WEISS'S NOTEBOOK

Snack Shelf Epidemic

The peanut product recalls continue, revealing more cracks up and down the food safety system. And people keep getting sick.

SCIENCE POLICY

Time for Science to Reclaim Its Progressive Roots

Public knowledge and understanding of science as an engine of progress will reveal solutions to today’s most pressing problems, including climate change, energy independence, and national security.

Getting Down to Business on Stem Cell Research Ethics

Stem cell policy just caught up with research, and SP contributor and CAP Research Assistant Michael Rugnetta outlines how to move forward with dicussions on how to to conduct ethical research involving human embryonic stem cells at the Huffington Post. From his [...]

SCIENCE, CULTURED

Scientific Housecleaning

President Obama puts John Holdren in charge of a government-wide scientific integrity project—if he can ever assume his post at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, that is.

BIOETHICS

Designing Baby Neanderthals

Researchers recently reported reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome, which raises the possibility of reconstructing the species. The problem here concerns what we do to sentient creatures, not what we do to nature.

“An Important Day for the American People and the Future of American Science”

CAP Senior Fellow and SP Editor-in-Chief Jonathan D. Moreno explains the significance of President Obama rescinding the limits on human embryonic stem cell research put in place by George W. Bush, after the jump:

10 Promising Biomedical Advances in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Since the isolation of human embryonic stem cells, or hESCs, in 1998 (see the timeline: A Brief History of Stem Cell Research), scientists around the country have made significant strides laying the groundwork for clinical treatments. In January, the FDA [...]

STEM CELLS

Obama Lifts Stem Cell Restrictions

With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama today erased the Bush administration’s eight-year-old restrictions on federal funding of research involving human embryonic stem cells, reaffirming his commitment to evidence and biomedical hope over his predecessor’s ideological distortion of science.

STEM CELLS

New Era for Stem Cell Research

When President Obama signs an executive order reversing Bush’s policy on Monday, it will help the United States retain and reclaim worldwide leadership in the fast-moving and promising field of regenerative medicine.

ABC News: Obama Will Lift Stem Cell Funding Restrictions Monday Morning

Jake Tapper, Brian Hartman and Lisa Stark report: ABC News has learned that on Monday morning President Obama will hold an event at the White House in which he signs an executive order overturning the ban on federal funding of [...]

FY2010 Budget Proposes Essential Investments in Innovation Clusters

The Obama administration’s proposed FY2010 budget reflects a sweeping re-thinking of priorities for the U.S. government. A welcome change from previous budgets, the administration makes a significant investment in developing regional centers of innovation, business incubators, and other strategies to [...]

Don’t Bury the Next Generation of Researchers Under Billions in NIH Funding

The NIH has about $10 billion from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act to pour into job-creating grants and research infrastructure. The Scientist reports that the new Challenge Grants program will direct $200 million of that money towards areas of high-priority [...]

TRANSPARENCY

Open Source, Open Data

The open source development community is ready to help Washington open up. But first they need the data in an open, structured form.

NYT on Organics and Food Safety

In the Dining & Wine section yesterday, a story on the fractures in the food safety system that led to contaminated peanut products in organic brands. Kim Severson and Andrew Martin note: Organics has grown from an $11 billion business [...]

SCIENCE, CULTURED

Eruptions of Know-Nothingism

Governor Jindal’s assault on volcano-monitoring research is just the most recent swipe at federal funding for an important area of study.

Data Bank: Mapping the Spread of Salmonella Typhimurium in Peanut Products

As Nancy Scola explains, it has taken many people by surprise to learn that several of the foodstuffs involved in the peanut product recall are in fact organic brands. “Organic” means safe, right? Well, her investigation reveals, it’s not as [...]

FOOD SAFETY

Cheaper by the Dozen

The salmonella-contaminated peanut outbreak is raising alarm over the U.S.’s fractured food system—a system “organics” and conventional mass-market foods often travel through side-by-side.

Brain Drain

The Senate Intelligence Committee has announced that it will investigate CIA detention and interrogation practices during the Bush administration. Though some observers will surely find fault with officials’ behavior, the goal is to find the facts rather than place blame. [...]

Washington Post: Holdren and Lubchenco Nominations on Hold

Juliet Eilperin reports that Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has placed a hold on votes to approve John Holdren’s appointment as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Jane Lubchenco’s appointment as leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Despite [...]

Dispatch from Transparency Camp: The Tech-Savvy Push for Open Government Can’t Lose Sight of Public Policy Goals

The government transparency movement is waiting for a deluge of public data from Congress and the Obama administration. Developers are ready with open-source software and protocols for structuring data on everything from lobbying disclosures to pending legislation to stimulus allocations. [...]