Chesley Bonestell, “The Exploration of Mars” (1953), oil on board, 143/8 x 28 inches, gift of William Estler, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Reproduced courtesy of Bonestell LLC.

Aristotle on the Moon

For better or worse, finding workable solutions to significant problems among people who share land, traditions, and values may be easier and more effective than global and national efforts. For the scientific enterprise, the devolution of big policy to small places poses new challenges around establishing spaces for democratic decisionmaking, building knowledge to inform those decisions, and effectively linking the two. As decisionmaking moves toward states and localities, science leaders will need to understand how the landscape of opportunity is shifting and build the capacity to answer questions posed by specific geographic communities.

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  • Watcher

    “It was a kind of faith, that watching: / my brother trained his eyes to bear / the sharp erasure of sand and glass, prayed / there’d be nothing more to see.” —from Natasha Tretheway’s poem “Watcher: After Katrina, 2005.”

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