Science Progress Issues

06-29-09 | Your Genes Aren’t Covered for That

By Susannah Baruch
Policy must protect not just genetic information itself, but also access to care that is critical for prevention, early detection, and treatment—and to the support systems that help individuals care for themselves and their families when serious illness strikes.

06-23-09 | Personal Profiling

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt, interviewer
Will access to our own genetic information make us healthier? That’s the idea, but there’s a lot to learn as we share and interpret it. Meanwhile, questions remain about proper oversight of an industry that blurs the line between consumer and research participant.

06-15-09 | The Color of Our Genes

By Osagie Obasogie
Advances in genomics may yield profound medical, scientific, and social advances. But if we are not careful, commercial and forensic applications may resuscitate harmful ideas about race.

06-09-09 | The Sunny Side of an Underwater Mortgage

By Arthur Robinson Williams and Daniel D. Langleben
From a biological standpoint, socially cooperative behaviors could be an end in themselves, as far as your unconscious brain is concerned. But financial systems and policies ignoring the often-unconscious human social instincts do so at their peril. The authors offer a few practical steps for reinforcing the “social contract” that might alleviate the growing rift between the financial markets and society.

06-23-09 | Personal Profiling

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt, interviewer
Will access to our own genetic information make us healthier? That’s the idea, but there’s a lot to learn as we share and interpret it. Meanwhile, questions remain about proper oversight of an industry that blurs the line between consumer and research participant.

06-01-09 | You Have a Friend Request from The White House

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt, interviewer
It’s not the campaign anymore. Some of the best tools for getting the President’s message out and getting the administration’s work done require special consideration on WhiteHouse.gov. Swire explains the laws that constrain and the rules that advance new media for the government.

05-27-09 | No Monopoly on Expertise

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt, interviewer
Last week, the Obama administration unveiled its Open Government Initiative, a set of online tools and a process of public engagement for making its operations more transparent. This podcast takes a look at what it means for citizens and scientists, who are now asked to share their knowledge and ideas.

05-14-09 | Arizona’s Entrepreneurial Song

By Julia Rosen, Keith Aspinall, and Augustine V. Cheng
ASU over the past six years has engaged in a significant institutional transformation. One of the results is the SkySong Innovation Center, a nucleus for a community of entrepreneurs dedicated to innovation and learning.

07-02-09 | A Climate of Transparency

By Kevin Weigand
The private sector can support a responsible approach to mitigating the potential effects of climate change by sharing what it knows.

07-01-09 | Dude, Where’s My War on Science?

By Chris Mooney
Conservatives try to expose what they claim is a case of science suppression by the Obama administration—and in the process demonstrate how little they know about science in the first place.

07-01-09 | Igniting Agricultural Innovation

By L. Val Giddings and Bruce M. Chassy
Agricultural innovations through modern biotechnology have delivered significant economic, environmental, health and consumer benefits in recent years, but the full potential is even greater.

06-25-09 | A Glorious Mess

By Chris Mooney
The Waxman-Markey bill’s progress to a first historic vote hasn’t been pretty—but it has been progress.

06-11-09 | Nerd Busters

By Chris Mooney
GQ’s new “Rock Stars of Science” campaign should give not just disease sufferers, but America’s scientists, hope.

05-27-09 | Great Scott

By Chris Mooney
It’s about time everyone is celebrating Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science Education—she is, after all, perhaps the leading day-to-day defender of science in America.

05-20-09 | Science-less in Seattle

By Chris Mooney
Tom Paulson, formerly of the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, now a freelance writer, carpenter, and building contractor, epitomizes the story of the science writer in our time.

05-11-09 | Saving Scientific Integrity

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt, interviewer
The eight years of the Bush administration were a bad time for scientific integrity in government research. Grifo, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, says we must focus on protecting government researchers, making science-based policymaking more transparent, and monitoring potential abuses.

12-22-08 | How Scientists View Law Enforcement

By Nathaniel Hafer, Cheryl J. Vos, Karen McAllister, Gretchen Lorenzi, Christopher Moore, Kavita M. Berger, and Michael Stebbins
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.

12-10-08 | The Right to Share in Scientific Advancement

By Rick Weiss, interviewer
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.

11-20-08 | Intelligence on the Brain

By Jonathan D. Moreno
A large set of questions for 21st century neural and behavioral science has come into focus, and they will play a significant role in both national intelligence operations and in relations within a globalized scientific community.

11-03-08 | The Oval Office Facebook Group

By Mark Drapeau
The next transition team must make the most of modern information and communications technology to shape, coordinate, and run the process of moving the next president into office. Here are some suggestions on how that can work.