summary of new paper on U.S. foundation funding
Written on May 21, 2018 at 23:34, by Matthew Nisbet
In a paper published this week, I review the history of U.S. philanthropic strategy relative to climate change, before assessing the important 5-year period following the defeat of the 2010 cap and trade bill and leading up to the 2016 elections. I analyze $557 million distributed across 2,502 grants by 19 major foundations, detailing the financial Continue Reading »
The gene editing conversation: Public dialogue will require major investments
Written on January 10, 2018 at 13:59, by Matthew Nisbet
In 2014 biochemist Jennifer Doudna of the University of California at Berkeley awoke from a nightmare that would shift the focus of her world-class scientific career. Two years earlier, with her colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier, now director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin, Doudna had achieved one of the most Continue Reading »
Divided expectations: Why we need a new dialogue about science, inequality, and society
Written on January 4, 2018 at 18:18, by Matthew Nisbet
If you are reading this column, you have likely benefited from the scientific and technological advances that have transformed the world’s economy. For well-educated professionals who form the core audience for popular science magazines, these innovations have created new wealth and career opportunities. Yet paradoxically, the very success of the science and engineering sector has Continue Reading »
The Ecomodernists: Journalists reimagining a sustainable future
Written on September 3, 2017 at 10:43, by Matthew Nisbet
Sept. 3, 2017 — In The Planet Remade (2015), journalist Oliver Morton imagined a future scenario where the Earth’s climate has been changed by geoengineering. A collective of countries with little power in world affairs secretly agrees to a low-cost plan to cool the planet. With funding from a billionaire, the collective flies several planes Continue Reading »
Evolution in the college classroom: Facilitating conversations about science and religion
Written on September 1, 2017 at 15:21, by Matthew Nisbet
Sept. 1, 2017 — For most American college students, their first serious encounter with the theory of evolution may come as part of an introductory biology course. As surprising as this might sound, the unfortunate reality is that in many high schools across the country evolution is often avoided or covered superficially as part of Continue Reading »