UCS Science Network

UCS

Through our Science Network, UCS collaborates with nearly 20,000 scientists and technical experts across the country, including physicists, ecologists, engineers, public health professionals, economists, and energy analysts. Science Network Voices gives Equation readers access to the depth of expertise and broad perspective on current issues that our Science Network members bring to UCS. The views expressed in Science Network posts are those of the author alone.

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Anthony Eyring/UCS

Making the grass GREENER on the other side with H.R. 763

Filiberto Palacios, MPH

December 19, 2019 10:03 AM EDT

Scientists found, in the 2018 IPCC 1.5 report, that we only have 12 years to substantially reduce emissions in order to avert unprecedented levels of devastation. The murkiness surrounding the issue is not due to a lack of energy alternatives, but rather depriving ourselves from cleaner, economical innovations due to political obstinacy. While there are many factors implicitly contributing to carbon dioxide emissions, capitalism in fossil-fuel reliant countries is found to be a huge culprit. Read more >

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Mike Olliver

Expanding Professional Development Opportunities for Scientists Beyond the Lab

Lida Beninson, Senior Program Officer, and Tess Doezema, Doctoral Candidate in the Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology

December 4, 2019 11:02 AM EDT

We live in an age where the world and its population seem fragile and vulnerable, yet at the same time, full of radical potential. Millions of people face life-threatening opioid addiction, the global climate continues to worsen, voting infrastructure has been compromised, and the security of our health and financial data has been undermined. On the plus side, alternative energy technologies are becoming cheaper and more widely adopted, our understanding of gravitational waves is unfolding, quantum computing is becoming a reality, and nearly every country in the world has agreed to achieve a set of ambitious sustainability goals. A thread connecting all of these issues, good and bad, is science policy. Read more >

Mike Olliver
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Keeping Up With Scientific Integrity: July-September 2019

Liz Borkowski

December 3, 2019 4:13 PM EDT

Nearly three years into the Trump administration, we’ve seen so many attacks on science—as well some spirited defenses of it—that it can be hard to remember all that’s occurred. To help us all stay on top of fast-moving situations, I’m starting a new project: quarterly updates on scientific integrity actions. The somewhat belated update for the third quarter of 2019 is below, and future editions will also appear on this blog. Read more >

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Simon Pierre Barrette

Extreme Fires, Creative Solutions

Dr. Brendan Rogers, Assistant Scientist

November 25, 2019 10:10 AM EDT

We live in a time of extremes. Our daily news cycle is replete with extreme language, extreme corruption, and extreme threats. It’s easy to become numb, a self-defense mechanism, and equate these extremes with normal. I sometimes find myself falling victim to this mentality, and quickly snap out of it.

Before this barrage of daily extremes I had a much more benign, Earthly connection with the concept of ‘extreme’. I’m a scientist who studies our northern forests, boreal forests. I’ve always been fascinated by the ability of boreal trees, animals, and other organisms to thrive in such extreme conditions. After flying north and setting foot in a dense, mossy boreal forest, the extreme is palpable. Read more >

Photo: Simon Pierre Barrette, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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The back-end of several cars in traffic polluting the air with tailpipe emissions.
©iStockphoto.com/ssuaphoto

Ultrafine Particles are an Emerging Environmental Health Risk

Doug Brugge, PhD, MS, Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences

November 15, 2019 9:29 AM EDT

Ambient particulate matter air pollution (PM) is one of the top ten causes of illness and death in the world.  While PM pollution is worse in many developing countries, it remains a problem in the United States as well.  Many people in the US may not be aware of the magnitude of the problem because the levels of pollution that present a health risk include concentrations that are usually not readily visible. Read more >

©iStockphoto.com/ssuaphoto
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