Archive for October, 2007
Vint Cerf leaves his post as Chairman of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers this Friday. ICANN has drawn criticism in the past for U.S. control of the Internet, but new changes will expand and internationalize possibilities for domain names.
A new report from the Urban Institute takes aim at the common conception in policy circles that the United States is educating fewer scientists and engineers and that those students are underperforming in comparison with their international peers. How should it change the questions we ask about science and engineering education?
How should we think about the relationship between global warming and an increased risk of wildfires to the United States?
The New Jersey appellate court cleared the way for a $450 million referendum funding stem cell research in the state. But how much will go to work with embryonic stem cells, and how much will go to the less-promising work with adult stem cells?
New Jersey boasts about its embryonic stem cell research ambitions, but most of the grant money is going toward adult stem cell research. What gives?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that 25 to 30 percent of the U.S. population carries the staph bacteria MRSA, which was for responsible for more than 94,000 life-threatening infections and 19,000 deaths in 2005.
Andrew A. Rosenberg on how “emphasizing what we don’t know often drowns out what we do know.” Also, a new Urban Institute study claims that the U.S. has more than enough scientists and engineers.
This week boasts a slew of congressional hearings on science and technology policy issues including: renewable energy, gene patenting, aviation safety, nanotechnology safety, and drug-resistant TB.
Medical information is only useful when it can travel from provider to provider. That’s Mom’s role today, but the federal government could save everyone money and ensure better care by insisting on interoperable records.
Why are we really upset by the editing of Center for Disease Control Director Gerberding’s written testimony to Congress on the health effects of climate change?
The InterAcademies Council report released Monday on sustainable energy options reiterates familiar suggestions for greening the planet’s energy future, but it also presents a compelling argument for applied scientific and technological research in pursuit of the common good.
Georgia governor Sonny Perdue wants to blame the state’s drought on federal bureaucracy. But the big story is the relationship between natural resources and regional growth.
Only in rare cases should women freeze their eggs in order to save them for fertilization at a later date, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
The cuts the White House made to CDC Director Julie Gerberding’s congressional testimony began with the sentence: “Scientific evidence supports the view that the earth’s climate is changing.”
Testimony of Director Gerberding prepared for a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday on the impact of climate change on public health. The portions excised by the White House are highlighted in red.
The Bush Administration continues to censor scientists. The AP has the latest on extensive revisions made to the testimony of CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday on the health impacts of climate change.
There are problems galore lurking behind the baffling appointment of an anti-contraception activist to the Office of Population Affairs.
“People are either thinking about civil rights or they are thinking about climate change. Rarely are they thinking about both.” The two issues are inextricably linked, argued Majora Carter at a panel on “green collar jobs” at the Center for American Progress this Monday.
Cures Without Cloning, a Missouri group that opposes embryonic stem cell research, is trying to overturn the results of last year’s ballot initiative that protected stem cell research in the state. The CAP Bioethics Initiative posted an update last week. Here’s a roundup of the latest.
WWII contracting out of scientific inquiry in the interest of national security was the springboard for mid-20th century reform of American government that yielded great successes but has lost its moorings. It’s time to re-envision the role of private contractors in the public service.
The U.S. is pursuing new approaches to nurture science and technology innovation—and so is the UK. This week’s National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship newsletter sets the two plans next to one another. Perhaps each government could learn from the other.
A provision in the Labor-HHS-Education bill (H.R.3043/S.1710) before the Senate today will change the NIH public access policy and require that researchers publish all peer-reviewed articles produced from research conducted with NIH funds in open access journals.
Today’s edition of the Kojo Nnamdi Show on American University’s WAMU will feature a discussion with David Goldston and Matthew Nisbet on recent clashes between scientists and politicians over matters of public policy.
J. Craig Venter recently announced his institutes’s goal of sequencing the genomes of up to 50 people by the end of 2008, with an ultimate goal of sequencing 10,000 people’s genomes within ten years. Personalized genome sequencing will open the door to powerful new therapies, but it also poses ethical concerns over the possibility of genetic discrimination.
MSNBC’s Cosmic Log reports that NASA has disowned Rocketplane Kistler, the private company that, along with SpaceX, was the co-winner of NASA’s rocket competition in August of 2006. The effort was part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation System program. COTS was designed to encourage private companies to devise low-cost ways of resupplying the international space station.
Readers in the Washington D.C. area can head to the National Mall this afternoon at 2 p.m. to see the awards ceremony for the 2007 Solar Decathalon. The event brings together 20 teams of university students who compete to “design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.”
At a hearing before the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Science Education on Wednesday, University of Miami President Donna Shalala said that the country needs “an organization like the NCAA that holds us accountable” in the national effort to promote more women into the upper ranks of science.
James Watson’s remarks in the October 14 edition of the Sunday
Times magazine suggesting that Africans are less intelligent than other humans were not just tragic and racist, they were also an abuse of his eminent scientific stature.
No new stem cell funding will be included in the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (S.1710). Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) promptly offered an amendment removing language that he and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) had previously inserted to expand funding for stem cell research. There was no vote, only a removal.
In an interview with the magazine Medline Plus, NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni repeats his call for more embryonic stem cell research. While the Administration claims to agree, White House rhetoric seems to imply that scientists cannot make ethical decisions.
Scientific integrity and scientific innovation aren’t necessarily—or always—the same thing. There are important distinctions that must be made if we are to marry sound scientific research with sound science and technology policymaking.
In a markup session this morning, the House Science and Technology committee passed two bills focused expanding research on energy storage technologies.
