In the last week, two news stories really captured the potential future for nuclear energy. The New York Times Matthew Wald reported from Georgia, where construction crews are slowly building the first two new nuclear reactors in thirty years. And National Geographic’s Will Ferguson reported from Tennessee that engineers and scientists are taking core samples and mapping regional geology as part of the early planning stages of building the first small modular nuclear reactor in the world. Both projects face unique challenges, yet they both represent the beginning of two potential nuclear paths for reducing climate-warming carbon emissions in the United States (and potentially the world).

The first round of negotiations for the T-TIP, which has the potential to be the biggest bilateral trade deal in history, will take place during the week of July 8 in Washington, D.C. EU and US leaders promise a significant boost to worldwide economic growth from the agreement.

America's broadband networks are better than those in Europe in terms of speed and coverage, despite the widespread belief to the contrary.

Thanks to the large U.S. goods trade deficit, since 2000, the U.S. share of world exports has declined from 17% to 11%, even as the European Union’s share held steady at 17% over that time period.

Singapore has a remarkable history of economic growth, proving doubters wrong. Currently they are pursuing a range of deliberate policies to help private industry increase productivity and keep the small nation competitive and growing.

The massive cicada bloom that spread across the eastern seaboard this spring is winding down, but its end heralds another gradually emerging entity: citizen sensing. The Cicada Tracker—a community data-gathering initiative for documenting the noisy insects’ emergence from their burrows—was a rousing success, and it should encourage data innovators across the country to think about what a few motivated citizens and some commodity hardware can do for their communities.

The FedTalks 2013 conference, held June 12 in Washington, brought together a motley crew of government officials, tech company executives, military contractors and civic IT experts to discuss “how technology and people can change government and our communities.” The speakers, ranging from Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) to famed impostor Frank Abagnale (more on him below) came from similarly broad backgrounds. Here is a quick rundown on some highlights and observations from the conference.

The atmosphere after a hackathon is usually one of relief and mutual congratulation, but the real work takes place in the weeks and months that follow. That’s when the programmers, designers, and subject matter experts refine their work, hopefully planting the seed for a new business or public service. In this article are four standout projects that emerged from the National Day of Civic Hacking (NDoCH), which took place over the first two days of June in 95 locations around the United States. Besides celebrating their ingenuity, there are some lessons to be learned from each of them.

Technological change is important for our economy but it can be difficult to measure, because of our bias toward the present, because each change is different, and because technologies are complexly interrelated to our economy. We can get around these problems by measuring technological change in simplified ways--but none of the techniques are perfect.