Insights from our Editorial Team

Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s goodbye was much the same as his hello. When the Nobel prize-winning scientist accepted President Obama’s offer in 2008 to lead the federal agency, he said that science would be his guidepost. And now that he will be leaving in February, he is repeating the same mantra.

The definition of nanotechnology is simple: It’s merely technology that manipulates matter at the atomic level. When I think of nanotechnology, however, I often picture the complicated, such as a tidal wave of the tiniest of robots doing the greatest of medical work: repairing organs, binding skin.

We’re all concerned about privacy. If we weren’t, there would be no market for window blinds and no need to have special settings on Facebook to keep out frenemies. Those concerns range from the personally creepy to the publicly insecure and involve both information we willingly share and information companies can gather without our direct knowledge.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office is saying in a just-released analysis that government officials in charge of inspecting pipeline safety should be required to provide the necessary data so that monitors can help them improve their response times and the subsequent results. Automated valves, for example, would permit natural gas companies to turn off the gas within minutes of an incident.