Science & Policy News

June 2008

Top Engineers Shun Military; Concerns Grow: Paul G. Kaminski completed graduate work in 1971 from M.I.T. and Stanford, and he started building advanced airplanes for the Air Force. If Mr. Kaminski were coming out of school today, chances are he would be going to work for the likes of Microsoft or Google. This new trend on a broad scale is now plaguing the military.
June 26th, 2008

Are Big Oil and Big Coal Climate Criminals? James E. Hansen, the man who showcased global warming to congress 20 years ago, has suggested in both his oral presentation and a written statement that the heads of oil and coal companies who knowingly delayed action on curbing greenhouse gas emissions were committing a crime.
June 25th, 2008

What's Obscene? Google may have an Answer: Judges and jurors who must decide whether sexually explicit material is obscene are asked to use a local yardstick: does the material violate community standards? That is often a tricky question because there is no simple, concrete way to gauge a community’s tastes and values.
June 25th, 2008

Genetic Testing for Consumers Scrutinized: Last week California sent cease-and-desist letters to 13 different personal-genomics companies, who provide genetic testing directly to consumers. But California's actions are likely just the beginning of a larger regulatory debate.
June 24th, 2008

Dogs don't Automatically Get Along with Robots: People around the U.S. are increasingly using robots like Roomba to vacuum their floors, and robots like Pleo for fun. But these new robot owners are finding out that their flesh and blood pets do not always take a liking for the robots.
June 24th, 2008

Financial Hardship and the Unhappiness Paradox: Overwhelming majorities of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the country's economic direction, and the intensity of unhappiness is greater than it has been in 15 years.
June 24th, 2008

Scientists Develop Bug; Eats Waste, Excretes Oil: Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'. This bacteria feeds on agricultural waste and they do something extraordinary, they excrete crude oil.
June 19th, 2008

Blogger Arrests Hit Record High: More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report. Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog.
June 17th, 2008

Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast, Email: The onslaught of cellphone calls and e-mail and instant messages is fracturing attention spans and hurting productivity. It is a common complaint. But now the very companies that helped create the flood are trying to mop it up.
June 16th, 2008

Satellites and Human Rights: It’s pretty clear that technology can potentially smooth the path toward 9 billion people (more or less) seeking a decent life. And there is growing evidence that human rights can be aided by gadgets — in this case eyes in the sky.
June 16th, 2008

Spain Treats Child Phone Addicts: Two children in Spain have been admitted to a mental health institution to be treated for addiction to their mobile phones, Spanish media report. An addiction expert warns that these cases could be the "tip of the iceberg".
June 13th, 2008

Ministers Plot Nuclear Future of UK: The UK was a global pioneer in nuclear power, but has lagged behind others in terms of deciding how to dispose of its waste. The government is inviting communities in England, Northern Ireland and Wales to volunteer to host waste from the UK's half-century of nuclear power.
June 12th, 2008

New Hurdle for Stem Cells: A Nobel Prize-winning scientist says it could be tougher than first thought to harness the healing power of stem cells in medicine. Professor Capecchi said the finding suggested stem cell biology could be "more complicated" than previously thought, which could be bad news for patients hoping for the swift arrival of new therapies.
June 12th, 2008

Hints of Time Before the Big Bang: A team of physicists has claimed that our view of the early Universe may contain the signature of a time before the Big Bang. Dr Adrienne Erickcek, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and colleagues now believe these fluctuations contain hints that our Universe "bubbled off" from a previous one.
June 11th, 2008

Brainpower May Lie in Complexity of Synapses: Evolution’s recipe for making a brain more complex has long seemed simple enough. Just increase the number of nerve cells, or neurons, and the interconnections between them. But a whole new dimension of evolutionary complexity has now emerged from a cross-species study led by Dr. Seth Grant at the Sanger Institute in England.
June 10th, 2008

Study Shows We're Creatures of Habit: New research that makes creative use of sensitive location-tracking data from 100,000 cellphones in Europe suggests that most people can be found in one of just a few locations at any time, and that they do not generally go far from home.
June 6th, 2008