The House Science and Technology Committee approved legislation Wednesday that would reauthorize and expand federal cybersecurity research programs. The bill (H.R. 4061) would require federal agencies to develop, update, and implement a strategic plan for cybersecurity research and development. The bill, which combined two different bills, would require the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop and implement a plan to ensure coordination on the development of international cybersecurity technical standards within the federal government.
"This bill will help to ensure an overall vision for the federal cybersecurity R&D portfolio, will help train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals, will improve cybersecurity technical standards and will strengthen public-private partnerships in cybersecurity," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., chairman of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee, in a statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to appear at an event Tuesday to highlight the research and other scientific activities funded by the economic stimulus package enacted earlier this year to help jump start the economy. Pelosi will be on hand as the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the Science Coalition launch a new initiative called ScienceWorksForUs and Web site (www.scienceworksforus.org) that beginning Tuesday will highlight research in all 50 states that is being funded by the stimulus package. The stimulus included more than $21 billion for scientific research and development, the purchase of scientific equipment, and science-related construction, according to the groups. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., a physics researcher before being elected to Congress, and several academic officials also will be at the Capitol Hill event, according to a news release.
A group of Nobel Prize-winning scientists are urging Congress to pass legislation that would provide the public with free online access to federally funded research. In a letter to members of Congress sent earlier this week, 41 Nobel Prize-winning scientists in medicine, physics, and chemistry called on lawmakers to pass the Federal Research Public Access Act, offered by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas., which would require online public access to the published results of research funded through 11 U.S. agencies and departments. Peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from publicly funded research also would have to be made available online within six months of publication, under the bill.
"For America to obtain an optimal return on our investment in science, publicly funded research must be shared as broadly as possible," wrote the scientists, who are part of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access coalition. "Yet, too often, research results are not available to researchers, scientists, or members of the public." The bill has been referred to Lieberman's committee, but the panel has yet to act on the measure.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology meets Thursday and Friday at the National Academy of Sciences building to discuss, among other things, the role of science and technology in foreign policy and development assistance. Scheduled speakers include Kerri-Ann Jones, assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs at the State Department and Nina Fedoroff, the department's science and technology adviser.
PCAST members will also be briefed on a report from the National Research Council called "A New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the United States Leads the Coming Biology Revolution." Speakers include Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Phillip Sharp, and Thomas Connelly, executive vice president for DuPont. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) federal programs and education initiatives will also be discussed.
The International Spy Museum on Friday unveiled a new exhibit showing how a team of cyber spies, terrorists or other criminals, armed with weapons no more sophisticated than common laptops, can turn power lines into battle lines. The Homeland Security Department's top cybersecurity official, Philip Reitinger, and former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell were on hand to help launch the exhibit. Read more about their remarks in CongressDaily's PM Edition and learn more about SPY here.
A bipartisan panel of scientific and regulatory experts called on the White House and federal agencies Wednesday to make specific changes to clearly distinguish scientific questions from policy disputes. The report from the Science for Policy Project, which is co-chaired former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and former Science editor Donald Kennedy, was released on the eve of the first meeting for the Obama administration of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The report recommends requiring new information when regulations are proposed by agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and enhancing the credibility of federal advisory committees to ensure the integrity of science in regulatory policymaking. Many recommendations are relevant to ongoing efforts by agencies to implement President Obama's March memorandum on scientific integrity. The White House has reviewed an interim version of the report to inform forthcoming guidelines on scientific integrity and regulatory reform.
"The fundamental theme of the report is that the administration needs to put in place procedures to try to distinguish science questions from policy questions," Boehlert said in a press release. "Often, policy disputes are cast as fights over science. This damages the credibility of science and obscures the real issues that ought to be debated." The SPP paper coincided with the release of a memo from OMB Director Peter Orszag and Obama's science adviser John Holdren asking agencies to build on federal science and technology priorities reflected in the stimulus package and the FY10 budget in their planning for the next fiscal year.
Read more about the Orszag-Holdren memo in CongressDaily's AM Edition here (subscription required).
A federal advisory group of the nation's leading scientists and engineers will meet for the first time under the Obama administration next week (see agenda here). The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology will convene Thursday and Friday to set priorities for the year and hear from some administration science and tech all-stars. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren and co-chairs Harold Varmus and Eric Lander will kick off the meeting, which will focus largely on healthcare and energy.
