Issues in Science and Technology articles from September 2004

Issues in Science and Technology archives from September 2004

Military transformation.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2004... In his article "Completing the Transformation of U.S. Military Forces" (Issues, Summer 2004), S.J. Deitchman makes a strong case for continuing the development and subsequent production of all of the advanced weapons (ships, planes, ground...

Misguided drug policy.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2004... I share Mark A. R. Kleiman's exasperation with the recent decision to drop the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), a decision that reveals a great deal about the underlying premises of our...

Preventing blackouts.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2004... Jay Apt, Lester B. Lave, Sarosh Talukdar, M. Granger Morgan, and Marija Ilic ("Electrical Blackouts: A Systemic Problem," Issues, Summer 2004) are to be commended for their efforts to encourage more deliberation on systemic issues constraining...

Forest management.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2004... Jerry F. Franklin and K. Norman Johnson provide some crucial insights about the need for new approaches to forest conservation ("Forests Face New Threat: Global Market Changes," Issues, Summer 2004). Changes will need to occur in attitudes, as...

Scientific workforce.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2004... Anne E. Preston's article, "Plugging the Leaks in the Scientific Workforce" (Issues, Summer 2004), challenged me as a university president, a social scientist, and a mother, because I have always encouraged my best and brightest students,...

Climate change.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2004... In "What is Climate Change?" (Issues, Summer 2004) Roger A. Pielke, Jr. addresses the problems that arise from the different framing of the climate challenge by the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel...

Less power to the patent?(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2004... What I find amusing about Richard Levin's "A Patent System for the 21st Century" (Issues, Summer 2004) is that he does not even mention the basic question of whether an advanced society needs a patent system in the first place. Although...

Better watershed management.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2004... I agree with Brian Richter and Sandra Postel that modified river flows require "a shift to a new mindset, one that makes the preservation of ecological health an explicit goal of water development and management" ("Saving Earth's Rivers,"...

Corrections.(Forum)(Correction Notice)
September 22, 2004... In the Fall 2003 Issues, author Michael J. Saks was incorrectly identified. He is professor of law and professor of psychology at Arizona State University. In "Completing the Transformation of U.S. Military Forces" (Summer 2004) on page...

Nondefense R & D budgets face major squeeze.(From the Hill)
September 22, 2004... As Congress resumed work in September, it was increasingly clear that it would once again fail to complete all of its budget work by the October 1 beginning of the new fiscal year. What was also clear is that increasing federal budget deficits...

DHS relaxes visa policy on foreign students and scientists.(From the Hill)(Department of Homeland Security)
September 22, 2004... The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed extending the duration of the Visas Mantis security clearance for foreign scientists and students. The new DHS policy would allow clearances to be valid beyond the current one-year limit...

House restricts NIH travel and research.(From the Hill)(National Institutes of Health)
September 22, 2004... The Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bill passed by the House in September would restrict overseas travel by National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees and bar further funding of two mental health research grants. The...

U.S. commitment to human spaceflight beyond Earth orbit still in doubt.(Update)
September 22, 2004... In "A Sustainable Rationale for Human Spaceflight" (Issues, Winter 2004), I forecast that President George W. Bush would soon propose "a guiding mandate for future human spaceflight." The president on January 14, 2004, did that and more. He...

Just say yes to drug trial information: the road to increased access to medical research might not be easy, but it is the route we must take.(Editor's Journal)
September 22, 2004... Several different research-access stories were in the news in September. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a proposed rule that would require that all scholarly papers based on NIH-funded research be made available for free on a...

Forget politicizing science. Let's democratize science! Science advising in government is unavoidably political, but we must make a concerted effort to ensure that it is democratic.(Perspectives)
September 22, 2004... Since the publication last year by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) of a report alleging that the Bush administration has been inappropriately manipulating scientific reports and advisory committees, science policy has become an issue with...

