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FY 2012 Budgets: Good News….And Not so Good News

November 22, 2011 – 11:52 AM

Despite dire economic news and predictions for decreased federal budgets, we were pleased to learn that cuts to NIST and NSF in the House and Senate versions of the Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations bills were reversed in conference.  We appreciate the efforts of our membership in helping to reinforce the importance of federal science funding […]

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It Isn’t Rocket Science – But it IS Physics (and materials science and computer science)

September 27, 2011 – 2:36 PM

IPad Sign   Although the science community understands the critical link between federal funding for early stage research and life-changing products on the market, most members of Congress and their staff do not.  This unfortunate void has led to threats to slash federal science budgets at a time when they should be increasing to reinforce […]

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Setting the Record Straight: The Coburn Report on NSF Riddled with Inaccuracies

July 28, 2011 – 11:05 AM

On May 26th, Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released an “oversight report” which purported to raise “serious questions regarding the [NSF] management and priorities. The report identified more than $1.2 billion the National Science Foundation (NSF) has lost due to waste, fraud, duplication and mismanagement and an additional $1.7 billion in unspent funds.”  The report, entitled […]

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Science Funding in the Pre-Partisan Age

July 25, 2011 – 1:38 PM

In this intensely partisan environment where those who have traditionally supported Federal science funding have, in their zeal to cut, cut, cut, begun to do the unthinkable, I would like to hearken back to a time of yore. The date: April 2, 1988.  Then-President Ronald Reagan, in a radio address, spoke to the American people […]

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Girls Rule at Google Science Fair

July 21, 2011 – 4:38 PM

It comes as no surprise that women continue to be underrepresented in the “hard” sciences”.  Myriad studies continue to attempt to explain the ongoing disparity.  Girls are discouraged from feeding their natural enthusiasm for the sciences.  Male professors and fellow students are antagonistic.  They don’t encourage girls the way they encourage boys.  They don’t fit […]

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James Webb Telescope Funding Update

July 18, 2011 – 9:58 AM

According to Michael S. Lubell’s July 12 blog post, the House was poised to eliminate funding for the James Webb Space Telescope. Well, during a 4 ½-hour markup of the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee rejected an attempt to restore that funding – the Administration request is […]

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SCIENCE LITERACY AND NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS

March 16, 2011 – 4:37 PM

For nearly a week, pundits, analysts and talking heads have flooded the airwaves, adding their two cents to the barrage of information about the unfolding situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in quake-ravaged Japan. They have covered the spectrum – from alarmist predictions of a “Chernobyl-like” cataclysm to random use of the word […]

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We Must Educate New Members on Science, or Risk Losing It All

January 13, 2011 – 4:17 PM

A jubilant Rush Holt, representative of the 12th Congressional district in New Jersey, was sworn in for his 7th term on Jan. 5 before a crowd of supporters. He is now the sole physicist in Congress. During the ceremonial event, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi lauded Congressman Holt, a “real live rocket scientist” for […]

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The Stimulus – Still Reaping Results

October 25, 2010 – 12:58 PM

Amid all the gloom and doom talk about our mounting deficit, towering bills and crushing unemployment, I would like to say the following:  If it were not for the stimulus, the situation would have been worse.  Way worse.  In fact, some say, if it were not for the implementation of the American Reinvestment and Recovery […]

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The Storm Continues Unabated….

September 27, 2010 – 11:18 AM

The panel that brought you the landmark Rising Above the Gathering Storm report, the very same report that led Congress to pass the America COMPETES Act, has issued an update, and it isn’t pretty. Yes, Congress passed COMPETES.  Yes, Congress set science on a 10-year doubling path.  And yes, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act […]

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