The drug maker agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle lawsuits from individuals who say its painkiller Vioxx led to heart attacks and strokes. Predictions put the settlement costs at $25 billion when Vioxx was taken off the market in September 2004.
A team at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton, Oregon has succeeded in cloning twenty macaque monkey embryos. The techniques they used to achieve this monumental breakthrough in cloning work should also work for making human embryos. Could this breakthrough pave the way to a new source for embryonic stem cells?
The onrush of new genetic information that appears to reflect differences in various characteristics that are statistically associated with continents of origin means that we have special reason to be alert to that data’s misuse.
Cultivating Science
Journalists who cover scientific and medical “breakthroughs” need to do a better job explaining the complexities of medical research and scientific inquiry.
Family responsibilities are forcing many women to leave the upper ranks of life science research, according to a new survey of fellows at the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers who can move around dense regional clusters of colleagues have more opportunities to share new ideas about their work. A new study focuses on Boston as a prime example.
The J. Craig Venter Institute, along with researchers at MIT and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recently released a report entitled “Synthetic Genomics | Options for Governance.” But are there larger unanswered questions about the societal impacts of creating synthetic life?
Among the finalists for the Best Science Blog category in 2007 Weblog Awards is ClimateAudit.org, a site devoted to denying and downplaying the scientific data on global climate change.
Fear of science is still alive and well. This past Tuesday at the Heritage Foundation, John West of the pro-Intelligent Design Discovery Institute gave a lecture entitled, “The Abolition of Man? How Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science.”
“It is much easier to say we need more scientists and engineers than to talk about equity issues,” explained David Goldston yesterday at an Urban Institute on science and engineering education, quality, and workforce demand.
With water conservation and reuse entering public debate on the heels of drought season, the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment spoke with experts about gray water, conservation, and how to dispel the fear of “toilet to tap.”
Some bioethics and health policy wonks argue that state-based stem cell research initiatives stimulated by the Bush administration’s limits on federal funding show the virtues of federalism. But NJ voters rejected a $450 million bond issue for stem cell research, in spite of Gov. Jon Corzine’s support.
BIOETHICS
Sperm banking is largely unregulated, raising controversial genetic, medical, and ethical questions. Yet the remedies are equally contentious.
SCIENCE AND THE LAW
The America COMPETES Act is open-ended legislation, paving the way for future innovation to flourish. In contrast, life sciences and information technology firms are lobbying to shape pending patent reform that will benefit their particular industry. Where are the groups thinking about innovation in the public interest?
October 4 marked the 50th anniversary of Sputnik, and as we leave that milestone behind, 21st-century America needs to prepare for the century of science and engineering. One pathway is adoption of a new National Defense Education Act.
A new report from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research is the largest study ever to explore the connection between lifestyle and cancer, and represents the work of nine independent research teams that evaluated over 7000 existing studies over five years.
SPACE
While President Bush’s “Vision for Space Exploration” will send the U.S. back to the Moon and on to Mars, NASA has many competing responsibilities, and the next administration may have its own vision.
Two companies are about to become the first Embryonic Stem Cell biotech firms to draft FDA applications for human testing. For some time, ESC-research opponents have complained that human trials have involved therapies utilizing adult stem cells, but none have utilized embryonic stem cells.
Talking about about climate change solely in terms of impending catastrophe may still be reasonable from a factual standpoint, but it may not be the most effective frame for debates on climate and energy policy. Here are four other frames in current discussions.
Nanotechnology is fertile new field with a host of unexplored risks, so how should the government go about cultivating it? This was the major question at yesterday’s hearing on the National Nanotechnology Initiative.
Science Progress and American Progress's Doing What Works project teamed up to produce a set of policy proposals that the Obama administration and Congress can adopt to reinvest in the building blocks of American science, innovation, and economic competitiveness. Read the overview of the five reports.
Science Progress proceeds from the propositions that scientific inquiry is among the finest expressions of human excellence, that it is a crucial source of human flourishing, a critical engine of economic growth, and must be dedicated to the common good. Scientific inquiry entails global responsibilities. It should lead to a more equitable, safer, and healthier future for all of humankind.