President Obama's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Department of Health and Human Services National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal and Blumenthal's advisor John Glaser will first discuss health information technology. Then National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Director Elizabeth Nabel and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Director Carolyn Clancy will tackle comparative effectiveness research.
PCAST members will them move on to a discussion of energy and environment with Robert Sussman, senior policy counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency and Shere Abbott, associate director of environment for OSTP. They'll wrap up day one with an address from Energy Secretary Steven Chu. On Friday, Holdren will give an overview of OSTP activities and various PCAST committees will report on economic development; innovation and technology; international security; science, technology, engineering and mathematics; education; healthcare and life sciences; and energy and environment.
In the five months since passage of the stimulus package, thousands of research-related awards have been made, supporting scientific efforts in every state and the District of Columbia, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Science Coalition. The measure delivered the largest increase in basic research funding in American history -- $21.5 billion. The bulk of the money is for scientific research and education projects, while $3.5 billion is allocated for research facilities and equipment.
• Some 3,000 students and teachers are participating in a stimulus-funded summer jobs program through the National Institutes of Health.
• The National Science Foundation has expanded its teacher scholarship program through stimulus funds. To date, $59.1 million of the $60 million allocated has been obligated to more than 60 U.S. colleges and universities.
• The Energy Department Office of Science is using stimulus money to support the creation of 16 university research centers to help build a new 21st-century energy economy.
• The National Institutes of Standards and Technology announced more than $55.5 million to support the construction of new scientific research facilities at four universities.
Click here to read more details about how R&D funds have been spent across the country.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon -- a milestone that launched a generation of scientists and new research and development efforts that had a huge impact on the economy. Now, 40 years later, the Science Coalition asked university researchers from across the country to reflect on that event and share their thoughts about the next frontiers in science and what America must do to ensure that these scientific frontiers are reached.
Here's a sampling of the comments collected:
"Perhaps more than anything, we need to address the scientific challenge of providing more effective, efficient and diverse sources of energy to drive the global economy, its citizens, and its infrastructure." University of Maryland geology professor William McDonough
"Instead of looking for a single innovation to transform transportation, the next great challenge will be a revolutionary and holistic reinvention of vehicles. The next 'moon landing' will be a new science-driven way of approaching automobiles ... that goes beyond slashing mpg or substituting gas with electricity." Dennis Assanis, director of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute
"The 21st century equivalent to putting a man on the moon will be our understanding of the human brain - and in particular, achieving the ability to stimulate the brain to repair itself, including restoring old memories and learning new information after damage and disease. ... That understanding will revolutionize the way we treat devastating neurological injuries and disease." University of Rochester's Elissa Newport
Read more perspectives from 29 scientists here (PDF).
The White House on Monday announced the full membership of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, an advisory group of the nation's leading scientists and engineers who will advise President Obama and formulate policies pertaining to science, technology, and innovation. PCAST will be co-chaired by Obama's science adviser John Holdren; Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and Harold Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie will serve on the panel.
Other members include:
• Rosina Bierbaum, an expert in climate-change science and ecology and dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.
• Christine Cassel, president of the American Board of Internal Medicine and an expert in geriatric medicine and quality of care.
• Christopher Chyba, an astrophysical sciences professor at Princeton University who has focused on solar system exploration and nuclear and biological weapons policy.
• S. James Gates Jr., director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland, College Park.
• Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• Richard Levin, president of Yale University and an expert in industrial organization, the patent system, and U.S. competitiveness.
House Science Chairman Bart Gordon said Tuesday that conversations about federal R&D funding as part of a fiscal year 2010 appropriations package will be "difficult" given a range of competing priorities and the ongoing recession but are critical to continued U.S. competitiveness. Government bankrolled research got a "big bump" in the economic stimulus package and the fiscal year 2009 omnibus but sustained growth in the years to come is key, he told Tech Daily Dose.
"At the same time we're asking for more money, we're trying to leverage that by spending what we have better and coordinating that with the private sector," Gordon said. One such example is the House's recent passage of legislation to strengthen and provide transparency in federal R&D to understand the potential environmental, health, and safety risks of nanotechnology. Under the bill, agencies that are part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative would be required to develop a plan for environmental and safety research; near-term and long-term goals and other requirements.
