Science Policy
Report highlights latest data on women, minorities in science, engineering
March 7, 2013 10:36 am | News | CommentsWomen, persons with disabilities and three racial and ethnic groups—African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians—continue to be underrepresented in science and engineering (S&E) according to a new report released by the National Science Foundation. Data in the report demonstrate that women earn a smaller proportion of degrees in many S&E fields of study, although their participation has risen during the last 20 years in most S&E fields.
U.S. may face inevitable nuclear power exit
March 1, 2013 10:13 am | News | CommentsIn a 2012 report, the Obama administration announced that it was "jumpstarting" the nuclear industry and injected significant funding into two new nuclear reactor projects in Georgia. But this investment—the first of its kind in three decades—belies an overall dismal U.S. nuclear power landscape, according to a recently published report. Where Japan and many European countries responded to the Fukushima disaster with public debate and significant policy shifts in the nuclear arena, the U.S. has scarcely broached the subject.
NSF, partners to expand access to publicly-funded research
February 25, 2013 10:13 am | News | CommentsLate last week, the National Science Foundation , along with federal partners, announced its commitment to expand public access to the results of its funded research. This announcement follows a memorandum issued from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy directing science-funding agencies to develop plans to increase access to the results of federally funded research and improve the management of digital data produced through such research.
Report: Potential benefits of inertial fusion energy justify continued R&D
February 20, 2013 12:02 pm | News | CommentsAccording to a new report from the National Research Council, although ignition of fusion fuel has not yet been achieved, the potential benefits of inertial fusion energy justify investment in fusion energy research and development. Scientific and technological progress in inertial confinement fusion over the past decade has been substantial, but continued progress will require a large and concerted effort.
Science and engineering students petition Congress to stop sequestration
December 7, 2012 9:33 am | News | CommentsMandatory cuts to federal funding as outlined in the Budget Control Act, known as sequestration, will take place in early January, unless Congress takes action. More than 6,000 science and engineering students have hand-delivered a petition to the local offices of U.S. senators and House leaders, requesting that sequestration be halted because it would harm their future as innovators and hurt economic growth in the United States.
Judge backs NASA lab in work discrimination case
November 5, 2012 10:32 am | News | CommentsA California judge has tentatively ruled in favor of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a wrongful termination lawsuit brought by a former computer specialist who alleged he was singled out in part because of his belief in intelligent design.
Sharing space: Proximity breeds collaboration
October 26, 2012 1:47 pm | by Diane Swanbrow | News | CommentsA new University of Michigan study shows that when researchers share a building, and especially a floor, the likelihood of forming new collaborations and obtaining funding increases dramatically. The findings make sense, but the increases were dramatic—researchers who share floors in the same building are more than 50% more likely to form collaborations than those that don’t share the same buidling.
Restricting nuclear power has little effect on the cost of climate policies
October 2, 2012 9:03 am | News | CommentsApplying a global energy-economy computer simulation that fully captures the competition between alternative power supply technologies, a team of scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the University of Dayton, Ohio, analyzed trade-offs between nuclear and climate policies. They found that incremental costs due to policy options restricting the use of nuclear power do not significantly increase the cost of even stringent greenhouse-gas emissions reductions.
Study: Fraud growing in scientific research papers
October 2, 2012 4:00 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsA recent review of retractions in medical and biological peer-reviewed journals finds the percentage of studies withdrawn because of fraud or suspected fraud has jumped substantially since the mid-1970s. In 1976, there were fewer than 10 fraud retractions for every 1 million studies published, compared with 96 retractions per million in 2007.
Article: New technology being stymied by copyright law
September 17, 2012 5:08 am | News | CommentsFrom Napster to iTunes to Pandora, the methods by which the public can obtain and share music have rapidly progressed. Future groundbreaking innovations may need to wait, though, as the next generation of technology is being stymied by the very copyright laws that seek to protect the industry, says Rutgers-Camden University professor Michael Carrier in a new article for a law journal..
U.S. research and development most prevalent in small number of regions
September 13, 2012 4:29 am | News | CommentsAccording to data from a 2008 Business R&D and Innovation Survey by the National Science Foundation, businesses perform the lion's share of their R&D activity in just a small number of geographic areas, particularly the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland area and the New York-Newark-Bridgeport area.
Statistical science institute renewed for another five years by NSF
August 29, 2012 3:28 am | News | CommentsFounded in 2002, the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) is one of eight mathematical institutes funded by the NSF’s Division of Mathematical Sciences, and the only one that focuses on statistics and applied mathematics. SAMSI’s funding has recently been renewed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for five years.
