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May 12, 2010 12:49 PM |

Do You Heart 'The Hartwell Paper'?

by Eli Kintisch

On the eve of today's rollout of the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill (that was leaked yesterday) in the U.S. Senate, The Economist has delved into a potentially influential new paper...

April 22, 2010 3:38 PM |

Europe's Humongous Study of Cell Phone Risks

by Gretchen Vogel

Scientists in Britain today asked 2.4 million cell phone users to participate in the world's largest study of the health effects of mobile phone use. The researchers hope that...

March 22, 2010 2:48 PM |

Internet Pioneer to Chart Web's Next Leap

by Tim Wogan

Tim Berners-Lee, the non-Al Gore inventor of the World Wide Web, is teaming up with Web science expert Nigel Shadbolt of the University of Southampton, Highfield, in the United...

March 11, 2010 5:27 PM |

NIST Looks to Reorganize Its Labs, Top Management

by Robert F. Service

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is reorganizing its eight laboratory divisions. Currently, they're set up along disciplinary boundaries—such as physics and materials science and engineering within a...

February 10, 2010 4:22 AM |

Much Ado About Spoofing; Climate Economist Has E-mail Hijacked

by John Travis

Every climate scientist in the world must be begging their information technology experts for the latest antivirus, spam, and firewall software. In the latest e-mail fracas, Nicholas Stern, who in 2006 led an influential review...

January 21, 2010 10:19 PM |

Clinton Lays Down Gauntlet on Internet Freedom

by Richard Stone

BEIJING—In a speech yesterday at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a hard-hitting speech in defense of a free and unfettered Internet. The...

January 8, 2010 7:02 AM |

U.K. Lords: Nanofoods Deserve Further Scrutiny

by Tim Wogan

You might think that the cleverest thing a physicist can do with your food is to explain why dropped toast always lands butter side down (incidentally, they can). But...

December 23, 2009 10:21 AM |

Harsh Reaction to Chemistry Claims Cast Doubt on Reactome Paper

by John Travis

A newly developed research tool called a reactome array, which has attracted widespread interest from biologists, has come under intense fire from scientists who say the description of the...

December 15, 2009 3:20 PM |

Global Innovation and the Recession: A New Analysis

by Eliot Marshall

Spending on innovation among the richest nations took a nosedive early last year and began a slow recovery in 2009—shown in sharp relief by data in a report issued...

December 9, 2009 1:20 PM |

NIST to Get 4.5% Increase

by Eli Kintisch

House of Representatives and Senate conferees have agreed to give the National Institute of Standards and Technology $856 million for 2010, a 4.5% increase over last year's budget. The total,...

October 28, 2009 12:07 PM |

Might Google Have Been Israeli? The Little Choices That Shape U.S. Innovation

by Eli Kintisch

Google has been an American technological success story if there ever was one, leading to billions of dollars in technological innovation, and, recently, fledgling research in important fields like energy,...

October 27, 2009 4:55 PM |

Why Isn't Science at Homeland Security Peer Reviewed?

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Since being established 6 years ago, the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security has been the black sheep (subs. required) of the federal scientific community,...

October 8, 2009 11:15 AM |

Obama Honors Science Medalists, Present and Future

by Jeffrey Mervis

President Barack Obama spent time yesterday looking at the stars—both real and those in the scientific firmament. In a formal ceremony in the East Room of the White House,...

September 21, 2009 2:57 PM |

Should the U.S. Build Its Next Coal Plants Underground?

by Eli Kintisch

Might burning coal thousands of feet below the surface be the secret to making coal climate friendly?That's what fans of underground coal gasification will be saying this week at...

August 7, 2009 5:24 PM |

IBM's Kappos Approved as U.S. Patent Chief

by Eliot Marshall

David Kappos, IBM's former vice president and chief patent attorney, has been approved by the Senate to be the new director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Kappos easily...

August 4, 2009 10:59 AM |

Small Business Research Program Gets 2-Month Lifeline

by Jeffrey Mervis

A $2.5 billion-a-year program to fund research by small businesses received a 2-month extension last week. The move gives the U.S. Congress more time to reconcile differences in how to...

July 7, 2009 3:31 PM |

Academy Report Tells Obama to Think Big About Space

by Andrew Lawler

The Obama Administration should use the U.S. civil space program to help meet a broader array of national goals, says a report released today by the National Academies' National Research...