Universities and businesses must do their part to be good partners with government "in determining the best areas for research that can be commercialized, taking it from the labs and universities to the private sector," Gordon said. Representatives from those communities visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers to thank them for their support. "They want to [be able to] come back and say thank you next year and the year after and the year after," Gordon said.
Congressional advocates for increased federal research and development funding last week hailed President Barack Obama's budget outline for FY10, which would give the National Science Foundation $7 billion -- up from the Bush administration's FY09 request of $6.8 billion. NSF pays for about 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by U.S. colleges and universities and is targeted for a doubling of its budget over 10 years as part of competitiveness legislation signed into law in August 2007.
Key investments in science, technology, and education can help reenergize the economy and prepare workers for the jobs of the future, House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon said. Since taking office, Obama has repeatedly stressed the importance of supporting science and his overview highlights the importance of science and technology to several big national goals like education, healthcare, and clean and renewable energy. "What I see in this budget request with regard to energy is that the administration understands we need to be pursuing many different avenues," Gordon said in a statement. "There is not a silver bullet. It's silver buckshot."
Obama's budget allocates $125 million for the Commerce Department's Manufacturing Extension Partnership and $70 million for the Technology Innovation Program, which is a modest increase from the FY09 omnibus. The House-passed version allots $110 million for MEP and $65 million for TIP. The request is a big change from Bush budgets that would have eliminated them. Appropriators annually saved the programs, which offer financing and technical assistance to small businesses and start-ups. Also under the president's plan, NASA would get $18.7 billion, up from the $17.6 billion FY09 request.
Kei Koizumi has been appointed assistant director for federal research and development at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he will be working on federal R&D budget issues and tracking funding. Koizumi served on the Obama transition team as part of the Technology, Innovation & Government Reform Policy Working Group. He said the group talked a lot about science funding in the stimulus bill and brainstormed ways to implement the Obama campaign agenda within the first 100 days of office. Koizumi last served as the longtime director of the R&D budget and policy program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an international nonprofit organization. While at AAAS, Koizumi was the principal budget analyst, editor, and writer for annual reports on federal R&D and for updated analysis on federal R&D on the association's Web site. Koizumi, who considers himself a Democrat, said he is "happy to be entering public service after 14 years in the nonprofit sector." -- Winter Casey
Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:
For the first time in years, government officials and the U.S. biotechnology industry are weighing an overhaul of the regulatory framework for federal and private laboratories that work with the world's deadliest biological agents and toxins. At the heart of the matter is concern over securing biological pathogens with dual-use applications, the kind of infectious organisms that have scientific and medical value when used properly but that also can be turned into a weapon to kill or sicken people.
Spurring calls for action, the congressionally chartered Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism predicted in its final report in December that a bioterrorism attack is likely to occur somewhere in the world within the next five years. The panel also reported significant security gaps at U.S. laboratories. Meanwhile, President George W. Bush, in one of his last acts before leaving office last month, established a high-level federal working group that would make recommendations to President Barack Obama within six months on whether laws and regulations governing security at labs should be changed.
And now, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman and ranking member Susan Collins say they are in the early stages of writ-ing legislation to tighten oversight of so-called high containment laboratories that handle deadly biological pathogens, especially facilities run by private companies. "One of the findings of the WMD Commission is that a lot of the privately operated labs operate for good purposes to develop biotechnology products ... but what they're doing could easy be converted to a biological weapon," Lieberman told CongressDaily.
Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., praised federal research and development dollars included in the $790 billion compromise economic stimulus plan, saying in a Thursday interview that the package is "overall good news for science." The legislation provides for significant increases for innovation at the National Science Foundation, Energy Department's Office of Science and National Institutes of Health and would offer substantially more than a bill to ramp up federal R&D that passed the 110th Congress but proved difficult to fund.
Holt, who is a scientist by training and co-chairs the Congressional Research Caucus, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama have for months insisted that investing in science and technology can help turn the economy around. The America Competes Act "was the best we could do in the previous negotiating climate -- but [the stimulus] goes way beyond that," Holt said, noting that R&D provisions of the original House proposal have largely been sustained. "The science spending in this bill is a better job generator than most of the rest of the bill," he said, estimating that 20,000 research positions are created for every billion dollars spent.
