A new paper published today in Science describes advances from the Kyoto University iPS cell team, led by Shinya Yamanaka, facilitating production of pluipotent cells that are much less likely to form tumors than iPS cells created with previous methods.
Last week, the House authorized funding for a new learning center dedicated to researching and developing innovative digital learning and information technologies for the nation’s education system. The Higher Education authorization bill includes a provision to create the National Center for Learning Science and Technology Trust Fund which will provide public funding for research in educational technology.
Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences made a unanimous decision Tuesday to require faculty members to submit their published articles for inclusion in an open-access database. Unless scholars request a waiver to the policy, they must submit digital copies of their works to the provost’s office.
SCIENCE EDUCATION
The techniques of computer gaming could reform our classrooms and our education system and test 21st century skills.
A new paper released today from researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute offers data on the length of time cells must be exposed to reprogramming factors in order to induce the cells into behaving like stem cells. According to an email announcement from the HSCI, this allows scientists to “narrow the field of candidate chemicals and proteins that might be used to safely turn these processes on and off.”
Allegations of professional baseball players abusing human growth hormone have raised the profile of this heavily regulated substance. The House on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing yesterday to sift through misinformation on HGH and get the scientific facts.
Before we need more biofuels, writes Alex Farrell in an op-ed in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, we need better biofuels. He suggests reorienting our thinking about biofuel production to focus on how we use the land available, so that fuel does not compete with wilderness or food production.
ENERGY
The latest research on biofuel production suggests that previous studies failed to fully account for the role uncultivated lands play in keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. But with this new guidance, says Alex Farrell in an interview with Science Progress, we see that while not all biofuels are created equal, growing them the right way can help stop global warming, keep food prices down, and preserve our forests.
CULTIVATING SCIENCE
Students and teachers alike must understand how systems of knowledge creation and archivization are changing. Encyclopedias are no longer static collections of facts and figures; they are living entities. Just check the entry on Global Warming.
Scientists working in developed and developing nations will soon have a new organization to integrate their efforts; the New York Academy of Sciences is spearheading the formation of “Scientists Without Borders.”
A roundup of some of the science and technology policy events happening around Washington D.C. from Feb. 11 to Feb. 15.
ENERGY
Two new studies highlight the need for tight environmental standards for biofuels to help us solve global warming.
LIFE SCIENCES
Recently, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute announced the creation of the first synthetic genome. Deamer, a chemist at UC Santa Cruz, downplays concerns about the dangers of the research and explains that synthetic biology can teach us about the origins of life.
The recently unveiled blog at the new Scientists and Engineers for America Action Fund website has a column from Gerald Epstein questioning a $2 billion request in the FY2009 budget for the Department of Homeland Security.
President Bush’s final Federal budget for FY 2009 contains significant boosts for physical sciences and programs supported by the Administration’s American Competitiveness Initiative, but proposes flat lining funding for National Institutes of Health, the largest source of funds for life sciences research. Today, the American Association for the Advancement of Science releases its preliminary analysis of R&D in the budget.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Rather than pretending there are more broadband links across our country, as the administration does in its latest report, we should instead get down to the business of creating a networked nation.
DEFINING SCIENCE
How are Americans supposed to figure out the candidates’ stances on matters of science and technology policy? Answer: They won’t unless they strongly care to know in the first place—and even then, they can’t learn much of anything directly from the candidates themselves.
Researchers at Newcastle University in England report that they have created embryos with the DNA from three people: a sperm donor, an egg donor, and a second female donor whose contribution to the embryo is a packet of genes that lie outside the egg’s nucleus, called mitchochondria. If adopted in the U.S., the procedure could test FDA authority over in vitro reproductive research.
The Bush Administration released its final budget request today. It includes significant cuts to the budgets for the Centers for Disease Control, stagnant funding for the National Institutes of Health, and moderate boosts to the Department of Energy.
MEDICINE
In her latest book, Davis tackles the convoluted history of cancer research, revealing the extent to which governmental anti-cancer efforts were spearheaded by leaders from the very industries producing cancer-causing materials and products.
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.