Issues in Science and Technology articles from March 1996

Issues in Science and Technology archives from March 1996

Maximizing benefits from research: lessons from medicine and agriculture.
March 22, 1996... Scientists are fond of asserting that unfettered scientific curiosity leads to previously unimagined understanding of nature and human institutions and that society derives maximum benefits from investments in science when the quality of research...

Think twice before overhauling federal budgeting.(Column)
March 22, 1996... Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology, the report of a National Research Council panel chaired by Frank Press, calls for substantial change in the way that decisions are made regarding federal research support. The report gives a...

Methadone revisited. (government regulations make use of methadone for treatment of heroin addicts difficult)(Column)
March 22, 1996... Heroin addiction continues to do inestimable damage not only to the lives of addicted individuals, but also to families, neighborhoods, cities, and society as a whole. The tragedy is that although we know how to treat heroin addiction, we have...

Social goals and electric-utility deregulation.
March 22, 1996... During the past several months, the spot price of electricity on the West Coast has averaged about 2 cents/kilowatt hour (kWh). At the same time, utility customers in California were paying double and triple that amount. Such a sharp discrepancy...

The wealth of nature: environmental quality, not mining, logging, or ranching, is driving local economic development in the West.
March 22, 1996... Although national polls show a widespread consensus on the importance of environmental quality, conflict over environmental issues has escalated dramatically at local and regional levels. In rural areas, where politics are personal and natural...

Science education reform: how can we help?
March 22, 1996... During the past several years, the deplorable state of public science education and the perceived consequences for our nation's economic and intellectual vitality have attracted the attention not only of educators and politicians but also of an...

School choice: who gains, who loses?
March 22, 1996... School choice is hot. Affluent parents in Washington, D.C., flock to the suburbs in search of better schools when their children turn five. Driven by the same motivation, poor Hispanic parents in Milwaukee are pushing the courts to free up...

The transformation of industrial research.
March 22, 1996... Industrial research in the United States has been transformed in the 1990s. Research managers have had to redirect their resources away from fundamental science and pioneering technology toward activities that are more relevant to current product...

Chemical weapons: neglected menace.
March 22, 1996... More often than not, it is the less-recognized threat that materializes with devastating consequences. Such might be the case with chemical weapons, which have been overshadowed as a threat to U.S. security since the end of World War II ushered...

How Many People Can the Earth Support?
March 22, 1996... Two-thirds of the way through his admirable tour de force on human population, Joel Cohen tells a joke, repeated here for the insight it yields on the tone, content, and position that he strikes throughout his book: An ecologist, an economist,...

The Myth of Scientific Literacy.
March 22, 1996... There are many books appearing these days on the subject of scientific literacy. Most of them have to do with the content of scientific literacy - that is, what the scientifically literate person should know. Indeed, the recent publication of the...

Science at the Bar: Law, Science, and Technology in America.
March 22, 1996... Science is a powerful force for change in the law. It enables the identification of facts (through, for example, DNA typing) or of causal linkages (through, for example, epidemiological studies) that can illuminate issues that otherwise would...

Product Standards for Internationally Integrated Goods Markets.
March 22, 1996... Sherlock Holmes wondered about the dog that didn't bark. Astronomers are puzzled by "missing" matter. And international economists are perplexed by the hidden barriers that explain why many international trade flows are so small, despite the...

Political posturing. (the politics behind federal research funding)(Editorial)
March 22, 1996... Vice President Gore traveled to Baltimore in February to address the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The purpose of his speech was to demonstrate that the Clinton/Gore administration is a friend of...