Science

Science under an Obama Administration

by Andrew Maynard November 11, 2008

Nobel Laureate Sir Paul Nurse on his hopes for the future Amidst intensifying discussions over what the incoming Obama administration will mean for science and technology, an opinion piece in today’s Telegraph caught my eye this morning.  Written by Sir Paul Nurse—Nobel Laureate and president of the Rockefeller University in New York—it provides a clear [...]

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Why clever people believe stupid things

by Andrew Maynard November 9, 2008

Making sense of scientific information While I was in the UK recently, I picked up a copy of Ben Goldacre’s book Bad Science on a tip from a friend.  Ben is a medical doctor and writer for The Guardian newspaper—and a vociferous crusader of what he sees as the misuse and misrepresentation of science.  And [...]

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Five good books

by Andrew Maynard November 5, 2008

Obama and science – Essential bed-time reading for the next Administration Finally, the campaigning is over, everyone knows more about fruit flies than they ever wanted to (thank you Sarah Palin), and on an historic day America has “voted for change.”  As the country looks forward to a radical change in leadership, the coming weeks [...]

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Five slightly harder pieces—underpinning sound science policy

by Andrew Maynard October 26, 2008

With just over a week to go before the 2008 US presidential election, there’s no shortage of opinions floating around on the key science and technology-related challenges facing an incoming Obama or McCain administration.  But while advice swirls around issues like nanotechnology, synthetic biology, the environment, and establishing a top-level presidential science adviser as fast [...]

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Presidential Choice: It’s the science, stupid!

by Andrew Maynard September 24, 2008

Forget the economy, healthcare, the war in Iraq.  For some, the next President of the United States will need to rise to a far higher bar:  Is he an e-mail junkie, or still stuck on snail mail? John McCain’s lack of e-mail-savvy was the butt of recent Obama/Biden campaign ads.  “Things have changed in the [...]

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