Robot sex is only five years away, robot marriage a mere 45 years, and the first state to legalize it will be Massachusetts. Those are the predictions of David Levy, a researcher at the University of Maastricht who successfully defended his thesis, “Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners,” on October 11 and made
international headlines.
How a little-known law in Louisiana that regulates the use of frozen embryos created by assisted reproduction challenges common sense and the Constitution.
Biotechnology offers great benefits for humankind but could also lead to unimaginable horrors. Scientists and policymakers around the world urgently need to address these dual-use risks.
The University of Michigan is hosting a conference on developing technology corridors this week as the Senate considers two major appropriations bills that fund science agencies.
Brazilian ethanol produced from sugar cane is a promising renewable energy technology. But land is finite and using it for energy means not using it for other human needs. Nowhere is this clearer than in the history of the Brazilian sugar cane industry.
Researchers at Stanford University appear to have developed a blood test that can predict the onset of diagnosable Alzheimer’s Disease with up to 90 percent accuracy. If the technique is confirmed and does become widely available before effective interventions, it is sure to spark another chapter in an ongoing discussion about the wisdom of such predictive power.
The National Science Board released a plan on October 1 for the national coordination of science, engineering, technology, and mathematics education. Despite congressional support for the plan, critics counter that federal coordination could trample local educational autonomy.
Joseph Romm, climate advocate, on security through environmental peace, climate as a moral issue, and the bravery of scientists.
Science journalists gathered at USC Annenberg on Monday to address the question, “Does Science Get a Fair Shake in the Media?” Their answer, unsurprisingly, was no.
The University of Virginia is being accused of encouraging doctors to prescribe Johnson & Johnson’s anti-seizure and migraine drug Topamax “off-label” to treat alcoholism. But is the medicine safe for treating alcoholics without FDA approval?
Gerhard Ertl won this year’s Nobel prize for chemistry for work that explained the chemical mechanisms behind processes of importance in everyday life: rust, catalytic converters, and the production of industrial fertilizer. Here’s a roundup of news coverage that underscores, again, the value of fundamental scientific research for society at large.
Science policymakers in the United States can learn from the ultimate resolution of an intense debate that raged in Britain over the past year concerning the creation of human-nonhuman cytoplasmic hybrid embryos. These so called “cybrid” embryos offer a promising new way to continue embryonic stem cell research despite an egg shortage and to address ethical concerns associated with egg donation. Yet misconceptions in the British media almost derailed cybrid research.
Jonathan Moreno tells
Nature podcast host Kerri Smith about what happens when neuroscience meets warfare. Be prepared for soldiers who don’t need sleep and detainees who can be chemically induced to trust their captors.
The news hook for the announcement of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in physics is easy: Giant Magnetoresistance expanded hard drive capacities to enable the miniaturization of the digital revolution, such as your iPod. But as coverage brews for the rest of the week, it’s worth looking at news stories that dig deeper into the science because they underscore the value of fundamental scientific research for society at large.
The Guardian reported this past weekend that J. Craig Venter will soon announce that he has created artificial life. But even his spokesperson is saying that’s not the whole story.
The arguments for a new nuclear warhead contradict technical truths and threaten national security interests. Congress is correct to question the proposal.
More private- and public-sector investment, collaboration and talent creation are essential for broadly shared future economic prosperity.
The American public’s limited interest in science news and troubling grasp of basic scientific knowledge would seem to threaten sound and ethical policymaking whenever policy turns on science. But go beyond the immediate polling data and there are reasons not to despair.
Getting good science from university labs and startup companies to the marketplace requires plenty of risk capital. Problem is, institutional investors are putting more and more of their money into late-stage venture capital firms, which disparage what they call the “spray and pray” venture financing model.
A telling quote in today’s Washington Post article about Microsoft Corp.’s new online Electronic Medical Record service, HealthVault, encapsulates why the federal government needs to join the private sector’s push for personal and secure online EMRs.
Fifty years after Sputnik’s launch, America must once again be spurred to focus on prioritizing policy initiatives in funding science and technology education in the pursuit of inspired scientific inquiry and a high standard of excellence.
Emerging tools to treat the brain and the nervous system have the potential to transform nearly every aspect of our lives. It’s time for public policy to catch up to the science.
Scientific inquiry proceeds most fruitfully when sufficient funding is spread across a complexity of disciplines to a diversity of researchers.
Scientific facts no longer speak for themselves. In the age of the Internet, facts need to be framed for diverse audiences spread across fragmented media outlets.
The U.S. reaction to Sputnik and to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington couldn’t be more different. That’s very unfortunate.
The shock of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch 50 years ago today reminds us at
Science Progress that the United States can deploy its scientific prowess swiftly to meet sudden challenges. A new resolve is needed again today, this time from the entire global community, not just the United States, to meet very different but equally dire threats to humanity.
Our new publication embraces the best of American scientific and political thought.
U.S. labs that handle deadly germs have reported “100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003,”
reports the AP. No one was hurt, but the number of incidents are going up with number of labs approved to handle the pathogens. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a
hearing today.
The most recent issues of two monthly magazines, National Geographic and Wired, boast solid cover stories on biofuels - solid because they make clear the limitations of corn-derived ethanol and focus on the promise of celluloic ethanol - yet the covers themselves present two very different ways of shifting the conversation past corn ethanol and on to cellulose.
A new Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development-sponsored paper, “Understanding the Regional Contribution of Higher Education Institutions: A Literature Review,” is chalk full of information on a wide array of roles played by universities in fostering innovation, lifelong learning, local policymaking and sustainable development.
Having scrapped the Commerce Department’s Technology Administration, the Bush administration has instead formed a Technology Council within Commerce. Meetings will not be public, the council will have none of its own resources, and the outlook isn’t good.