EPA releases nanomaterial case study regarding nanoscale silver
August 6, 2012 6:05 am | News | CommentsThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has completed and published a comprehensive environmental assessment (CEA) framework study of engineered nanoscale silver, specifically with regard to its behavior in disinfectant sprays. Though not a formal assessment, many factors such as product life cycle, environmental transport and fate, exposure-dose in receptors, and potential impacts in these receptors are covered in the report.
Research collaboration among multiple institutions is a growing trend
August 6, 2012 6:03 am | News | CommentsAccording to a recent National Science Foundation report, the amount of R&D funding that passed through universities to others for collaborative projects during fiscal years 2000 to 2009 grew more rapidly than overall academic R&D expenditures. Federal initiatives and technological advances are thought to be contributing factors to this trend.
NSF reports on state-by-state R & D activities
August 3, 2012 5:20 am | News | CommentsA recent report released by the National Science Foundation (NSF) found state government agency expenditures for research and development totaled $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2009, a 7% increase over the fiscal 2007 total of $1.1 billion. The survey marked the first time NSF asked state agencies to classify their R&D according to specific categories.
New lab turns SD gold town into scientific hub
May 30, 2012 5:44 pm | by Amber Hunt,Associated Press | News | CommentsOn Wednesday, the Large Underground Xenon experiment, or LUX, became official when part of the closed Homestake Gold Mine nearly 5,000 feet beneath the earth at Lead, S.D., opened for business, not as a mine, but as an underground campus. The primary curriculum: finding out where dark matter is.
New telescope to be in South Africa, Australia
May 30, 2012 2:26 pm | by Donna Bryson, Associated Press | News | CommentsSouth Africa and Australia had competed fiercely against each other for the Square Kilometer Array telescope project, which will become the world’s biggest instrument when built. Recently, the consortium overseeing the effort decided to award it to both countries, with South Africa getting the lion’s share of the radio dishes.
First of two papers on lab-made bird flu published
May 3, 2012 5:09 am | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsFour months ago the U.S. government sought to block publication of two studies about how scientists created an easily spread form of bird flu. Now a revised version of one paper is seeing the light of day with the government's blessing. The second paper, which is more controversial because it involves what appears to be a more dangerous virus, is expected to be published later.
Accelrys issues call to close innovation productivity gap
April 18, 2012 5:25 am | News | CommentsAs part of an all-industries challenge to speed innovation and reduce the time and effort required to commercialize new products, informatics and data management company Accelrys is introducing a scientifically aware enterprise platform that is designed to greatly improve the scientific innovation lifecycle.
NASA collecting ideas on new strategy for exploring the Red Planet
April 16, 2012 3:36 am | News | CommentsStarting Friday, NASA’s Mars Program Planning Group began accepting ideas and abstracts online from the worldwide scientific and technical community as part of NASA's effort to seek out the best and the brightest ideas from researchers and engineers in planetary science. They hope to develop a new strategy for the exploration of Mars.
Panel backs sharing studies of lab-made bird flu
April 2, 2012 5:24 am | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsOn Friday, the U.S. government's biosecurity advisers said they support publishing research studies showing how scientists made new easy-to-spread forms of bird flu because the studies, now revised, don't reveal details bioterrorists could use. The announcement could end debate sparked by the government’s request last December that scientists refrain from publishing all the details of their work.
High court throws out human gene patents
March 27, 2012 12:07 pm | News | CommentsThe Supreme Court this week threw out a lower court ruling allowing human genes to be patented. The court overturned patents belonging to Myriad Genetics Inc. of Salt Lake City on two genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
Eight national labs streamline partnership agreements
February 27, 2012 5:43 pm | News | CommentsIntended to help cut red tape for business and startups wanting to do business with the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s research laboratories, the new Agreements for Commercializing Technology (ACT) program was recently launched as a third alternative to the two preceding options: signing a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) or a Work For Others (WFO) Agreement.
Scientists see red on NASA cuts of Mars missions
February 27, 2012 5:06 pm | by Alicia Chang and Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writers | News | CommentsEarlier this month, the president's budget canceled joint U.S.-European robotic missions to Mars in 2016 and 2018. Now top science officials say they are scrambling to come up with a plan by the end of the summer for a cut-rate journey to the red planet in 2018. That's when Mars passes closest to Earth, something that only happens once every 15 years.
New pilot survey reveals importance of intellectual property
February 27, 2012 3:14 am | News | CommentsThe National Science Foundation and the U.S. Census Bureau has revamped and expanded their Business R&D and Innovation Survey, which collects information from a nationally representative sample of about 40,000 companies. The results indicate that trademarks and trade secrets are the most important form of intellectual property protection, ahead of copyrights and patents.
