Archive for February, 2009
A recent article published in PLoS Medicine reported that human fetal neural stem cell injections used to treat the neurodegenerative disorder ataxia telangiectasia in an Israeli boy caused a multifocal brain tumor four years after his first injection. While it is unfortunate that the stem cell treatment caused such tragic medical complications for the boy, [...]
Noam N. Levey reports in the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune that the Obama administration may soon open a 30-day comment period before rolling back the Health and Human Services “conscience” rule finalized at the tail end of the Bush term. The rule, as Jessica Arons explained here on SP, “expands the right of [...]
A quick glance at a couple early takes on R&D funding in President Obama’s budget request outline for FY2010:
Science Insider: NIH details are sketchy, but include increases; NSF would see 8.5 percent bump; more for scientific facilities though DOE’s Office of Science; earth science research funding and Orion money for NASA; 37.5 percent increase for [...]
If a major media outlet can’t even correct facts about global warming, is it still socially relevant?
Questions about whether to regulate fertility treatments differ in distinct ways from debates over the regulation of abortion care.
A recent conference examining the legal protections corporations are taking to defend themselves in the event their products turn toxic should raise regulatory questions.
Last week acting NIH director Raynard Kington described the outlines of the Institutes’ participation in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, popularly known as the stimulus package. New NIH funding totals $10.4 billion.
Conservatives with a limited understanding (or, it seems, interest) in economics have decided that do-nothingism is a fair 21st century complement [...]
A few weeks ago, we blogged on why the administration should fund the development of high speed rail networks that can serve as the foundation of regional centers of innovation. According to a New York Times article, at the last minute the White House added an $8 billion investment in high-speed rail to the stimulus [...]
The American economic geography is changing, argues urban theorist Richard Florida in a recent article for the Atlantic. Analogous to how the Great Depression precipitated a flight to the suburbs and how the post-industrial economic anemia of the 1970’s shriveled Rust Belt cities such as Buffalo, Detroit, and Cleveland, the current economic crisis promises to [...]
A small group of moderate Republican Congress members, according to CNN.
Watching another episode of CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation might not be as harmless an activity as you think. According to a report released this week by the National Academy of Sciences, the millions of people who watch CSI every week are often led to believe that forensic science is infallible, and this view has [...]
Good science policy depends upon good science journalism. As Chris Mooney has pointed out, the federal government alone spent $142 billion on research and development last year. But “informed citizens deserve to understand more about what they’re getting from that investment,” he wrote.
CJR’s Observatory recently rounded up two useful discussions on the fragmenting state of [...]
If the end goal is to encourage high quality science, we need to better understand the impact of financial conflicts of interest and get more information about whether existing policies to manage them are effective.
Last week, Jonathan Moreno called for international standards governing reproductive technologies. But if we want to ensure that frightening decisions about genetic modification are not being made around the world, we should first focus on developing strict regulatory standards here at home.
At the moment, the United States has no existing federal policies on a host [...]
The stimulus package President Obama will sign into law today contains $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research. The money will support work to determine what treatments are effective for various conditions and which are boondoggles that unnecessarily increase healthcare costs.
Over at Gooznews.com, Merrill Goozner calls the provision “half a loaf,” lauding its inclusion, but expressing [...]
Last week, the British Sunday Times reported that the original study which sparked a ten-year debate about vaccine safety and autism was based on faulty data. Days later, a special U.S. court ruled that there is little to no evidence linking vaccines to autism. Together, the two events may cool a simmering debate about how to protect young children’s health.
Several science budgets fared well in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act compromise, but cross your fingers that we won’t need additional resources to combat bird flu.
Here’s a glance at science-related R&D in the recovery package. Note that the “FY2009 Stimulus Final” is a one-time addition to FY2009 funding. But as FY2009 appropriations are incomplete, these agencies are operating under a continuing resolution at FY2008 funding levels until March. Total funding is therefore sum of the stimulus addition and the FY2008 [...]
Connecting universities and professors with the companies and venture capitalists that help turn their ideas into viable businesses, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has launched a new website, iBridge Network, which aims to foster collaborative networks to streamline the innovation process. The site provides a centralized, open, and transparent clearinghouse for institutional technology, and encourages [...]
…Not creating them, that is, but using the issue as a stepping stone into complex bioethics issues we have to address now or will have to tackle in the near future. From her post at the Women’s Bioethics Blog:
Moving forward
As we discuss genetic modification, we must remember that this not just an interesting a moral [...]
Two stories in the news this week call for the establishment of international standards for reproductive services that draw a line between procedures that are medically appropriate and scientifically compelling.
