Welcome to the Stupid Issue

Welcome to the latest issue of Nautilus! Take a peek inside below. But first: a note from Executive Editor Bob Grant.

I have a confession to make: I’m stupid.

Sure, I’ve had the privilege and luck to secure an abundance of formal education. I even fancy myself a relatively quick thinker.

But even with the intellect I’ve developed, the degrees I’ve accrued, I regularly fall prey to a tendency at the nucleus of the stupidity that suffuses our broader cultural moment. Frequently, my good sense is swamped by frustration, anxiety, and impatience. Even when I know, in my heart and mind, that kindness and compassion are objectively the best paths to navigate a given situation, those vexing impulses override my supposed intelligence and lead me to act stupidly. Losing my temper with family, focusing on minor irritations while ignoring my massively good fortune, missing opportunities to connect in a haze of self-absorption.

Pretty stupid behavior.

I mention this not as a public act of self-flagellation. Rather, my inward reflection mirrors my work with editors here at Nautilus to put this “Stupid Issue” together. Sensing that science is under attack in the United States is a daily and unavoidable occurrence for people tasked with covering the research enterprise here and beyond.

The current administration has throttled funding that once fueled promising lines of research, from climate science tracking changes to the planet’s oceans to biomedical trials poised to deliver new treatments. Key scientific advisory boards fired and replaced with loyal, but unqualified, officials. Guidelines meant to soundly inform people and their doctors to make the best decisions about avoiding infectious diseases and food-borne pathogens reshaped, the changes undergirded by pseudoscience or outright partisanism.

Pretty stupid.

This is all to say that now felt like the perfect time to devote an issue of Nautilus to the science, philosophy, and history of stupidity.

—Bob Grant, Executive Editor

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