End-of-the-Week Links
Science and tech commentary from around the web: climate change health impacts, the bioethics of voting technology, evolution teaching tools, the wind in NYC, the Clean Air Interstate Rule, scivee.tv, and Green Chemistry in CA.
REGENERATIVE MEDICINE
Study the Masters, Grasshopper
Three recent studies propel regenerative medicine forward, but don’t yet move it to the clinic. There is still no better venue for studying cell processes than embryonic stem cells.
INNOVATION
Better Patents Through Crowdsourcing
Want to clean up the patent mess? Start by admitting government can’t know everything. Then put the public on the task.
Downer Cows Out of Burgers Is Good, but as for the Rest of the Food Safety System…
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed a rule that cattle too sick to stand should not be turned into hamburgers. The move raises the opportunity to consider broader issues regarding federal food safety structures, which have been under scrutiny since this summer’s outbreak of salmonella St. Paul, which was eventually traced to imported serrano peppers.
Cell Reprogramming Leaves the Test Tube
Harvard researchers report in the online version of Nature that they have developed a method to directly convert tissue cells in a living mouse from one type into another. The development will certainly spark the latest round of discussions over ethical questions involved in stem cell research, but despite the potential for work that builds on this discovery and iPS investigations, human embryonic stem cell research will likely still be an important component of the field for some time to come.
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
The Standing of Science in America
Americans are confident in the leaders of the scientific community. But are they interested in those leaders’ policy recommendations?
The Closing Bell
Bell Labs, birthplace of technological breakthroughs like the transistor, the laser, and communications satellites, may have arrived at the end of its storied history. Industry support of basic research has been on the wan for years, but federal policies can bolster public and private R&D.
STEM CELLS
Oversight from Bench to Bedside
Stem cell based research and products are carefully managed at the federal, state, and university level. Efforts to change or strengthen these rules must demonstrate that even more regulation is actually necessary.
Without Better Calculations, It’s Just Carbon “Toe Prints”
Corporations typically underestimate their carbon footprints by an average of 75 percent, according to a new study from Carnegie Mellon researchers. One of the major blind spots is in calculating the total greenhouse gas emissions from myriad supply chain inputs, as opposed to the direct emissions involved in primary operations.
Vaccine Exemptions Drive Measles Rates to 12-Year High
Yesterday, the CDC announced that more cases of measles have been reported in the Unites States thus far this year than in any year since 1996. Public health research demonstrates the immense benefits of vaccination, and armed with the best information, public health experts, doctors, and parents can help drive measles rates where they belong: down to zero.
BIOETHICS
Is Michael Phelps A Sonic Doper?
There are lots of righteous rationales for being against doping, but only one stands up to real scrutiny: the rules say it is not allowed.
Better Learning Through Video Games
Congress recently authorized the creation of the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, a nonprofit organization that will support research, development, and adoption of digital learning technologies. Unfortunately, Congress neglected to provide sufficient funding for the center.
MO Woes
The anti-science forces in Missouri don’t know when to call it quits. This week a state judge decided to hear a lawsuit from the Missouri Roundtable for Life that seeks to block $21 million of state funds from going to the state’s Life Sciences Research Board. The suit may tackle the definitions of reproductive and therapeutic cloning.
Court Reminds EPA That We Have Laws and the Agency Must Follow Them
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided on Tuesday in Sierra Club v. EPA to throw out a rule that prevented states from implementing their own pollution-limiting permits.
STEM EDUCATION
Of Scares and Scarcity
Is the U.S. really producing fewer and fewer scientists—and is the answer to simply crank out more?
Cut It Out
This week on the EPA’s Greenversations blog: “Why do you use a gasoline, electric, battery-operated, or push lawn mower?” It’s an apt question, as personal decisions about lawn grooming implements are connected to matters of climate and energy.
One Hundred Candles…Or More
The rapid increase in the number of people in the United States who are living a very long time stems in part from the steady development of life-extending medical developments. But the pace of advances is in fact so rapid that we are barely able to consider the ethical dimensions of come life-extending procedures and the social responsibilities that come with caring for an older population.
A Narrow “Series of Tubes” Slows Economic Progress
A new report from the Communication Workers of America provides more data on a problem we already knew about: the past seven years have been bad for broadband policy.
NATIONAL SECURTY
Minding Mental Minefields
A new report from the National Research Council argues that the military should harness the power of neuroscience to amplify the cognitive prowess of U.S. personnel and make foreign soldiers, um, less smarter.
Seeds of Discontent
Recent reports indicate that Europeans seem to be moving towards acceptance of genetically modified foods, as long as they are properly labeled. Conflict surrounds discussions on GM crops, but there are many facets of the debate over these seeds.
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Science, Innovation, and Competitiveness
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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