March 05, 2008
Lobbying For Science Funding Starts Early
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.
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September 14, 2007
Study: Basic R&D Robust; University Patenting Grows
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.
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June 26, 2007
Scientist: U.S. Nanotech Policy Needs Improvement
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
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June 21, 2007
Wireless Power To Recharge Laptops?
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
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March 23, 2007
Union Blasts NASA Over Education Budget
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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