ScienceInsider posted an illuminating (albeit rather technical) interview yesterday evening with Ruben Donis, chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In it, he explains the swift work CDC has done [...]
SWINE FLU
Public health measures that reduce the potential for spreading disease through groups of people present a strong defense in the face of an outbreak. We should have been talking about them earlier.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Controlling infections once they reach the human population is crucial, but the origin of many pathogens may lie in factory farming operations, where potent diseases develop.
SCIENCE, CULTURED
Recently revealed documents just add to the evidence that sowing doubt about global warming seems to have been in part a political strategy.
Conflicts of interest in the realm of biomedical research are nothing new. In 1984, a study found that half of the surveyed biotech companies provided financial support for university research. But as Institute of Medicine President Harvey Fineberg said yesterday [...]
INNOVATION CLUSTERS
“Open innovation” challenges the assumptions made by university technology transfer offices about maximizing the value of their intellectual property.
Over at the main CAP site, P.J. Crowley and Andy Grotto ask how well public health officials have done in responding to the international epidemic. Their assessment: the systems in place to protect citizens are working well. Detection, identification, and [...]
NEUROSCIENCE
A raft of scientific evidence in recent years, along with a recent book, demonstrates that environment has a very strong impact on an individual’s brain development. The work effectively rebuts most of the lingering arguments over the controversial Bell Curve hypothesis.
STEM CELLS
Using specially engineered proteins instead of DNA to coax mice cells back into an embryonic state is promising, but doesn’t resolve many potential problems. For regenerative medicine research in humans, embryonic stem cells remain the gold standard.
This morning, President Obama addressed the National Academies of Sciences, laying out the imperative for sustained government investment in scientific research. He said his administration would commit more funding to R&D than during the Apollo program (see Update below): I [...]
INNOVATION CLUSTERS
The Flemish government’s 20 years of cluster building offers U.S. policymakers some key lessons on how to guide technology innovation.
Almost one million people died of malaria in Africa in 2006, according to the World Health Organization. Stopping this devastating disease requires a new set of tools, some of which might include mosquito-killing drugs, drugs designed to evade parasite resistance, [...]
The latest in cell reprogramming research is that scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California have created induced cells into an embryonic state using proteins instead of genes. The study involves mouse cells. The process, reported in [...]
NEUROSCIENCE
Increasingly complicated fMRI research demands increasingly sophisticated evaluations of its validity. We should neither ignore the serious problems with fMRI, nor dismiss its potential to make important scientific discoveries.
The British Independent is reporting that a fertility doctor claims he’s on the verge of creating human clones. Trouble is, the man in question, Panayiotis Zavos, said the same thing in 2001, 2004, and 2006, but was unable to produce [...]
INNOVATION CLUSTERS
Amid a global economic downturn during which other nations are boosting their already significant public- and private-sector efforts to build more competitive, innovation-led economies, the United States stands almost alone in the world without a national innovation framework.
SCIENCE, CULTURED
Nearly 50 years after C.P. Snow’s famous “Two Cultures” lecture, what can we learn from its polemical aftermath, and its author’s savage battles with literary critic F.R. Leavis?
FINANCING SCIENCE
Creating a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem is key to fostering broad-based economic growth and competitiveness. Astute policymaking is necessary.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to grow its DNA database, reports The New York Times. Currently 6.7 million profiles strong, the idea is to go from 80,000 new entries every year to 1.2 million in 2012. While genetic information [...]
HEALTHY FOOD
The answer is a mix of politics and profits, two things that should not get in the way of national standards for school nutrition to help better educate our youngsters.
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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