Improving health in developing countries: building in-country research capacity is critical to staving off epidemics and finding long-term solutions to critical health needs.
September 22, 2004... International initiatives to combat diseases have proliferated, in some cases dramatically, during the past decade. For example, world spending on HIV/AIDS has increased from $300 million in 1996 to about $5 billion in 2003. President Bush's...

Precollege science teachers need better training: U.S. science education is improving, but a few local programs are demonstrating how it can become even better.
September 22, 2004... Now and in the decades to come, science literacy may well be the defining factor for our success as individuals and as a nation. Indeed, U.S. global competitiveness and its national security rest firmly on our ability to educate a workforce...

Saving the oceans: two major commissions have proposed far-reaching reform of ocean policy. It's time for Congress to act.(Pew Oceans Commission, U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy)
September 22, 2004... The oceans have been suffering from a variety of escalating insults for decades: excessive and destructive fishing; loss of wetlands and other valuable habitat; pollution from industries, farms, and households; invasion of troublesome species...

Sink or swim time for U.S. fishery policy: immediate action is needed to turn the tide in favor of sustainability, but more fundamental changes are essential as well.
September 22, 2004... Marine species residing in U.S. territorial waters and the men and women who make their livelihood from them are at a critical juncture. Many species are overexploited and face additional threats from land-based pollution, habitat damage, and...

Science, politics, and U.S. democracy: unless scientists and policymakers learn to work together effectively, both domains will suffer.(political interference, bias in scientific research and policy decisions)
September 22, 2004... Political manipulation of scientific evidence in the interest of ideological convictions has been a commonplace of the U.S. democracy since the end of World War II. In 1952, the incoming secretary of commerce, Sinclair Weeks, fired Alan Astin,...

Small combat ships and the future of the Navy: the Navy is wisely preparing to introduce a new ship design, but it should evaluate the prototypes comprehensively before moving into production.(Littoral Combat Ship)
September 22, 2004... In November 2001, the U.S. Navy announced a new family of 21st century surface warships that includes a small, focused-mission combatant called the Littoral Combat Ship, or LCS. The LCS would be a fast, stealthy warship designed specifically...

Building a transatlantic biotech partnership: the United States and Europe must act together--and now--to avoid deeper confrontation over biotechnology and to protect shared economic interests.
September 22, 2004... The United States and Europe continue to turn up the heat in their long-simmering biotech stew. In May 2003, the Bush administration initiated a challenge within the World Trade Organization (WTO) to Europe's five-year de facto moratorium on...

Meeting the new challenge to U.S. economic competitiveness: collaboration among government, industry, academia, and labor succeeded in the 1980s. That coalition must act again.
September 22, 2004... The U.S. economy, seemingly a world-dominant Goliath in the mid- and late-1990s, now faces major structural challenges from a new cast of Davids. The nation confronts a host of new economic challengers led by India and China. The U.S. economy...

Protecting public anonymity: the option to preserve anonymity will erode unless designers of new technologies and government policymakers act now.
September 22, 2004... People in the United States have long enjoyed an expectation of anonymity when traveling or performing everyday activities in most public places. For example, they expect not to be recognized, or to have their presence noted and recorded, when...

Ain't it hard?(The Working Poor: Invisible in America)(Book Review)
September 22, 2004... The Working Poor: Invisible in America, by David K. Shipler. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004, 336 pp. The kind of poverty that's hardest to shake is overdetermined. Dropping out of high school leads to the lowest-paid and least secure...

Where's oppie?(Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma)(Book Review)
September 22, 2004... Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma, by Jeremy Bernstein. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004, 240 pp. Imagine spending half a century to write a short book. That's what Jeremy Bernstein has done, and the wait was worth it. A physics professor and...

Henry Bryant Bigelow.(Archives)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2004... It was at the urging of Harvard University zoologist Henry Bryant Bigelow, shown here piloting the yacht Grampus in 1912, that the National Research Council in 1919 formed its first Committee on Oceanography. Failing to obtain the funding...