Transitions

This Science Progress newsletter will go on hiatus for the summer as we transition staff. We will alert you as soon as it starts up again, but expect a period of radio (or, rather, email) silence. You can continue to find [...]

The Boons of an NIH Boost

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

The Weathermen Know Which Way the Wind Blows

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

Practical Science

Members will address questions that knit together policies for expanding scientific innovation, expanding access to quality health care, and protecting citizens from harm.

Crime Lab DNA Databases Under the Microscope

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

Court Rules that DNA Is Information, Not Intellectual Property

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.

Domes of Carbon Over U.S. Cities Damage Urban Health

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 [...]

INNOVATION

Energy for Regional 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.

FDA Rules for Cigarettes Are a Victory for Public Health, for Science (and for the Earth’s Climate?)

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. [...]

ENLIGHTENMENT

How Science Sparked Democracy

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.

NIH and FDA Aim to Retool Regulatory Science

The Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration today announced a partnership aimed at speeding new medical treatments from “microscope to market,” as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius put it. The [...]

Certainty on the Science of Climate Change

“A wait-and-see policy,” on climate change, observed Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Dr. Joseph Romm on Wednesday, “may mean waiting until it’s too late.” Romm was speaking at a CAP event on “The Science of Climate Change,” and was [...]

INNOVATION

A First-Place Budget for Science

The budget request for fiscal year 2011 that the Obama administration released on Monday includes foundational investments that will help the United States remain the leader among innovative nations.

President’s Budget Aims to Recharge Regional Innovation

Investing in innovation is a critical component of long-term economic prosperity, and the president’s FY2011 budget request includes two notable provisions that will support regional science and technology clusters. The administration is asking for $75 million “to support the creation [...]

Event: The Science of Climate Change

Next Wednesday, Science Progress will co-host an event at the Center for American Progress. The guest list for The Science of Climate Change is already at capacity, but the live webstream will be available here. Full event info: The Science of Climate Change [...]

The Top Science Progress Features of 2009

In 2009, we saw a renewed engagement with ethical questions about how we regulate biotechnology, watched the conservative war on science continue on new fronts, and witnessed renewed commitments to grow U.S. prosperity with investments in science and technology. Timeline: [...]

Why Spies Should Team Up With Environmental Scientists

From 1992 until 2001, a special group of scientists collaborated with the U.S. intelligence community to use reconnaissance satellite imagery to study environmental change around the planet. Known as Medea, Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis, the project came [...]

Research Parks and Job Creation: Innovation Through Cooperation

Jonathan Sallet, co-author of the report, “The Geography of Innovation: The Federal Government and the Growth of Regional Innovation Clusters,” testifies today before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation. He explains in his written testimony that Congress should [...]

Reason is a Casualty in the Ongoing War on Climate Science

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal editorial section, Daniel Henninger took exaggeration of the scandal over emails stolen from scientists at the University of East Anglia to new heights, arguing that the incident undermines the entire centuries-old scientific enterprise. But the [...]

Good for Civil Rights, Good for Science

This weekend, federal rules enforcing the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act go into effect. From then on, there will be stiff legal penalties for hiring or employment discrimination based on genetic data, or for companies that request their employees submit to [...]