January 2009 Archives
January 30, 2009 4:48 PM
Smut Makes NSF Fans Squirm
The $6 billion National Science Foundation usually flies under the radar here in Washington, D.C., but a kerfuffle involving Internet pornography has angered hard-charging senator Charles Grassley (R-IA). And that's got fans...
January 30, 2009 2:46 PM
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It's Gonna Take a Lot More Than Money ...
…according to Beryl Lieff Benderly, to help young students who want to pursue scientific careers get ahead and thereby bolster America's stature as a research powerhouse. Politicians who want to...
January 30, 2009 12:19 PM
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Global Health at a Discount
Seven so-called neglected diseases just became a little less neglected. This morning, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a new $34 million grant in support of a global network...
January 29, 2009 5:26 PM
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The Scribe and the Rovers
Great poetic find by the New York Times's Kenneth Chang. It's a touching counterpoint, 2 days after writer John Updike passed away, to the news that the NASA Spirit rover on Mars...
January 29, 2009 3:27 PM
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Canadian Genomicists Lament Cuts
Researchers funded by Genome Canada, Canada’s preeminent funding body for large-scale genomics and proteomics research, are reacting with shock to news that the Canadian government is withdrawing funding from the...
January 29, 2009 2:21 PM
Activists Allege Iranian War on Science
While President Obama says he's reaching out to Iran and his Iranian counterpart is responding with bombast, the outlook for scientific diplomacy with Iran is growing chillier than ever. Two...
January 29, 2009 1:46 PM
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Budget Squeeze Has Cali Ocean Mappers Feeling Lost
California marine scientists have encountered some rough seas lately, following the state finance department's decision last month to freeze all funding derived from the sale of bonds. That decision...
January 28, 2009 3:11 PM
Health Hazard Shuts Building at Los Alamos
Officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory announced today that they are investigating a mysterious case of beryllium contamination. Recent tests revealed that a storage building contained high levels of beryllium...
January 28, 2009 2:47 PM
How the House and Senate Want to Stimulate Science
The Senate yesterday released its markup of the massive stimulus package, an $825 billion spending and tax bill meant to revitalize the U.S. economy. As with the draft released by the...
January 28, 2009 10:42 AM
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Canada Cuts Research Funding
Canadian scientists are afraid that the government's decision to cut funding to the main source of research grants will trigger a new brain drain to the United States. Prime Minister...
January 27, 2009 4:19 PM
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U.S. Ocean Drilling Ship Returns to the Sea
The deep-sea scientific drilling ship JOIDES Resolution, the JR for short, has finally left the shipyards. The newly renovated vessel departed Singapore on Sunday, marking the end of an unprecedented...
January 27, 2009 1:25 PM
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Sarkozy Slams French Science
PARIS— Words can still sting. Incensed by a provocative policy speech delivered by President Nicolas Sarkozy last Thursday—and fed up with the frantic pace of reform—France’s researchers’ unions have threatened...
January 27, 2009 10:38 AM
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Dutch University Cuts Lead to Biologist Losses
In a move that has drawn international protests, Leiden University in the Netherlands has responded to governmental budget cuts by firing a group of tenured evolutionary biology researchers. A petition...
January 26, 2009 6:06 PM
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Controversy in Their Wake, Geoengineering Experiment in Southern Ocean to Begin
ScienceInsider can report that a 10-week, 300-km² experiment to create a massive bloom of algae in the Southern Ocean will begin tomorrow. Furor over the potential environmental impact of the project...
Obama Wants Big Money for Science Students
In his first presidential radio address on 24 January, Barack Obama announced that the Administration's proposed stimulus package working its way through Congress would "triple the number of fellowships in...
January 26, 2009 2:30 PM
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Update: Ebola-Reston Virus Jumped From Pigs to At Least One Human
The Ebola-Reston virus, recently found for the first time in pigs in the Philippines, has now been confirmed to have infected at least one human. Scientists are relieved because the...
January 23, 2009 4:20 PM
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Report Calls for Boost in IT Research, Policies
A new report from the U.S. National Academies warns that the country's top ranking in information technology research and development "is now under pressure" and could disappear within a generation....
January 22, 2009 1:50 PM
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Europe's R&D Report Card: Good, But Could Do Better
Europe is increasingly becoming a popular place to do science, according to a report released today by the European Union. But that's not due to any big funding increases from...
January 22, 2009 3:07 AM
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Update: Tough Sentences for Animal Rights Activists
At the end of 2008, a British court found four people guilty of conspiring to blackmail companies that work with an animal testing laboratory. Yesterday, those four, and three others...
January 21, 2009 3:01 PM
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Nanotechnology Bill Would Have Obama Think Small
The U.S. House of Representatives Technology Committee has reintroduced legislation to reauthorize the National Nanotechnology Initiative and beef up environmental and health research related to nanotechnology. The bill is essentially...