June 29, 2009 5:38 PM |

Prez Nixes Power-Wasting Lights

by Daniel Charles

Energy efficiency got a moment to bask in the sun of presidential attention this morning. With the Senate poised to take up climate legislation, President Barack Obama took the opportunity...

June 23, 2009 2:22 PM |

New Search Engine Lifts Veil on NIH Grants

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The clunky grants database long used by the National Institutes of Health is on its way out. Last week, the agency unveiled a beta version of RePORTER, a snazzy new...

June 17, 2009 5:43 PM |

Panel Recommends Climate Satellite Shakeup

by Erik Stokstad

WASHINGTON, D.C.--A blue-ribbon panel recommended today that the White House intervene in the management of a crucial satellite program that has been plagued by cost overruns and delays, citing...

June 12, 2009 12:22 PM |

Carbon-Capture Coal Plant Is Back, But Still Bleeding Red Ink

by Daniel Charles

The Department of Energy announced this morning that it is willing to spend $1 billion on a cutting‑edge power plant in Illinois called FutureGen if the plant's industrial partners pay...

June 3, 2009 4:30 PM |

Supremes Rattle the Patent World

by Eliot Marshall

“Every patent lawyer in the country is on edge,” says Hans Sauer, speaking about a case that’s headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sauer, a patent counsel for the...

May 15, 2009 6:10 AM |

Superstumble for Japan's Supercomputer

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—A Japanese consortium’s plans to build the world's fastest supercomputer suffered a setback on 14 May when two private companies involved announced they are withdrawing to cut costs. The Next-Generation...

May 13, 2009 12:16 PM |

Foes of Gene Patents Sue Over BRCA Test

by Eliot Marshall

Two advocacy groups joined with cancer patients and doctors yesterday to launch a sweeping attack on human gene patents. They filed a lawsuit arguing that those for breast cancer genes...

April 30, 2009 12:00 PM |

How Powerful Are the Pentagon's Hackers?

by Daniel Charles

The National Research Council stepped into the shadowy world of cyberwarfare this week, issuing a call for open discussion of the Pentagon's efforts to build computer viruses or other novel...

April 24, 2009 11:35 AM |

Obama Science Shop Gets Tech Boss

by Jeffrey Mervis

Buried in the news of President Barack Obama's recent appointment of Aneesh Chopra as chief technology officer in the White House is the fact that Chopra will also serve as...

March 12, 2009 5:46 PM |

A Vote for Pi

by Erik Stokstad

Science policy doesn’t always have to be serious. The House of Representatives today passed a resolution designating 14 March as “Pi Day.” (3.14, get it?) POLITICO has a fun story...

February 23, 2009 11:52 AM |

Do Computers Help Students Learn Math Better?

by Jeffrey Mervis

They may not, says a new study. It may not be what companies want to hear, but the math scores of U.S. students using educational software are no better...

February 19, 2009 3:10 PM |

Lawmakers to Get Cracking on Forensics Report

by Constance Holden

The New York Times reports today that members of the U.S. Congress have already committed to holding hearings on the recommendations of a long-awaited National Academy of Sciences report on...

February 18, 2009 7:04 AM |

Researchers Discuss Viruses--and Take a Computer One Home

by Martin Enserink

VIENNA—Viruses often lurk in the most unexpected places, several scientists warned at the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance, which was held here last weekend. And they were right....

February 2, 2009 3:39 PM |

A New Space Prize Sign of the Times?

by Eli Kintisch

The Heinlein Prize Trust is offering a new $25,000 prize for scientists to design microgravity experiments to fly into space in the next 2 years. SpaceX, an innovative commercial space company...

January 23, 2009 4:20 PM |

Report Calls for Boost in IT Research, Policies

by Daniel Charles

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 8, 2009 1:16 PM |

Raining Cannonballs on the "Fortress America" Mentality

by Eli Kintisch

Rules meant to protect the United States from sharing important scientific secrets with its enemies have created a thicket of red tape that is hindering the work of high-tech companies,...

January 6, 2009 5:06 PM |

Commerce Gushes over $88 Million in Infrastructure Research

by Eli Kintisch

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology is putting up big money to tackle infrastructure problems like leaking main water lines and damaged bridges. For years, the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based...

January 5, 2009 4:07 PM |

Will 2009 Be the Year of Science?

by Elizabeth Pennisi

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS—A loose alliance of 500 scientific organizations has declared 2009 the Year of Science and is hoping the effort will lead to a spate of projects to put...