EDUCATION
Public polling suggests Mississippians are ready for a science-based approach to sex education, but with a June 2012 deadline approaching to set policy, will the school districts listen?
BIOETHICS
Huxley’s “Brave New World” remains a success not because of the accuracy of the technological future it foretells (indeed it misses the mark in many ways), but because of what it says about the longing for love and humanity in any age.
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
From nanotech to biotech, we stand to benefit greatly from discoveries on the frontiers of technology. But there are risks too, and a bipartisan consensus on how to manage these technological risks in the 21st century is quietly emerging. One-size fits all is out. Evidence-based risk management is in.
INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVENESS
A proposal to elevate the Department of Commerce by consolidating federal trade, technology, workforce training, and economic development programs into one department with one mission: national competitiveness through innovation.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
A day of online activism by Internet titans, bloggers, and citizens may have shifted the political calculus of controversial online piracy and intellectual property legislation.
SPACE RESEARCH
What research happens on the ISS and why don’t we hear about it on the news? Former NASA engineer who helped design the ISS life support systems offers a couple answers.
INVESTING IN SCIENCE
Despite the gloomy budget picture, some science and innovation programs will actually gain ground in 2012. ARPA-E and the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences came out ahead, while the Education Department’s research programs slipped.
SCIENCE IN SOCIETY
Besides his well-known exploits as a printer, diplomat, politician, philosopher, and ladies man, Ben Franklin was also deeply interested in energy efficiency, environmental science, and public health.
COMMUNICATING MEDICINE
Scientists who espouse only evidence—without narratives about real people—struggle to control the debate, and typically, they lose.
SCIENCE IN SOCIETY
In addition to being our nation’s first president, George Washington also had a curious mind, leading him to ask questions and conduct experiments to find the truth, something many elected leaders in Washington seem to have forgotten.
INVESTING IN SCIENCE
The House appropriations bill cuts vital science reserach on food safety, technology innovation, agriculture, and rural entrepreneurship, but preserves the corporate jet tax loophole.
SCIENCE IN POLITICS
What would Thomas Jefferson, an avid scientist and enlightenment thinker, have to say about the politicization of science in our day?
BOOK RELEASE
Science Progress Editor-In-Chief Jonathan Moreno talks to a packed audience at the Center for American Progress about his new book, The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America.
SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY
Ensuring scientific research is properly used in government decision making is the responsibility of nonscientists as well as scientists. The Obama administration scientific integrity timeline shows how progress has come in fits and false starts.
ASTRONOMY POLICY
Rising costs have put the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the wildly popular Hubble Space Telescope, on the Congressional budget chopping block. To keep it, members of the House subcommittee that funds NASA will need to find $2.2 billion somewhere.
BOOKS
We have entered what some call the “biological century” and a new biopolitics has emerged to address the implications for America’s collective value system, our well-being, and ultimately, our future. The Body Politic hits bookstores today.
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
A new survey by the Barna Group suggests the that perception that many churches are “anti-science” is driving young people in the millennial generation to eschew formal religion altogether.
TERRORISM SCIENCE
Terrorism has shaped science and federal research priorities in the 10 years since the world trade center attacks, but the influence runs both ways.
SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY
The Obama administration’s efforts to protect scientific integrity moved forward recently with the submission of five finalized agency policies and 14 draft policies, but progress has been slow and haphazard.
SCIENCE IN SOCIETY
In the 21st century leadership in science is not optional for a nation that proposes to remain a superpower.
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.