Despite his enthusiasm for the stimulus, Holt is worried that come appropriations season, some may argue that R&D has received plenty. "Underlying this entire stimulus package is the pledge that it not increase the base. A few years from now we don't want to be in a boom-bust cycle," he said. "I hope we can avoid a boom-bust cycle but I also will welcome the boom for however long it lasts." Read a summary from Holt's office about the $22 billion in stimulus R&D investments here.
The Senate's $838 billion economic stimulus package contains about $17.8 billion in federal research and development while the $819 billion House bill, which passed last month, contains $13.2 billion for R&D, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The House version contains far less for the National Institutes of Health but provides more for other R&D programs, AAAS analyst Kei Koizumi said Wednesday. Senators added $6.5 billion for biomedical research during floor debate, bringing NIH's total Senate funding to $10.4 billion. The House offered $3.9 billion.
Basic competitiveness-related research, biomedical research, energy R&D, and climate change programs seem to be the highest priorities for both bills. The National Science Foundation, the Energy Department's science office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology -- three agencies highlighted in U.S. competitiveness legislation that passed the 110th Congress -- would do well in both versions, Koizumi said. But some, like the Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America, believe the Senate language is lacking, and are pushing conferees to restore some of the House-passed funding. A detailed update is available on the AAAS R&D Web site here.
Former Vice President Al Gore helped launch a new feature for Google Earth on Monday that lets users dive beneath the water's surface, explore three-dimensional underwater terrain and browse ocean-related content contributed by leaders in ocean science and advocacy. Gore, who testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, noted that one new add-on lets Web surfers look back in time to see "the unprecedented pace of change taking place on the Earth -- largely because of human influences." One such occurrence is the melting of Glacier National Park's largest glacier over a decade.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt pointed out that "in discussions about climate change, the world's oceans are often overlooked despite being an integral part of the issue." About one-third of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere ends up in the sea and oceanic biodiversity loss over the next 20-plus years will be roughly equivalent to losing an entire Amazon rainforest, he said. During his Senate appearance, Gore called climate change an "unprecedented threat to the existence of civilization" and urged Congress to pass President Barack Obama's economic recovery package that provides for investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, an improved electricity grid and cleaner cars.
Three other new offerings from Google Earth include a time slider to see both newer and older satellite imagery from around the globe; an application that lets users create narrated tours of imagery; and a high resolution 3D function that lets users explore Mars.
Legislation to strengthen and provide transparency to the multi-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative, which passed the House in the 110th Congress 407-6 but stalled in the Senate, was reintroduced Thursday by House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon. It requires departments participating in the effort to develop a plan for understanding the potential environmental, health, and safety risks of nanotechnology -- and a roadmap for implementing it.
The bill would require near- and long-term goals and the funding required, by goal and by agency. It would also seek to leverage private sector investments in nanotechnology and facilitate technology transfer by strengthening public/private partnerships. "The range of potential applications of nanotechnology is broad -- from solar cells to sunscreen, from electronics to energy transformation and storage, to medicine and health," Gordon said, noting it is important to address the potential downsides of the technology early and in a straightforward and open way.
President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce John Holdren, a Harvard physicist, as his science adviser on Saturday. Holdren is a professor of environmental policy at the university and serves as director of the Kennedy School's program on science, technology, and public policy. From 2005 to 2008 he served as president-elect, president, and chair of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Holdren's work focuses on causes and consequences of global environmental change, analysis of energy technologies and policies, ways to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons and materials, and the interaction of content and process in science and technology policy, according to his official bio.
Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., himself a professional physicist, lauded the nomination. He said he believed Holdren to be "the best person I can imagine for this job," having worked with him for decades on a variety of issues. Obama will also nominate Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Those who know Jane Lubchenco know she is a most highly respected research scientist and a long-time leader in bringing science to policymakers and the public," Holt said. "I expect her to be an outstanding leader at the helm of NOAA."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reaffirmed her intent to increase federal support for research and development during a Monday talk at Princeton University, saying "if you want to know the agenda for this new Congress, remember four words: science, science, science and science." However, she warned there would be competition for government dollars (read: economic stimulus) in 2009 and said supporters of science must become active advocates for R&D funding. "We stand by this as the most important investment that we can make in health and education and energy independence, job creation and the defense of America," she said.
Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., a physicist and former Princeton staff member, pointed out the economic importance of research. "We should make a commitment as a nation to research and development," he said. "Science and scientific research are not luxuries to be engaged in in plush times, but rather they are the basis for economic growth, economic prosperity and quality of life." Princeton has a press release with more details here.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J. and other Democrats will join Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman on Monday for a roundtable discussion with science and technology leaders about how to strengthen the national commitment to physical sciences and energy research. Other attendees from Capitol Hill include House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut, Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller of California, Energy Independence and Global Warming Select Committee Chairman Edward Markey of Massachusetts, and Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon of Tennessee.
Industry and academic experts invited to engage with members include: Norman Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin; Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett; Association of American Universities President Robert Berdahl; American Chemical Society President Bruce Bursten; Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; Merck Research Laboratories President Peter Kim and others.
Hollywood heavyweights have joined forces with the National Academy of Sciences to connect the entertainment industry and top scientists and engineers with the goal of getting science incorporated into television shows, films, video games, and other productions. "Television and film can involve the public in the latest advances in science, medicine, and technology," NAS President Ralph Cicerone said. "By building strong connections between the entertainment and science communities, we're hoping to provide an important service to both Hollywood and the viewing public." Read more about the Science and Entertainment Exchange here.
The project will provide filmmakers with "an invaluable connection to scientific truth, but more importantly, we will have the ability to invent and explore the unknown with the great visionaries of science," said Jerry Zucker, director of the movies "Airplane!" and "Ghost." His wife Janet Zucker, a producer, said the exchange will offer "a place where scientific and artistic minds can come together to inspire each other, building a two-way street for both communities to learn and create." TV shows such as "CSI," "House," and "ER" routinely incorporate science into scripts. Films like "Children of Men," Mission Impossible," and "A Beautiful Mind," have similarly capitalized on science themes.
The initiative, which is endorsed by the Directors Guild of America and Writers Guild of America, was unveiled at a symposium this week attended by entertainment industry professionals in Los Angeles. The forum, hosted by writer and producer Seth MacFarlane (creator of "Family Guy"), attracted more than 300 participants including writers, directors, producers, production designers and executives, as well as scientists, engineers, and health professionals.
The American Electronics Association released the latest in a series of competitiveness reports on Tuesday. Some highlights:
▪ In 2007, only 39 percent of fourth graders and 31 percent of eighth graders tested at or above proficient, according to the Department of Education.
▪ From 1996 to 2005, the number of fourth graders testing at or above proficient increased by only one percentage point and over the same period, science proficiency of eighth graders did not improve.
▪ Massachusetts ranked first in the nation in both fourth and eighth grade math proficiency in 2007.
▪ North Dakota ranked first in the nation for eighth grade science in 2005, the most recent data available.
The findings show math and science proficiency among both groups remains unacceptably low, AeA said. "These skills need to be developed at the K-12 level or students will lack the foundation to pursue math, science, and engineering degrees in college," AeA research director Josh James said. "In a world that is increasingly being driven by technology, these skills are going to continue to be in high demand regardless of the field of study."
More than 250 high-level academic, business and government leaders gathered in Oak Ridge, Tenn. on Tuesday to hear from Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., Rep. Zach Wamp, R -Tenn., and science and industry officials from IBM and National Semiconductor. The event, organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, examined the health and direction of the nation's S&T enterprise.
Conference participants reaffirmed the consensus regarding the essential role science and technology plays in America’s global competitiveness and sought to identify actions necessary to advance goals related to the need to prioritize and increase funding for basic research in the physical sciences and the need to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.
“Policymakers no longer need convincing of the importance of S&T to America’s long-term economic competitiveness,” OSTP Deputy Director Richard Russell said. “We must now transform this consensus into real progress by securing the investments called for by the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative and establishing momentum for these objectives that will carry into the next administration.”
The Computing Research Policy Blog reports that an effort is under way to influence the National Science Foundation's FY09 funding early this appropriations season. Reps. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., Rush Holt, D-N.J., Bob Inglis, R-S.C., and Brian Baird, D-Wash., have put together a letter to the House Appropriations Committee leaders to push for full funding of NSF's $7.3 billion budget request.
That's a 13.6 percent boost and they're looking for more of their colleagues to co-sign. The Computing Research Association has joined with many others in the science advocacy community in alerting members to encourage their lawmakers to sign on. Read more about the initiative here.
