10-06-09 | Nobel Bioethics

Two of the Nobel Prize winners announced yesterday for Medicine or Physiology have something in common besides their groundbreaking work on how cells copy chromosomes. Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider both served on presidential bioethics commissions. Blackburn, of the University of California, San Francisco, was a member of the George W. Bush President’s [...]

10-18-07 | Watson’s Racism A Disservice to 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.

10-12-07 | The IPCC and Gore: Another Nobel for Science

Joseph Romm, climate advocate, on security through environmental peace, climate as a moral issue, and the bravery of scientists.

10-10-07 | Snap Observations: Surface Chemistry Nobel Around the Web

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.