Archive for April, 2008
The environmental, health, and safety (EHS) implications of nanotechnology and potential regulation were the only points of contention at an otherwise congratulatory Senate hearing held to discuss the reauthorization of the $1.5 billion National Nanotechnology Initiative last Thursday.
Attention in the news to conflicts of interest within the medical profession seems to be on the rise. This is an issue that deserves serious scrutiny, particularly given how permissive the attitude of the medical community has been so far.
There has been a near-complete breakdown at our central environmental regulatory agency under the Bush administration.
The Science Times section in the NYT today has a short profile on Francisco J. Ayala, author of Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion. Dr. Ayala is an evolutionary biologist and geneticist at the University of California, Irvine. He spends much of his time lecturing on evolution and its compatibility with belief in God.
The latest news on industry obfuscation of scientific research and government complicity is that the Food and Drug Administration relied on studies funded by trade groups in decisions on an unsafe compound in common plastic products.
A roundup of some of the science and technology policy events happening around Washington D.C. from April 28 to May 2.
Reflecting on the meaning and implications of DNA Day underscores the need for a national science curriculum.
Report to the president fails on both academic and public policy levels to shine a meaningful light on human dignity and bioethics.
New technologies enable scientists to understand, alter, and enhance our brains. These raise a host of policy-relevant questions about privacy, social and political coercion, access to technology and therapy.
Neuroscientists boast that fMRI technology could allow for mind-reading machines. The technology raises numerous legal issues. But the big question is, will it work?
Biofuel production has come under blistering attack as food prices around the world escalate, but we can’t make the right steps forward without looking at the full interplay of agricultural forces.
The Senate just passed the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act (H.R. 493) by a vote of 95-0 after two hours of debate consisting of mostly well-deserved self-congratulations. Senator Enzi (R-WY), a cosponsor of the bill, raised a very good point, saying about GINA that “If the publicity doesn’t go out on it, the people don’t know about it….we are interested in people knowing what this bill does that will help them and that will encourage them to use the genome.”
The Associated Press quickly picked up on a report released yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists revealing that 889 of nearly 1,600 staff scientists who responded to an online survey indicated that they experienced political interference with their work at some point in the last five years.
The U.S has no national innovation policy. To respond to the changing landscape of a global innovation economy, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Brooking Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program released a report yesterday proposing the creation of a National Innovation Foundation.
The successful rightwing documentary demonstrates that science needs a loud, accessible, entertaining, mass media response to creationist nonsense.
The Senate is closing in on a deal for the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (HR 493), and a vote might come as early as Wednesday. According to Congress Daily, Senate Majority Leader Reid will “hotline” the bill to determine if any Senator objects to the legislation.
Art Caplan adds to the string of excoriating reviews of Ben Stein’s
Expelled in his most recent MSNBC column. He points out that if the creationist agenda of the film’s creators aims to attack the biological sciences, then other countries will gladly accept the torch as leaders in research.
Various companies now offer direct-to-consumer genetic counseling. Public concern about genetic discrimination is on the rise. The Senate may soon vote on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. But there are many uncertainties to consider as genetic medicine gets increasingly personal.
Are the growing ranks of well-educated and increasingly well-financed scientists in other countries bad for U.S competitiveness and ultimately the economy? In a “post-scientific” society, not necessarily.
Public engagement is not about getting the policy you want; it’s about getting the public input you need to craft sustainable policy that enjoys public confidence.
A roundup of some of the science and technology policy events happening around Washington D.C. from Apr. 21 to Apr. 25.
David Goldston wants to ask the big questions about federal science policy. Can the research establishment become unsustainably large? Are scientists always an asset to Congress? And what are the problems with current methods of creating science policy?
The National Science Foundation issued a “Dear Colleague” letter earlier this month to education grant applicants about the sometimes-misunderstood “broader impacts” criteria used to evaluate grant proposals.
From the Chronicle comes news of a study showing some academic scientists may be adding their names as authors to papers authored by corporations. The study—published in the Journal of the American Medical Association—suggest the practice maybe all too common in medical journals.
Reporting on the work of the Hinxton Group, experts explained the state of the science and criticized policies that aim to avoid all ethical disagreement by banning research.
The chief lessons learned from ScienceDebate2008: ignore naysayers, and never give up.
