How do you control insects by attracting and repelling them at the same time? Hundreds of African farmers, particularly in Kenya, have been delighted to learn that a “push-pull” method really does the trick. The ambitious and economically important research program behind this development tells us a lot about how science can be productive in its own terms while also playing a socially transformative role.

After long remaining in the background — and even being thought less than fully respectable — research into the role of electric field effects in shaping the form of organisms has now become mainstream as a result of dramatic new findings. We report on some work carried out at Tufts University.

Allan Kaplan and Sue Davidoff, founders of the Proteus Initiative in South Africa, have brought their interest in Goethean methods to bear on their work as facilitators of social and entrepreneurial transformation. Craig and Henrike recently worked alongside Allan and Sue in a pair of workshops, and here they tell the story of how one workshop participant used what she learned to aid in developing a successful campaign against domestic violence in New Zealand.