Science and Tech Policy Events Next Week
A roundup of some of the science and technology policy events happening around Washington D.C. from Apr. 21 to Apr. 25.
SCIENCE POLICY
What Money Can Buy
David Goldston wants to ask the big questions about federal science policy. Can the research establishment become unsustainably large? Are scientists always an asset to Congress? And what are the problems with current methods of creating science policy?
Clarifying “Broader Impacts” for NSF Grants
The National Science Foundation issued a “Dear Colleague” letter earlier this month to education grant applicants about the sometimes-misunderstood “broader impacts” criteria used to evaluate grant proposals.
If You Didn’t Write the Article, Why Are You Listed as an Author?
From the Chronicle comes news of a study showing some academic scientists may be adding their names as authors to papers authored by corporations. The study—published in the Journal of the American Medical Association—suggest the practice maybe all too common in medical journals.
AAAS Panel Addresses Science and Policy of Stem Cells and Reproductive Technologies
Reporting on the work of the Hinxton Group, experts explained the state of the science and criticized policies that aim to avoid all ethical disagreement by banning research.
CULTIVATING SCIENCE
So Far, Yet So Close
The chief lessons learned from ScienceDebate2008: ignore naysayers, and never give up.
Senate Holds Hearing on Drugs In the Water
Two years ago, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy formed a task force to develop a plan to research the issue of pharmaceutical products in drinking water. Monday, an Associated Press report revealed that the group failed to carry out its responsibilities. In a Senate hearing today legislators put pressure on the EPA to take initiative on the issue.
INNOVATION
Quality and Ingenuity Are Intertwined
Americans invented quality assurance procedures, those prosaic yet indispensable steps that insure ever-incremental innovation. It’s time we upgraded government for the 21st Century, relying on the insights of Joseph Juran.
Streamlining and Codifying the R&D Tax Credit
“In a weak economy, we should be doing everything we can to spur on innovation and the type of family-wage jobs that increased research and development will create,” said Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-CA) when he introduced legislation that would streamline the R&D tax credit and make it permanent.
Brain Enhancement Makes its Way into the Workplace
From an online survey of Nature readers comes data suggesting that a significant number of scientists and engineers use drugs for the non-medical purpose of increasing productivity and brain power.
Science and Technology Policy Events This Week
A roundup of some of the science and technology policy events happening around Washington D.C. from Apr. 14 to Apr. 18.
Peacocks and Security
What can fiddler crabs and peacocks teach us about defeating Al Qaeda? Plenty, argues Raphael Sagarin, associate director for Ocean and Coastal Policy at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University, and editor of the new book, Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World.
Science Debate: The Seeds of a Successful Conversation
The organizers of Science Debate 2008 consider the impact of their campaign to convince the major party candidates to talk about science and technology in a national forum in the current issue of Science.
COMMUNICATING SCIENCE
Manufactroversy
Contemporary rhetorical tactics designed to confuse politicians and the public about scientific issues are as old as antiquity. The methods are just as disingenuous 2,500 years after their invention.
Chronicle: New Rule Allows Foriegn Students to Stay in the U.S. Longer After Graduation
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has quietly extended the amount of time foreign students in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics are allowed to remain in the U.S. without a work visa after their graduation.
TECHNOLOGY & THE LAW
Marketing Ideas
The “markets” for scholarly works are changing, and scholars in the humanities and social sciences – and the institutions where they work – need to both take control of how their works are published and distributed and become much more actively involved in setting the terms for the digital publishing world.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
Abortion and the Slippery Slope
The case of the mysterious disappearing search term is about so much more than one scientific database; it’s about how we talk about reproductive health.
CLIMATE
The Readiness Is All
We desperately need to adapt our coastal infrastructure to climate change.
Science and Faith Should Not Collide in Pennsylvania
This coming Sunday night, two of the three remaining major party presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, will talk about faith issues as they participate in a Compassion Forum at Messiah College. But the issues they’ll discuss—including poverty, the environment, AIDS and Darfur—encompass more than faith. Many are intrinsically linked to science.
Environmental Policy
Restoring the Waters
Progressive thinking takes a new turn in western water management, as states across the region, in cooperation with federal agencies, act to fix damaged rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
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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.
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