Issues in Science and Technology articles from March 2005

Issues in Science and Technology archives from March 2005

Securing nuclear material.(FORUM)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... I agree with Matthew Bunn that the scope and pace of the world's efforts to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons or weapons-usable materials do not match the urgency of the threat ("Preventing a Nuclear 9/11," Issues, Winter 2005)....

Conflicts of interest.(FORUM)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... In "Managing the Triple Helix in the Life Sciences" (Issues, Winter 2005), Eric G. Campbell, Greg Koski, Darren E. Zinner, and David Blumenthal provide a thoughtful and scholarly analysis of the benefits and risks of academic/industry...

Genetically modified crops.(FORUM)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... In their excellent "Agricultural Biotechnology: Overregulated and Underappreciated" (Issues, Winter 2005), Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko lay out a compelling argument in support of ag biotech. I agree with their principal conclusions....

Science and math education.(FORUM)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... Rodger W. Bybee and Elizabeth Stage have done an excellent job in highlighting some important results from the Program for International Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), both administered in...

Democratizing science.(FORUM)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... Although I agree with David H. Guston ("Forget Politicizing Science. Let's Democratize Science!" Issues, Fall 2004) that it is important to have greater interaction between scientists and lay citizens, I believe that the proposal to involve...

Bush budget would cut most R & D programs.(FROM THE HILL)
March 22, 2005... On February 7, President Bush released his proposed budget for FY 2006. Against a backdrop of record-breaking federal budget deficits, a continuing and costly war in Iraq, an expansion of Medicare to pay for prescription drugs, and expensive...

Hubble repair mission in doubt.(FROM THE HILL)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Congress will have to decide this year whether it should buck President Bush and provide funding for a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The president's fiscal year (FY) 2006 budget proposal includes no money for a rescue mission....

Expanded tsunami warning system considered.(FROM THE HILL)
March 22, 2005... In response to the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster as well as concerns that the Pacific Northwest could face such a disaster, the Bush administration and members of Congress have unveiled proposals to expand the U.S. Tsunami Warning...

Visa delays drop for students, scientists.(FROM THE HILL)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on February 18 found that delays in granting visas to foreign students and scholars have been significantly reduced. The GAO report was released a week after the State Department...

The view from California: the state is a science and technology trailblazer but a laggard in managing the related policy dimension.(PERSPECTIVES)
March 22, 2005... If what is happening in California is a leading indicator, and it usually is, many critical science and technology (S & T) policy debates are migrating from Washington to state capitals and even to local polling places. Unfortunately, the...

Peaking oil production: sooner rather than later? Oil production will begin to decline in the near future. Beginning to prepare now will soften the blow to the economy.
March 22, 2005... World demand for oil continues to increase, but Earth's endowment of oil is finite. Accordingly, geologists know that at some future date, conventional oil supply will no longer be capable of satisfying world demand; conventional oil production...

A second look at nuclear power: by overlooking nuclear power in the quest for clean energy, we are condemning ourselves to a future of increased fossil fuel use.
March 22, 2005... For more than three decades, energy policies in the United States and much of the Western world have been held in the ideological grip of a flawed concept: the notion that we can achieve sustainable energy by relying solely on conservation and...

Healthy populations nurture healthy people: a broad vision of population health is the most effective path to improved health for individuals.
March 22, 2005... The fall 2004 decision by NBC to introduce a new TV program dramatizing the fight against emerging disease threats might be taken as a sign of rising glamour for the public health professions. Modeled on the successful format of ratings winners...

Genomics and public health: potential benefits depend on linking genetic and environmental data in designing research, developing applications, and forging public policies.
March 22, 2005... Breakthroughs in biology are changing our world. Just as chemistry and physics had broad ramifications in the preceding centuries, the New Biology unleashed by the Human Genome Project and associated developments will send ripples through many...

Syndromic surveillance: public health officials have been quick to adopt this new tool for identifying emerging problems, but research is needed to assess its effectiveness.
March 22, 2005... Heightened awareness of the risks of bioterrorism since 9/11 coupled with a growing concern about naturally emerging and reemerging diseases such as West Nile, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and pandemic influenza have led public...

Preventing childhood obesity: the nation must act now, or it will watch its children grow into adults with excessive levels of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other weight-related ailments.
March 22, 2005... After improving dramatically during the past century, the health of children and youth in the United States now faces a dangerous setback: an epidemic of obesity. It is occurring in boys and girls in every state, in younger children and...

Interview: Sarah S. Brown.(Interview)
March 22, 2005... Sarah S. Brown is director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a nonprofit, non-partisan initiative she helped created in 1996 to improve the well-being of children, youth, and families by reducing teen pregnancy. As she...

Law and the public's health: the legal system provides many tools to promote public health, but it includes necessary limits to protect individual rights.
March 22, 2005... Public health law is experiencing a renaissance. Once fashionable during the Industrial and Progressive eras, the ideals of population health began to wither in the late 20th century. In their place came a sharpened focus on personal and...

OECD Science, Technology, and Industry Outlook 2004.(REAL NUMBERS)
March 22, 2005... With prospects for economic growth improving across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) region, renewed attention is being directed to ways of tapping into science, technology, and innovation to achieve economic...

Bioweapons.(BOOKS)(The Problem of Biological Weapons)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... The Problem of Biological Weapons, by Milton Leitenberg. Stockholm, Sweden: Swedish National Defense College, 2004, 206 pp. "The age of bioterrorism is now," the Washington Post said in January 2005. Many politicians, policymakers, and...

Tilting at warheads.(BOOKS)(The Future of Arms Control)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... The Future of Arms Control, by Michael A. Levi and Michael E. O'Hanlon. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2005, 190 pp. During the past decade, arms control has fallen on hard times. The decline began during the Clinton...

Commercializing the university.(BOOKS)(Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education, by Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, 424 pp. Sixty years ago, in Science, the Endless Frontier, Vannevar...

Copyright reconsidered.(BOOKS)(Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment, by William W. Fisher III. Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press, 2004, 352 pp. Digitization is reshaping industries that are based on copyright, such as music,...

Albert Einstein.(ARCHIVES)(Biography)
March 22, 2005... One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein received his doctorate in physics from the University of Zurich and quickly made an indelible mark on the field. He published three papers that year. The first explained photoelectric effect by suggesting...