Techies who eagerly anticipated the announcement of a “cyberczar” along with the release of a 60-day cybersecurity review this week may have been disappointed today. President Obama outlined the position’s responsibilities but did not name an appointee in his remarks [...]
Salmonella. Downer cows. More salmonella. The past year has seen several unpleasant and dangerous incidents of widespread food contamination. Today, Lyndsey Layton reports in the Washington Post that newly introduced Congressional legislation offers a slate of remedies to ramp up [...]
HEALTH CARE
It’s the very simple health care concept with the very fancy name. Comparative effectiveness research examines the benefits of different procedures used to treat the same illness, allowing health care providers to make the best decisions about options for patients.
WONK LAB PODCAST
Last week, the Obama administration unveiled its Open Government Initiative, a set of online tools and a process of public engagement for making its operations more transparent. This podcast takes a look at what it means for citizens and scientists, who are now asked to share their knowledge and ideas.
Shortly after being sworn in as the Commissioner of the Federal Drug Administration last Friday, Margaret A. Hamburg and her principal deputy commissioner, Joshua Sharfstein, described their plans to run the FDA as a public health agency in New England [...]
SCIENCE, CULTURED
It’s about time everyone is celebrating Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science Education—she is, after all, perhaps the leading day-to-day defender of science in America.
In today’s feature, “Can We Bank on Objectivity,” Patti Tereskerz takes a hard look at the new rules proposed by the National Institutes of Health for dealing with financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research. Trust is paramount in the [...]
RESEARCH ETHICS
Managing financial conflicts of interest is a complicated policy matter, as researchers and their institutions often receive both public and private funding to support research that leads to new treatments. But research also indicates these conflicts are widespread and ingrained. How far should we go in addressing the issue?
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s $19 billion investment in health information technology is crucial to improving U.S. health care quality and value, as explained in a CAP report released earlier this week. But in addition to creating a business [...]
Yesterday, the National Institutes of Health announced the creation of its new Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases Program. TRND’s goal is to bolster drug development for rare diseases that affect less than 200,000 Americans as well as neglected diseases [...]
Here it is: the much-anticipated online catalog of raw data gathered by the federal government, Data.gov. The site appears the same day that the Obama administration formally declares it’s ready for suggestions from the public on how to be more [...]
The editors at Effect Measure do not mince their words, though they also do not shy away from parsing them. The word of the moment? “Pandemic.” At issue is whether or not the official declaration of a pandemic should depend [...]
Battlestar Galactica is hardly the only place you’ll see science in popular entertainment. Technical issues from physics to biomedicine permeate hit series like CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Big Bang Theory that attract mainstream audiences. The National Academy of Sciences [...]
SCIENCE, CULTURED
Tom Paulson, formerly of the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, now a freelance writer, carpenter, and building contractor, epitomizes the story of the science writer in our time.
Implementing meaningful, effective health information technology throughout the nation’s health care system is not a technical problem. Rather, the lack of current health IT infrastructure results from the absence of a business case for such improvements, according to Todd Park [...]
As the swine flu outbreak nears a potential global pandemic, discussions about strategies to control the spread and severity of infection continue. Andrew Pollack discusses the development of a universal flu vaccine today in the New York Times. The work [...]
How do you feel about global warming? New public opinion research maps the connections Americans feel to the issue along a spectrum from most concerned and motivated to least concerned and motivated. The majority of those surveyed, 51 percent, say [...]
HEALTH CARE
The “war on cancer” devotes too much in search of new cures and too little to understanding the results of existing oncology therapies.
The proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act mandates a 17-percent reduction below 2005 emissions levels by 2020. That’s 1.2 billion 2.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and the equivalent of taking half a billion cars off the road, [...]
INNOVATION CLUSTERS
ASU over the past six years has engaged in a significant institutional transformation. One of the results is the SkySong Innovation Center, a nucleus for a community of entrepreneurs dedicated to innovation and learning.
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.