GENOMICS
A lawsuit argued that patents owned by Myriad Genetics on two genes connected to breast and ovarian cancer stunt genetic research and limit access to health care for women. The ruling said that genes can’t be patented.
A new study from a Stanford scientist looks closely at how carbon dioxide accumulates over urban areas, exacerbating air pollution and increasing local mortality. The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology estimates that local carbon dioxide emissions [...]
BIOETHICS
The ultimate approach to health care must be cultural and moral as well as technical: What do we owe each other?
INNOVATION
We can ensure that scientists, engineers, and taxpayers alike get the most out of federal support for basic research and development by taking what researchers know about moving ideas from the lab to the market and linking universities, business, and the government in an effort to grow regional economies.
INNOVATION
After a decade of federal investment in nanotechnology research, we know much we weren’t expecting to learn—about innovation, environmental protection, and the social implications of emerging technologies.
The tobacco industry pioneered the art of attacking scientific research that undermined corporate interests. Strong evidence linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer appeared in multiple 1950 studies. Just a few years later, the industry began manufacturing a new product: doubt. [...]
Last week, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) introduced a bill that would codify the bedrock bioethical safeguards for federally-funded human embryonic stem cell research. These provisions reflect the guidelines that have been in effect at the National Institutes of Health since [...]
BIOETHICS
Frustrations over delays in reviewing stem cell lines are understandable, but eight years of Bush administration rules merely delayed the necessary ethics considerations.
ENLIGHTENMENT
There are intimate connections between the scientific advances that expanded the frontiers of human knowledge and the democratic experiments that expanded the frontiers of human liberty.
BIOETHICS
News marks an important step in normalizing the field as a regulated scientific activity. It also speaks to the sometimes-unpredictable ways that experimentation can address sources of human suffering.
Incorporating personalized medicine into the U.S. health care system is a process rife with complexities, but last week, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg outlined some initiatives aimed at surmounting a few of the primary challenges. At the Sixth Annual Keynote Luncheon [...]
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.