Issues in Science and Technology articles from June 1997

Issues in Science and Technology archives from June 1997

Government still too good at keeping secrets. (policy on secrecy and declassification of government documents)
June 22, 1997... In "The Perils of Government Secrecy" (Issues, Summer 1992), I argued that the growth of the national security classification system had exceeded all reasonable boundaries and proposed some legislative and executive branch measures to limit...

Deciphering cryptography policy.
June 22, 1997... In "National Cryptography Policy for the Information Age" (Issues, Summer 1996), we argued that then-current federal efforts to control encryption technologies were damaging to information security. Based on the National Research Council (NRC)...

Balanced budget agreement bodes ill for science. (proposed funding for R&D)
June 22, 1997... Despite proposals by prominent members of Congress to significantly increase R&D spending over the coming years, the recent balanced budget agreement between Congress and the White House will almost certainly put a severe squeeze on science...

Cloning raises difficult issues for White House, Congress.
June 22, 1997... The recent successful cloning of an adult sheep - raising the possibility that a human could also be cloned - is presenting the federal government with some serious and difficult policy issues. Soon after the news of the birth of Dolly, Congress...

An investment budget: the federal budget should put special emphasis on spending that contributes to the long-term strength of the nation.
June 22, 1997... The federal budget should put special emphasis on spending that contributes to the long-term strength of the nation. Budget proposals in the House of Representatives for FY 1996' served as the shadow of the hangman's noose in capturing the...

Social change and science policy.
June 22, 1997... Closer links among science, social goals, and democratic processes are essential to the future health of science and society. One can almost hear the collective. sigh of relief coming from the federally funded science community. Only a year...

Biological invasions: a growing threat.
June 22, 1997... An army of invasive plant and animal species is overrunning the United States, causing incalcuable economic and ecological costs. To the untrained eye, Everglades National Park and nearby protected areas in Florida appear wild and natural. Yet...

Missing the boat on pregnancy prevention: teenage pregnancy grabs the headlines, but most unintended and unwanted pregnancies occur among adults.
June 22, 1997... Teenage pregnancy grabs the headlines, but most unintended and unwanted pregnancies occur among adults. In the past year, new national efforts have been launched that are aimed at reducing the large numbers of unintended pregnancies among U.S....

Engaging an independent Japan: new directions in Japanese policies will dramatically expand domestic R&D; if it adapts, the United States can benefit.
June 22, 1997... New directions in Japanese policies will dramatically expand domestic R&D; if it adapts, the United States can benefit. Japan is at an historic watershed. The economic superpower is poised to fundamentally alter its science and technology (S&T)...

The ITER decision and U.S. fusion R&D: to keep pace with the cutting edge of fusion research, the United States must participate in the planned international research reactor. (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor)
June 22, 1997... To keep pace with the cutting edge of fusion research, the United States must participate in the planned international research reactor. The United States must soon decide whether to participate in construction of the International...

Fusion research with a future: it's time for the U.S. program to abandon its dead-end focus and to explore alternative paths to practical fusion power.
June 22, 1997... It's time for the U.S. program to abandon its dead-end focus and to explore alternative paths to practical fusion power. Major shifts are taking place in the U.S. fusion research program, driven primarily by reductions in federal funding. In...

Time to get serious about workplace change: big productivity increases are possible for companies switching to high-performance work systems; government can aid the transition.
June 22, 1997... Big productivity increases are possible for companies switching to high-performance work systems; government can aid the transition. In the early 1990s, Lockheed Martin's Government Electronic Systems plant in Moorestown, New Jersey, was...

Roundtable: infant care and child development. (symposium sponsored by the Cecil and Ida Green Center for the Study of Science and Society)(Panel Discussion)
June 22, 1997... Women have always worked and have therefore always had to find ways to share child care. The Cecil and Ida Green Center for the Study of Science and Society at the University of Texas at Dallas sponsored a symposium on infant care and child...

The Sources of Economic Growth.
June 22, 1997... Although many economists agree that technology, broadly defined to include organizational ability and culture, is a major contributor to economic growth and that investments in physical and human capital and R&D are likely to entail sizable...

The Rise of American Research Universities.
June 22, 1997... To the list of life's very few certainties, Americans at least may confidently add a new category: ratings. We are an extremely competitive people, a fact reflected in our political and economic systems. Moreover, we are not content that every...

Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge.
June 22, 1997... In the short span of years since the first cases were reported in 1981, AIDS has reconfigured the U.S. landscape. Change is evident in the power of new social movements; in the perception of the appropriate balance between individual rights and...