A Bastion of Sanity in the Land of Oz
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In keeping with the Year of Science theme, this month will focus on celebrating evolution. To start, here’s first part of the HHMI Holiday Lecture Series from 2005: Evolution – constant change and common threads.
And here’s a quick quiz to test your own knowledge of evolution.
On this Darwin Day, the 200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, and with the election of our new President and his promise to restore science to its rightful place in informing policy, 2009 has been declared the Year of Science by COPUS, the Coalition of the Public Understanding of Science. The Year of Science is intended to be:
a national year-long celebration of science to engage the public in science and improve public understanding about how science works, why it matters, and who scientists are.
NPR did a short interview with one of the organizers of YoS, which you can listen to here.
Last night, the House and Senate agreed on a compromise stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provides more than $15 billion investment in Science and Technology, including:
- $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, for basic research in fundamental science and engineering – which spurs discovery and innovation.
- $1.6 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which funds research in such areas as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics, nuclear physics and fusion energy sciences – areas crucial to our energy future.
- $400 million for the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to support high-risk, high-payoff research into energy sources and energy efficiency in collaboration with industry.
- $580 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, including the Technology Innovation Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
- $8.5 billion for NIH, including expanding good jobs in biomedical research to study diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, and heart disease.
- $1 billion for NASA, including $400 million to put more scientists to work doing climate change research.
- $1.5 billion for NIH to renovate university research facilities and help them compete for biomedical research grants.
More posts on the Year of Science theme will follow. Today, I am grateful that Congress saw past the limited view of a few Senators (Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Susan Collins (R-ME), in particular), who were working to gut science funding from the stimulus package, and realized that this funding is not only critical to advancing science and technology, but also our economy.
The bill is expected to be on the President’s desk by Monday.
I recently saw Senator Obama Goes to Africa, recorded in 2006 on his diplomatic mission to Kenya. A couple of things struck me. First, he’s not afraid to bring up sensitive and controversial subjects, whether it’s corruption in the Kenyan government or a dangerous health policy in South Africa.
Second, he leads by example. HIV testing is almost a taboo subject in Africa, where in South Africa alone, 3.2 million women are living with HIV/AIDS, and an estimated 1.4 million children have been orphaned as a result of AIDS. While on his visit to Kenya, he and his wife, Michelle, both took a public HIV test, to encourage Kenyans to know their status and take charge of their health.
I’m looking forward to a leader who has connections and concerns outside the US, who can reach out and build consensus with other nations, who can tackle the difficulties that face our country with intelligence and sensitivity, and who has a genuine care for the common people. Change is coming, and not a moment too soon.
I ran across TED this morning. It looks like a wonderful resource, not only for online learning, but also for access to some of the best thinkers and innovators on the planet.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
What is exceptional about these talks is that the ideas are presented by the innovators themselves. I’ve only scratched the surface of the site, but I’ll be posting my favorites here.
First up is Jane Goodall, pioneering primatologist, who discovered chimpanzee tool use in the wild. She’s been an inspiration to generations of anthropologists, myself included.
The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers
Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World by Eugenie Samuel Reich