Two years ago, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy formed a task force to develop a plan to research the issue of pharmaceutical products in drinking water. Monday, an Associated Press report revealed that the group failed to carry out its responsibilities. In a Senate hearing today legislators put pressure on the EPA to take initiative on the issue.
Americans invented quality assurance procedures, those prosaic yet indispensable steps that insure ever-incremental innovation. It’s time we upgraded government for the 21st Century, relying on the insights of Joseph Juran.
“In a weak economy, we should be doing everything we can to spur on innovation and the type of family-wage jobs that increased research and development will create,” said Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-CA) when he introduced legislation that would streamline the R&D tax credit and make it permanent.
From an online survey of Nature readers comes data suggesting that a significant number of scientists and engineers use drugs for the non-medical purpose of increasing productivity and brain power.
A roundup of some of the science and technology policy events happening around Washington D.C. from Apr. 14 to Apr. 18.
What can fiddler crabs and peacocks teach us about defeating Al Qaeda? Plenty, argues Raphael Sagarin, associate director for Ocean and Coastal Policy at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University, and editor of the new book, Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World.
The organizers of Science Debate 2008 consider the impact of their campaign to convince the major party candidates to talk about science and technology in a national forum in the current issue of
Science.
Contemporary rhetorical tactics designed to confuse politicians and the public about scientific issues are as old as antiquity. The methods are just as disingenuous 2,500 years after their invention.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has quietly extended the amount of time foreign students in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics are allowed to remain in the U.S. without a work visa after their graduation.
The “markets” for scholarly works are changing, and scholars in the humanities and social sciences – and the institutions where they work – need to both take control of how their works are published and distributed and become much more actively involved in setting the terms for the digital publishing world.
The case of the mysterious disappearing search term is about so much more than one scientific database; it’s about how we talk about reproductive health.
We desperately need to adapt our coastal infrastructure to climate change.
This coming Sunday night, two of the three remaining major party presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, will talk about faith issues as they participate in a Compassion Forum at Messiah College. But the issues they’ll discuss—including poverty, the environment, AIDS and Darfur—encompass more than faith. Many are intrinsically linked to science.
Progressive thinking takes a new turn in western water management, as states across the region, in cooperation with federal agencies, act to fix damaged rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
The 2008 appropriations package included a provision requiring that any published articles emerging from research supported by the National Institutes of Health must be deposited in the PubMed Central database, where they will be available through open access, within 12 months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
House Representative Tom Allen (D-ME) today introduced H.R. 5682, the Rural America Communication Expansion (RACE) for the Future Act, a push to bring broadband and its economic and social benefits to rural areas across the country.
After three months of declining job numbers and an economy in recession, the National Science Foundation released a series of reports last week indicating a growing supply of scientists and engineers, along with a strong science and engineering job market to take them in.
A roundup of some of the science and technology policy events happening around Washington D.C. from Apr. 7 to Apr. 11.
New research appearing in this week’s edition of
Science focuses on a wide variety of bacteria that have not simply evolved resistance to antibiotics, but can in fact survive entirely on a diet of compounds intended to kill them.
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight held the first of what could be more hearings on the CDC’s failure to protect public health when it released a scientifically flawed report on formaldehyde levels in post-Katrina FEMA trailers, understating the health risk of extended exposure to the gas.
On Tuesday, a Virginia district court rejected new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rules intended to rein in the current patent application backlog. The ruling comes as a relief to companies involved in technically complex industries, especially biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms.
The Times Online offers a useful question-and-answer primer on the latest research news.
Rapid advances in genetic research are revealing mind-boggling amounts of information about how our DNA shapes who we are and how we get sick. The work will shape the future of medicine, but we still have a lot to learn.
After last week’s industry-led field hearing in North Dakota on carbon capture and sequestration, a Monday briefing on CCS hosted by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was a breath of fresh air, with representatives from the scientific community and the UK.
Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK have announced the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos intended to provide stem cells for research. The intersection of embryonic stem cell and hybrid research could renew bioethical debates on this side of the pond.
When are Americans finally going to get accurate, timely information–not to mention action–from their government about global warming risks to the Gulf Coast and elsewhere? Part I of a two-part column series.
Conference committee appointees are hashing through Senate and House versions of the 2007 Farm Bill, and there’s a significant risk that the legislation they pass on to the President will continue the misguided agricultural subsidies that thwart the development of advanced cellulosic biofuels.
