Issues in Science and Technology articles from September 1997

Issues in Science and Technology archives from September 1997

The power of the individual. (Leo Szilard's influence on policymaking)
September 22, 1997... The life of Leo Szilard has important lessons for scientists eager to influence public policy. William Lanouette's fascinating biography of Leo Szilard, Genius in the Shadows, does more than reveal the life of a brilliant physicist and...

The global university. (improving engineering education for the 21st century)
September 22, 1997... The shape and structure of higher education must change dramatically to meet the needs of a transformed industrial world. Let's establish some basic principles. First, business is going global. Information, people, and capital flow quickly and...

House, Senate endorse big increases in FY 1998 R&D budgets.
September 22, 1997... In the wake of the balanced budget agreement, this summer both the House and Senate endorsed big increases in the FY 1998 budgets of federal R&D agencies. However, no final decisions on appropriations had been made as Issues went to press in...

Congress deeply split over regulation of encryption technology.
September 22, 1997... Issues involving regulation of data encryption technology are continuing to trouble Congress, which has been trying to weave a path between the administration's need to protect national security, the software industry's desire to export the most...

Climate-change conference evokes concern in Congress. (international conference in Kyoto, Japan)
September 22, 1997... With an important international conference on climate change set for December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, Congress is turning its attention to the issue amid concerns that any agreement signed at the meeting might require the United States to implement...

Report on human cloning criticized. (National Bioethics Advisory Commission's report and recommendations)
September 22, 1997... Some members of Congress have criticized the National Bioethics Advisory Commission's (NBAC's) recent report on human cloning, saying that the commission's recommendations do not go far enough in providing guidance on the emotionally charged...

Moratorium proposed on clean air rules. (Clean Air Act rules on fine particulate matter and ozone)
September 22, 1997... The White House's June decision to endorse EPA's tougher air quality standards has prompted a renewed congressional effort to fight the new standards. A bipartisan group of House Commerce Committee members introduced a bill (H.R. 1904) that would...

Congress set to act on protection of medical records.
September 22, 1997... A year ago, the issue of federal preemptive legislation to protect personal health data was mired in a heated debate within the health care community ("Shoring Up Protection of Personal Health Data," Issues, Summer 1996). This debate effectively...

New life for brownfields.
September 22, 1997... Since "Restoring Contaminated Industrial Sites" appeared in the Spring 1994 Issues, several federal and state policies have been introduced to encourage the reuse of the abandoned, underused, and often contaminated industrial properties known as...

The unfinished work of arms control.
September 22, 1997... The number of nuclear weapons has declined, but further cuts and other safety measures are needed. In the half century since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world has experienced no further use of nuclear weapons in conflict. Indeed, the restraint...

The politics of education reform.
September 22, 1997... Respect existing power bases and make administrators accountable if you want to see better schools. The recently released Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which made international comparisons of math and science...

Toward a "greener" revolution.
September 22, 1997... Two billion people suffer from terrible nutrition. We need to start producing not just more food, but more nutritious food. Thanks in large part to the now-legendary green revolution, most people in the world today get enough calories from food...

Saving nature's legacy through better farming.
September 22, 1997... Unless growing world food demand is met with improved farm productivity, much undeveloped land with its biodiversity will be lost to agriculture. The obvious environmental problems and solutions are not necessarily obvious at all. Organic...

Federal power dinosaurs. (government-owned electric utilities)
September 22, 1997... Changes in the electric utility industry signal the end of the road for government-owned power companies. New power-generating technologies and low natural gas prices are spurting competition in the electricity market. This has led a growing...

Environmental policy: the next generation.
September 22, 1997... Today environmental problems are subtler and less visible; new strategies, institutions, and tools are needed. A generation ago the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so contaminated that it caught fire, air pollution in some cities was thick enough to...

A Jeffersonian vision for mapping the world.
September 22, 1997... Vast amounts of useful information could be made available to decisionmakers by reconceiving what a map means in the digital age. About 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson sat down with a young military officer named Meriwether Lewis to plan an...

Immigration: who wins, who loses. (National Research Council's report on migrant labor)
September 22, 1997... Immigration adds on the order of $1 billion to $10 billion a year to the U.S. economy and has little negative effect on the income and job opportunities of native-born Americans, concludes a recent report by a National Research Council (NRC)...

The Economic Laws of Scientific Research.
September 22, 1997... The premise of Terence Kealey's book - that scientific research would do better without government support - has naturally attracted a lot of attention and generated a lot of emotion. Kealey is an impassioned advocate of market capitalism and...

Our Children's Toxic Legacy: How Science and Law Fail to Protect Us from Pesticides.
September 22, 1997... Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill living things - insects, fungi, and weeds that attack crops and other vegetation, cause infectious diseases in humans and animals, or act as vectors of infectious agents. Not surprisingly, they are toxic...