In related news, I had a story in Wednesday's CongressDaily AM edition about a related campaign. Holt and Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., the co-chairs of the Congressional Research Caucus, joined scientists, engineers and graduate students to rally for additional funding of major science agencies.
A new University of Wisconsin-Madison study indicates that despite an explosion in academic patenting, most life science professors still do research the "old-fashioned" way -- by winning federal grants, publishing results in scientific journals, and graduating PhD students, researchers Brad Barham and Jeremy Foltz.
Their online survey of more than 1,800 U.S. life scientists 125 universities found that 90 percent of researchers held one or fewer patents, and just 8 percent had received patent revenues. Federal funds made up 67 percent of the pool's research budget, while industry funds contributed 5 percent.
Furthermore, 53 percent of scientists reported no commercial ties whatsoever, such as invention disclosures or company board memberships. "The connection to commercialization appears to be marginal in terms of funding the overall research enterprise," Foltz said in a press release.
When the Bayh-Dole Act gave American universities the right to patent inventions made with federal dollars and license them to firms for profit, patenting soared, they said. In the years since, the number of patents issued annually has grown from 40 to nearly 800 in life sciences alone, and so have licensing deals and faculty spin-off companies.
Current U.S. government policy on managing the potential health and safety risks of nanotechnologies, which are created from the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular levels, is not advancing with the speed of advancements in technology, a scientist said Monday.
The government has been “approaching 21st century technologies with a 20th century mindset," said Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies Chief Scientist Andrew Maynard before the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Maynard would like the government to develop a goal-driven risk research strategy to provide decision-makers -- including regulators, industry and consumers -- with scientific information on how to handle nanotechnologies as safely as possible, according to a statement from the Woodrow Wilson International Center. He is also seeking an increase in research funding for agencies responsible for oversight and related research, more government coordination and an increase in government-industry cooperation.
The agencies include: the Environmental Protection Agency, Food & Drug Administration, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. -- Winter Casey
Wireless power to recharge laptops and mobile phones could soon become a reality according to a U.S. team of physicists. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown how power can be transmitted without wires.
The scientists demonstrated the idea using copper antennas, a light bulb, and an electricity supply. They believe that "scaled-down versions of the system could be made for portable devices without sacrificing efficiency. This might also enable the design of electronic medical implants that do not need cumbersome wiring," according to the Institute of Physics.
The concept of wireless power has been entertained since the early 1900s. At that time the Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla envisioned a world of wireless power using a network of high-voltage coils and large electric fields. Tesla's idea was held back by safety concerns.
More recent proposals have transmitters emitting in all directions, which has been inefficient, and unidirectional transmitters have been impractical for most applications because they need a clear line of sight between transmitter and receiver, the institute said. Using certain electromagnetic waves that generally tend to decay quickly as they extend from an antenna could be the solution to past problems, MIT researchers noted.
To get a little bit geeky, the scientists "thought that if the receiver could resonate with the transmitter, the evanescent field would instigate a current between the two. In this way, non-resonant objects placed in the field would neither interrupt the signal nor absorb much of the field's energy." -- Winter Casey
Reprinted from today's PM Edition
NASA's largest union complained in a March 16 letter to congressional appropriators that the space agency is "shirking its outreach and educational responsibilities."
On Friday, Lee Stone, vice president for legislative affairs at the Ames Research Center chapter of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, said that as a scientist, he is most concerned about the deterioration of a post-doctoral fellows program that had recruited much of NASA's talent in the past.
"Twenty years ago, people like myself and [many senior staff in his division] were brought in as post-doctoral fellows," said Stone, a human factors researcher. "The funds for that have almost completely dried up." Like interns in medical school, the fellows supplied NASA research centers with extra manpower and gave NASA scientists the chance to tap -- and usually keep -- the talented ones for permanent positions.
The union called on appropriators to give NASA about $1 billion more than President Bush proposed for fiscal 2008, or a total of $18.3 billion.
"Given that the Department of Defense's military space programs have been funded in excess of $20 billion annually and that NASA's exploration activities will likely produce new dual-use capabilities, we recommend that you consider moving some space funding from DOD to NASA to cover the plus-up," the letter said.
On Friday, NASA defended the agency's commitment to education. "Education is and will continue to be a fundamental element of NASA's activities reflecting a diverse portfolio of higher, pre-college and informal education programs," spokesman Bob Jacobs said.
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