Issues in Science and Technology articles from June 1999

Issues in Science and Technology archives from June 1999

The merits of meritocracy.
June 22, 1999... The nation must think through its contradictory attitudes toward academic achievement. On May 17, 1999, the Wall Street Journal reported on the disappearing valedictorian. One of the side effects of high-school grade inflation and a...

Lab access restrictions sought in wake of Chinese espionage reports.
June 22, 1999... In the wake of reports detailing the alleged theft by China of U.S. nuclear and military technology, bills have been introduced that would severely restrict or prohibit visits by foreign scientists to Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia...

Conservatives challenge science community on data access.
June 22, 1999... Politically conservative organizations have made a big push in support of a proposed change to a federal regulation governing the release of scientific research data. The scientific community strongly opposes the change. In last year's...

Bills to protect confidentiality of medical data introduced.(Fifteenth Anniversary Issue)
June 22, 1999... With a congressional deadline looming for the adoption of federal standards ensuring the confidentiality of individual health information, bills have been introduced in Congress that would establish guidelines for patient-authorized release of...

Controversial database protection bill reintroduced.(House Resolution 354, the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act)
June 22, 1999... A bill designed to prevent the unauthorized copying of online information that was strongly opposed by the scientific community last year has been reintroduced with changes aimed at assuaging its critics. However, the revisions still do not go...

Major deficiencies remain in flood-control policies.
June 22, 1999... In "Plugging the Gaps in Flood-Control Policy," (Issues, Winter 1994-95), I critiqued the policies that helped exacerbate the damages from the big 1993 flood along the upper Mississippi River and proposed steps that could be taken to avoid the...

The government-university partnership in science.(Bill Clinton's speech)
June 22, 1999... In an age when the entire store of knowledge doubles every five years, where prosperity depends upon command of that ever-growing store, the United States is the strongest it has ever been, thanks in large measure to the remarkable pace and...

Education reform for a mobile population.
June 22, 1999... School management must be local, but national action is also essential. The high rate of mobility in today's society means that local schools have become a de facto national resource for learning. According to the National Center for...

Science savvy in foreign affairs.(Department of State's staff and operations ill-equipped to represent the US in science and technology forums)
June 22, 1999... The Department of State must integrate science and technology expertise more completely into its staff and operations. On September 18, 1997, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott gave a talk to the World Affairs Council of Northern...

Science at the State Department.(speech of Frank E. Loy, Undersecretary for Global Affairs)(Transcript)
June 22, 1999... Scientific expertise has too often been neglected in the making of U.S. foreign policy, but we are making a determined effort to expand its role. The mission of the Department of State is to develop and conduct a sound foreign policy,...

Reworking the federal role in small business research.
June 22, 1999... The U.S. economy is changing rapidly, and the Small Business Investment Research program must change with it. After 16 years of experience and almost $10 billion in federal expenditures, the SBIR program is showing its age. It has lived...

Are new accountability rules bad for science?
June 22, 1999... If properly implemented the new requirements could strengthen science and enhance its public support. In 1993, the U.S. Congress quietly passed a good government bill, with little fanfare and full bipartisan support. President Clinton...

The role of the university: leveraging talent, not technology.
June 22, 1999... We are in danger of undermining the value of research universities if we regard them simply as sources of technology. During the 1980s, the university was posed as an underutilized weapon in the battle for industrial competitiveness and...

Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science.(Review)
June 22, 1999... Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont. New York: Picador, 1998, 300pp. Daniel Barbiero Since the publication in 1994 of Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science by Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt, a debate has opened...

Limited by Design: R and D Laboratories in the U.S. National Innovation System.(Review)
June 22, 1999... by Michael Crow and Barry Bozeman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998, 321 pp. Rick Borchelt In a previous professional life as a systematic biologist, my taxonomy professors drilled into me the concept that taxonomy is not an...

The Ultimate Terrorists.(Review)
June 22, 1999... by Jessica Stern. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999, 204 pp. Melvin A. Goodman Terrorism has increasingly become a major security concern for the United States. In the past several years, we have witnessed bombings at...

America's Achilles Heel: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack.(Review)
June 22, 1999... by Richard A. Falkenrath, Robert D. Newman, and Bradley A. Thayer. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998, 354 pp. Raymond A. Zilinskas In this thoughtful and provocative book, Richard A. Falkenrath, Robert D. Newman, and Bradley A. Thayer...