January 21, 2009 12:42 PM
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Iraqi Minister Fires Museum Chief
Should the Iraqi government reopen its long-shuttered archaeology museum in Baghdad? An Iraqi minister says yes, and the head of the country's archaeology board says no. So on 11...
January 20, 2009 12:52 PM
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Obama's Inaugural Nod to Science
Given how many problems the country faces, researchers in the United States will no doubt welcome this brief promise in President Obama's inauguration speech: For everywhere we look, there is work...
January 19, 2009 7:50 AM
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Edgy New Science Magazine Debuts in China
BEIJING—Chinese scientists have long hungered for a news forum they could call their own: a magazine that would probe beyond the headlines of the latest findings and explore issues...
January 16, 2009 6:31 PM
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Sprucing Up the Ag Labs
The U.S. Department of Agriculture bills its Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) as "The World's Largest Most Diversified Agricultural Research Complex." Still, the place is a shadow of its former...
January 16, 2009 6:10 PM
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NIH's Bounty Split Between Bricks and Basic Science
Biomedical researchers will have the chance to apply for quick-hit, $1 million challenge grants as part of the funding that the National Institutes of Health is slated to receive under...
Biodefense Gets Its Billion
The stimulus package adds $900 million to the biodefense gravy train, which has received billions in federal funds since 2001. About $420 million of the money would go to the...
January 16, 2009 4:16 PM
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New Deputy Director at NSF
Cora Marrett has been appointed acting deputy director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, effective 18 January. She replaces Kathie Olsen, who has been reassigned to work in the Office...
January 16, 2009 4:15 PM
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Ocean Scientists See Waves of Change Lapping Up
[Editor's note: the following text has been corrected in italics.] The only funds directed towards the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the House of Representative’s draft stimulus package is...
January 16, 2009 3:40 PM
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CDC Would Spend Stimulus Dough on Bricks, Mortar
Facilities are a big focus of the House stimulus bill, the thinking being that scientific construction provides jobs now and offers intellectual investment for the future. Thus more spacious lab...
January 16, 2009 3:32 PM
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Clues to Life May Change Selection of Next Mars Rover Site
Yesterday's announcement of methane on Mars--a possible byproduct of life--could influence where NASA's next rover touches down, according to an agency official. One possible target is Nili Fossae, a...
January 16, 2009 3:18 PM
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Obama Will Unveil His Stem Cell Policy. Boosters Debate the Choreography
Stem cell supporters are in a frenzy over the coming change in presidential policy and have been holding press conferences abrim with enthusiasm, if not content. But at a meeting...
January 16, 2009 2:16 PM
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A $3 Billion Bonanza for NSF?
Officials at the National Science Foundation are still pinching themselves over the agency's high profile in the $825 billion package of proposed tax cuts and new spending that Democrats introduced...
House Cash Would Bring NASA Down to Earth
Space program critics often complain that spending money on space doesn't benefit people stuck within the confines of this planet. But in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since...
January 15, 2009 6:03 PM
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Your Definitive Stimulus Source ...
... is budget analysis ace Kei Koizumi of AAAS. And not just because he works for the same company as ScienceInsider, and his office is downstairs. His initial take on...
January 15, 2009 5:44 PM
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Louisiana Creates: New Pro-Intelligent Design Rules for Teachers
Last year, Louisiana passed the Louisiana Science Education Act, a law that many scientists and educators said was a thinly veiled attempt to allow creationism and its variants into the...
January 15, 2009 12:58 PM
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Research Gets Billions in House Recovery Plan
House Democrats today unveiled an $825 billion plan to boost the U.S. economy that includes $10 billion for research and instrumentation and another $6 billion to modernize academic laboratories. A...
January 15, 2009 12:15 PM
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New Wings for NASA?
The appointment of a new NASA administrator typically comes months after the 20 January swearing-in of a new president. But Washington insiders say that President-elect Barack Obama may name his...
January 14, 2009 4:10 PM
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Acquittals in CJD Trial Divide French Scientists
PARIS--Few criminal investigations go on so long that one of the accused dies of old age, and fewer draw upon the opinions of someone soon to win a Nobel Prize,...
January 14, 2009 2:44 PM
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Obama's Pick for EPA Pledges to Rely on Science
"Science, science, science, and the rule of law," demanded Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) at the confirmation hearing today for Lisa Jackson, the presumptive head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency....
January 14, 2009 11:56 AM
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Duncan Hearing Mum on Science and Math Education
The National Science Board--the body that oversees the National Science Foundation--is so worried about the state of math and science education in U.S. schools that it sent President-elect Barack Obama...
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