Archive for December, 2008
President-elect Obama’s pick for White House science adviser, John Holdren, has received numerous barbs from critics of progressive climate policy. Unfortunately, the attacks are a distraction from the real problems facing the planet.
A thumbnail of advances in science that will have long-lasting impacts on science policy—or advances in science policy that we predict will have long-lasting impacts on science.
Anecdotal evidence has led to the impression that many in the scientific community hold a negative view of law enforcement. Before the two communities can solve this problem, we need to get a sense of the types and range of views scientists hold.
The new regulation disrupts the careful balance established by medical codes of conduct and standards of care, placing the health, well-being, and dignity of patients at risk.
Speedy access to the Internet for every American is about so much more than expanded broadband access. It’s about all aspects of advanced communications and information technology.
The seven science advisers Barack Obama has chosen are surely the most distinguished group of scientists at the highest levels of government in decades.
Eli Kintisch reports at Science Insider that the Kennedy School of Government professor flew to Chicago this morning to meet with members of the transition team.
Science and engineering will continue to play a key role in growing our economy and developing clean energy technologies. The government needs to enable more students to pursue schooling that contributes to our green growth.
In the wake of the Bush administration’s policies, we will have the political space to craft a pro-research stand that simultaneously highlights the need for consistent and enforceable regulation, for hope without hype, and for developing human biotechnologies according to principles of social justice and human rights.
Arguments over the state of funding for research at the National Institutes of Health, and for the younger generation of life science researchers in general, continue. As the new administration considers candidates for the next NIH director, the question of how the government will bail out various sectors of the economy weighs on the issue of money for R&D.
Proponents of nanotechnology—along with federal regulators—have some serious work to do beyond public education if the field is to break through safely to commercial success.
The Internet has broken down traditional barriers to scientific collaboration and made the entire world one great intellectual salon, right? Sort of, according to a recent analysis published in Science, but the relationship between improved digital communications, multi-university research teams, and the pecking order of institutions where scientists work is actually quite complicated. The findings could potentially shape thinking on where to direct R&D resources.
The over-prescription of statins is costing Americans billions, and the media is complicit with the problem. An independent national institute that compared the effectiveness of treatments could reduce unnecessary spending.
The organizers of National Handwashing Awareness Week, which runs through Saturday, want you to know that washing your hands with soap and warm water, or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, is the best way to stop the spread of germs.
Major news outlets have been reporting since yesterday afternoon that Steven Chu is President-elect Obama’s choice to head the Department of Energy. Chu currently directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he has led a drive to develop clean and renewable sources of energy to combat global climate change. If confirmed, he would be the first Nobel laureate in the cabinet to go into the job with a medal in hand.
The National Research Council cannot tell us whether or not nanomaterials present a danger to the public, but the Council is sure that the federal government is not doing enough to identify risks nanotechnology may pose.
AAAS Science and Human Rights Program Director Mona Younis talks with Rick Weiss about how scientists have protected the rights of their colleagues, helped bring Balkan war criminals to justice, and safeguarded vulnerable populations in Darfur. The program’s new initiatives aim to spur a pro-bono movement within the research community to support human rights work, just as exists within legal circles.
The news that CNN is eliminating its science reporting team is just the latest blow to mainstream science journalism. But an informed democracy needs good coverage of issues that touch virtually every aspect of our lives.
The past few days have yielded stories on how poverty affects childhood cognitive development, societal acceptance of brain enhancing drugs, the first meeting of the Neuroethics Society, and the most famous patient in neuroscience research.
Genetic screening for newborns can spot devastating disorders, but false positives and research-driven mission creep are cause for concern. Knowledge is nothing to fear, but parents should have the right to decide what they want to know about their kids.
In Washington, D.C. access is influence, and as we’ve argued several times here on
Science Progress, in order to drive progressive science and tech policy across the entire federal government, the next science adviser to the president must be at the top level of the White House staff. And few would know better the importance of the science adviser holding cabinet-level rank than the last person to serve in the position at that status, Neal Lane.
Scientists are now worried about is the degree to which carbon sinks could shrink, or carbon sources could grow, in response to the rapid increase in anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
The move seems strange and unfortunate given the ever-increasing role that scientific and technological issues play in shaping political and economic life in the United States. Curtic Brainard at CJR rounds up baffled experts, but everyone else can let CNN know what they think about the move.
Rick Weiss outlines a framework for a new federal policy that supports funding human embryonic stem cell research over on the CAP website. He writes that within the first week of taking office, President Obama “should call upon the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health to devise a plan for dismantling the current, overly restrictive Bush administration policy on the funding of human embryonic stem cell research.”
Over at The Wild Side, Olivia Judson is cheering the return of a government that does not simply embrace scientific thinking, but uses it as a force for improving people’s lives. She looks back on the Bush years and forward to the future.
It’s critical that we see the science adviser rollout given a degree of prominence similar to other top-level nominations. In our next government, science can’t just be an afterthought.
One out of every four dollars Americans spend goes toward products the safety of which rests in the hands of the Food and Drugs Administration. But as Virginia Cox points out in her chapter on the agency in the forthcoming book
Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President, “Consumers today are understandably skeptical about the safety of their food and medical products, yet the [FDA] is struggling to keep pace with breakthroughs in science, an expanding global market, and years of underfunding.”
Traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder are major clinical challenges for doctors treating soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Although very different in nature, the symptoms of the two conditions overlap, making diagnosis and treatment difficult.
At the end of last week, Reuters reported that the European Patent Office issued its final ruling rejecting a patent application for the stem cell technology based on the work of James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin. Filed in 1995 by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the patent, according to the EPO release “describes a method for obtaining embryonic stem cell cultures from primates, including humans.”
In recognition of World AIDS Day, our colleagues at the Center for American Progress have prepared a set of stats on the ongoing epidemic in the United States. They also provide recommendations for the next administration to develop a National AIDS Strategy.
Copy number variation refers to the fact that the number of copies of a gene, or deletions from sequences within a person’s DNA, along with the placement of those copies or deletions, contributes to his or her inherited characteristics. That is, the copies or deletions are themselves genetic information. Using sequencing methods, researchers can identify the variation in sequence patterns across a population. Spotting those variations is one challenge, but associating them with observable characteristics is another matter altogether.
Whether by DNA manipulation or old-fashioned selective breeding, we engineer our food. Is it time to get over it?