Charles Darwin, and the legacy of his work describing evolution and natural selection, is often distorted for political ends. But as Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Susan Thistlethwaite explained yesterday, the spheres of science and religion are not in conflict, and a look at Darwin’s own life can help untangle the thorny cultural history [...]
In today’s Washington Post, Senior Fellow Rick Weiss looks to Charles Darwin’s own life experience to cool tensions between science and religion:
Darwin’s humility in the face of insufficient evidence — his willingness to say “I don’t know” — is as important a lesson as any to be found in biology texts today. This is not [...]
The science community wants John Holdren’s expected confirmation to the Office of Science and Technology Policy to be followed by his elevation into Obama’s cabinet.
Screenwriter Matthew Chapman, the great-great grandson of the great great scientist, reflects upon science, politics, and culture 200 years after Darwin’s birth.
Historical research on the relationship between science and religion reveals a story very different from common tales of discord.
Human embryonic stem cell research may be the path to remarkable disease treatments and cures in the near future. While it is important to be realistic about the science and resist overly optimistic expectations that stem cells are a panacea, lifting the ban on federal support of human embryonic stem cell research should be at [...]
A study released last week by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, in partnership with consulting firm Grant Thornton LLP, found that supporting business incubators, including those multi-dimensional support programs that help scientists with innovative ideas turn them into successful companies, is one of the most efficient and effective way to create jobs. [...]
The backlog at the United States Patent Office is 1 million applications long. This means that it takes almost 33 months for examiners to decide up or down on an application’s status. For sectors like communications where innovation moves at a particularly brisk clip, that “patent pending” period can be 44 months—a virtual eternity. A [...]
A recent book examining the errors of progressives and conservatives in scientific debates provides a fruitful accounting of the arguments. But grouping the left with science and the right with tradition is a flawed approach to talking about science policy.
While the risks for most people from avian influenza remain low, the virus has occaisionally moved from bird population to humans since 1997. In 2006, the number of human infections peaked; the World Health Organization counted 115 cases and 79 deaths, mainly in southeast Asia. As of February 2 this year, there were 9 reported [...]
While pandemic flu is off the media radar, public health officials are busy tracking what they call the number one infectious threat in the world—and are preparing for the worst-case scenario. Above: A scientist works at the U.S. Naval Medical Research in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Food and Drug Administration gave a thumbs up today for ATryn, a blood-thinning drug produced in the milk of genetically engineered goats. As we’ve previously described, it’s the first drug made in the milk of a farm animal to get U.S. marketing approval. (Most meds are made in chemistry labs or inside genetically engineered [...]
Food and Drug Administration Acting Director Frank Torti announced Monday in a podcast the creation of a new position in the Office of Chief Scientist: the Senior Genomics Advisor. Dr. Liz Mansfield, a scientist who has worked on scientific policy at both the FDA and in the private sector, will be the first to fill [...]
Cutting science out of the stimulus bill is like killing the goose that lays the nation’s golden eggs. How else is the United States going to cut healthcare costs, reduce energy dependence and ensure sustainable security except through the waves of technological innovation that, according to the National Academies and other independent sources, have accounted [...]
Over time, various technologies have altered our perceptions of what is essential and original. So how is moving a few pixels around in a photo like altering biological systems?
The Senate is doubling down on the House proposal to support biomedical research and innovation with the recovery and reinvestment package—and then some. The Senate version of the stimulus bill originally provided $3.5 billion in funds for the National Institutes of Health (similar to the House version), but an amendment (SA 178), cosponsored by Sens. [...]
According to new numbers released Monday by the Global Wind Energy Council, the United States has outpaced Germany to become the world leader in wind generation capacity. The map below shows the numbers for selected high-producing countries for capacity in 2007, new capacity added in 2008, and the totals at the end of 2008:
Global warming deniers believe selective anecdotes about anomalous local weather refute the fact there is a globally averaged warming trend.
Curiosity has waxed and waned among our chief executives. Our 44th President plans to restore its preeminence.
A physician and ethicist observes that electronic medical records can act as public documents in the context of the local medical community where one’s local reputation as a clinician is forged. With them, all care is now witnessed, open to local peer review: others can read what I write and assess its content, clinical judgment, and quality.
Our health care system needs a systems-based approach to excellence in the care of hospitalized patients to ensure efficiency, empathy and the highest quality medical treatments.
Now is the time to invest in our innovation infrastructure and the new generation of researchers.
A lot has changed in five decades for the venerable committee. (UFOs are no longer on the agenda.) But our 21st-century Representatives still have some Cold War priorities.
