REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
Two laws passed in Nebraska last week spuriously claim that fetuses can feel pain and that abortions are the cause of unrelated health risks. Each is based on thoroughly debunked research and each is a threat to science and women’s health.
BIOETHICS
It has been two weeks since the White House announced the members of its bioethics commission. Here, the authors argue for a progressive approach to bioethics, because the core idea of progress is closely associated with the modern idea of science, and bioethics itself embodies a progressive spirit.
President Obama’s budget request for fiscal year 2011 would direct $32.2 billion to the National Institutes of Health. That’s a boost of about 3.2 percent over the baseline budget from the previous year, and last week a coalition of 25 [...]
CLIMATE CHANGE
A recent survey demonstrates that many forecasters embrace their role as informal science educators. Ed Maibach says it’s an opportunity to boost public understanding of global warming.
BIOETHICS
Members will address questions that knit together policies for expanding scientific innovation, expanding access to quality health care, and protecting citizens from harm.
Researchers in the field of DNA forensics are calling for the FBI to improve the quality of its sizable genetic database by letting them look under the hood. As Osagie Obasogie explains, reviews of a handful of state crime lab [...]
GENOMICS
The chance of coincidental matches in crime databases should be spectacularly rare. But reports from state databases indicate that might not be the case. The feds need to open up their data to figure out what’s going on and make law enforcement more transparent.
HEALTH CARE
Programs in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will speed development of new cures and boost comparative effectiveness research.
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.