May 15th, 2013
This week, the National Research Council is holding public comment meetings on increasing public access to federally funded research—both access to the data and publications. We encouraged the UCS Science Network to weigh in with their own ideas on how the government can increase public access to its science. After all, this is the science that we all pay for through our tax dollars. Read More
April 29th, 2013
This Wednesday, I’ll be speaking at the inaugural event of ScienceOnlineDC about the recent UCS report I co-authored, Grading Government Transparency: Scientists’ Freedom to Speak (and Tweet) at Federal Agencies. ScienceOnlineDC is a newly formed Washington, DC satellite of ScienceOnline, a nonprofit organization that facilitates conversations, community, and collaborations at the intersection of science and the Web. Read More
April 15th, 2013
Today is April 15, a day that many Americans dread: Tax Day. And it’s not just you and I who need to file our taxes. American corporations have to do their taxes too. (The Supreme Court ruled that they are people now, after all.) And while I definitely don’t look forward to doing my own taxes, I am interested in seeing what information comes back on corporate foundation tax forms. Read More
March 15th, 2013
UPDATE Monday March 18 3:00PM (see below):
Who ever said the federal government can’t work fast?
This morning, UCS released a report analyzing how federal government agencies and departments allow their scientists to communicate with the public. We found that while many agencies have better policies since 2008, there are still improvements to be made. Read More
March 14th, 2013
Social media can transform debates, inform discussions and, as we saw with the Arab spring, help spread democracy. And information and science have a key role to play in democracy (hence the new Center for Science and Democracy here at UCS). Scientists working for government agencies such as NASA, NOAA, the EPA, and the FDA have a lot to contribute to discussions about the science-based challenges we face. Unfortunately, agency policies combined with a culture of timidity are often constraining individual government scientists from jumping into social media. Read More
March 14th, 2013
You have likely heard that science journalism is in decline. No surprises there – one after another we have watched newspapers reduce the number of science beat reporters or announce the closing of their science desks altogether. We have also heard a great deal of debate over what the new on-line sources of information mean for how science is understood. Read More
February 22nd, 2013
The buzz is that sometime soon the White House is likely to nominate Gina McCarthy as the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. I hope the buzz is right. Read More
February 20th, 2013
It’s not often that some of the best and most creative minds in medicine, medical ethics and healthcare all gather in one place. It’s even more rare when all these individuals are gathered together to focus on one problem—undue corporate influence on the treatment of patients in the U.S. Read More
February 15th, 2013
Back in 2010, when Congress approved the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare,” it included a requirement to help all of us become more knowledgeable about our health care, and to reduce unacceptable conflicts of interest between physicians and drug and device makers. Read More
December 12th, 2012
If you want to see what a world without regulatory safeguards looks like, you don’t have to look far. The current and evolving outbreak of fungal meningitis tied to one large compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts is a case study in what happens when state and federal regulators fail. It also shows what can happen when conflicts of interest get in the way of regulation based on the best available science. Read More
© 2013
