GENOMICS AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The marriage between biology and computer science is changing the scientific method: Collect the data first, figure out what you’re searching for later. Scientific cultures are clashing and it may be influencing who gets grant funding.
CLIMATE SCIENCE
To our dismay, and the nation’s detriment, self-described climate change deniers – strongly supported by fossil-fuel interests — continue to mislead Congress and the public. In late January, we joined 14 other leading scientists in writing a letter to every [...]
From Secondhand smoke to “Star Wars” to climate change, the cast of characters peddling pseudo-science is stunningly consistent.
Oceans
The massive environmental damage requires a systematic approach to the analysis of public policy priorities and the costs BP must bear over the long term.
President Obama intends to nominate worker health and safety advocate David Michaels, PhD, MPH to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to a statement released by the White House yesterday. Michaels, an epidemiologist, is the director of the [...]
SCIENCE, CULTURED
Conservatives try to expose what they claim is a case of science suppression by the Obama administration—and in the process demonstrate how little they know about science in the first place.
SCIENCE, CULTURED
Ensuring scientific integrity in government is a marvelous goal—but achieving it will hardly be simple, even under this administration.
The same day that President Obama relaxed restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, he issued a directive to the Office of Science and Technology director to coordinate a new set of recommendations to protect scientific integrity [...]
WONK LAB PODCAST
The eight years of the Bush administration were a bad time for scientific integrity in government research. Grifo, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, says we must focus on protecting government researchers, making science-based policymaking more transparent, and monitoring potential abuses.
Federal funding support for basic scientific research wasn’t always a focal point of government policy. In fact, President John Quincy Adams’s arguements for “internal improvements” such as the establishment of a uniform system of weights and measures, a survey of [...]
It is a commonplace that the physician’s role is a complicated one: applying inexact science to demanding patients, caring for people when they are at their most vulnerable while also worrying about reimbursement to sustain the effort, and balancing duties [...]
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
A federal court ruled Monday that an FDA decision to limit access to emergency contraception was based on politics and ignored scientific advice. The move highlights the importance of Obama administration directives to protect scientific integrity in the policymaking process.
SCIENCE, CULTURED
President Obama puts John Holdren in charge of a government-wide scientific integrity project—if he can ever assume his post at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, that is.
SCIENCE, CULTURED
All the things I didn’t get to say to Stephen Colbert, and other thoughts on the comedics of science.
WEISS'S NOTEBOOK
The United States boasts a huge corps of public-servant scientists devoted to going where the evidence takes them and who, as of Wednesday, will for the first time in years be respected by the highest officials in the land for what they do.
Here’s a look back at the most popular features we ran in the past year. Some of them dealt with major controversies over political interference with science at the Environmental Protection Agency, the teaching of creationism, and access to reproductive health services. Others tackled challenges of a networked world, or considered how policy can better harness the talents of a burgeoning scientific workforce.
SCIENCE POLICY
The seven science advisers Barack Obama has chosen are surely the most distinguished group of scientists at the highest levels of government in decades.
Over at The Wild Side, Olivia Judson is cheering the return of a government that does not simply embrace scientific thinking, but uses it as a force for improving people’s lives. She looks back on the Bush years and forward to the future.
SCIENCE, CULTURED
For eight years running, the National Academy of Sciences has offered public advice on scientific appointments for the next administration and seen its advice largely ignored. This year, the tone is different, and it’s time to pay attention.
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Americans are confident in the leaders of the scientific community. But are they interested in those leaders’ policy recommendations?
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.