INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Information technology can empower individuals and communities to prevent and disrupt gender-based violence by connecting victims with needed services and support networks.
OPEN ACCESS MOVEMENT
Who profits from academic publishing? It’s not the authors who do the research or academic institutions where they work—it is a small number of for-profit academic publishing firms who are lobbying hard to keep a stranglehold on their profitable roles as middlemen between academia and the public.
MANUFACTURING INNOVATION
In their new book, Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing, Lipson and Kurman lay out the 10 most important things about 3D printing that make it special—and the 10 reasons why it really could be the next big thing in American Manufacturing.
CLIMATE SCIENCE
Climate change will hit South Carolina hard, says a study commissioned by the SC Department of Natural Resources. But the report was never published due to the agency’s “changing priorities.”
RESEARCH ETHICS
The Obama administration has called on researchers to minimize the risks of dual-use research.
TECHNOLOGY POLICY
A White House We The People petition just passed the 100,000 signature response threshold asks the Obama administration to reverse a Library of Congress decision to prevent consumers from unlocking their cell phones without carrier permission.
OPEN ACCESS MOVEMENT
A new bill to expand access to public information and the results of publicly funded research is a step toward the open access world that Aaron Swartz once envisioned.
INVESTING IN SCIENCE
After President Obama’s call to attain a “level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race” in the State of the Union, universities are renewing their cry for a deal to avoid the automatic budget cuts known as “sequestration.”
CYBER SECURITY
In light of yesterday’s executive order and the recent spate of cyber attacks, we take a look back at past cyber attacks, and what our government has done to fortify both the public and private sectors against hackers foreign and domestic.
CYBER SECURITY
The very agency responsible for regulating online communications was forced to resort to outside assistance to secure its networks, and still failed key tests of cyber security.
ENERGY INNOVATION
V3Solar’s announcement about its new super-cheap “Spin Cell” solar cones is another reason for hope that cheap-as-dirt solar may around the corner, but making early predictions about the final cost of energy technologies is an inherently tricky business.
CLIMATE POLICY
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has delivered such cost-effective results that the states involved plan to reduce the carbon emissions cap by an additional 45 percent.
CYBER SECURITY
Amidst major cyber security breaches at the New York Times and elsewhere, a bipartisan bill would aid intelligence agencies, but come at the cost of Internet users’ privacy.
CLIMATE SCIENCE
“The natural state of the Earth with present carbon dioxide levels is one with sea levels about 70 feet higher than now,” says the lead author of a National Science Foundation funded study on the earth’s ancient climate patterns.
CYBER SECURITY
Your online habits may be less dangerous than you think if they involve the less savory aspects of the web. Instead, “The dangers are often hidden in plain sight,” says a new report by the Internet technology company Cisco.
FOSSIL FINANCE
A movement is growing on college campuses to divest from fossil fuel companies that contribute to climate change. A former president of several prestigious colleges and educational institutions, James L. Powell, responds to the 10 most common arguments against divestment.
MILITARY TECHNOLOGY
With a new Defense Department directive, we move one step closer to autonomous weapon systems capable of killing without human oversight. Now is the time to decide if this is a path we want to tread.
ONLINE PRIVACY
Google revealed this week that it will require warrants for users’ email content and data stored in the cloud, imposing hurdles to government access and going considerably beyond the scope of a 1986 electronic privacy law.
E-HEALTH INNOVATION
The electronic medical record could save the clinical trial, cut health care costs, and improve the value of research.
ENERGY INNOVATION
The new energy research agency authorized by President Bush and implemented by Obama has similarities with past federal R&D successes, but is missing a fundamental ingredient enjoyed by past technology programs: Market pull.
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.