Category Archives: STEM Policy

Transistors that wrap around tissues and morph with them | KurzweilAI

Electronic devices that become soft when implanted inside the body and can deploy to grip 3-D objects, such as large tissues, nerves and blood vessels have been created by researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas and the University … Continue reading

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Artificial intelligence ‘will take the place of humans within five years’ – Telegraph

Mr Aksenov, now 21 years old, founded technology company London Brand Management in 2011. The company provides an AI service for big brands who want to outsource customer or staff interactions to computers. Customers send questions in to LBM’s system … Continue reading

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The Future of Brain Implants – WSJ.com

What would you give for a retinal chip that let you see in the dark or for a next-generation cochlear implant that let you hear any conversation in a noisy restaurant, no matter how loud? Or for a memory chip, … Continue reading

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How Academia and Publishing are Destroying Scientific Innovation: A Conversation with Sydney Brenner | King’s Review – Magazine

An interview with molecular biologist Sydney Brenner… In most places in the world, you live your social life and your ordinary life in the lab. You don’t know anybody else. Sometimes you don’t even know other people in the same … Continue reading

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Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt

In December 2012, a pink-haired complex systems researcher named Brad Werner made his way through the throng of 24,000 earth and space scientists at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, held annually in San Francisco. This year’s conference … Continue reading

Posted in Basic News, Climate Change, Economics & STEM Research, Environmental policy, Globalization, Occupy Wall Street, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Science’s rightful place is in service of society | Dan Sarewitz

Science policy must concentrate less on how much money is spent, and more on how to translate investments into public good via Science’s rightful place is in service of society : Nature News & Comment.

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Schoolhouse Block: Science Students and the Government Shutdown | The Student Blog

It’s Day 5 of the government shutdown and the Panda Cam is still off. What does this mean for American science students? One of the biggest effects making its way around the science blog-o-sphere is the cutting of funding for scientific research. … Continue reading

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Assessing impact » Testing hypotheses…

Steven Hill (@stevenhill), Head of Research Policy at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, responds to a recent publication by Steven Hrotic and me here: Assessing impact » Testing hypotheses…. Here is the original publication, which is available open … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, CSID Publications, Field Philosophy, Metrics, NIH, NOAA, NSF, Peer Review, Public Philosophizing, STEM Policy, Transdisciplinarity, US Science Agencies | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Metrics 2.0: who will be the ‘Google of altmetrics’?

An interesting summary of presentations on altmetrics, including a set of interesting questions: BMJ Group blogs: BMJ Web Development Blog » Blog Archive » Metrics 2.0: who will be the ‘Google of altmetrics’?.

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Developing indicators of the impact of scholarly communication is a massive technical challenge – but it’s also much simpler than that | Impact of Social Sciences

Developing indicators of the impact of scholarly communication is a massive technical challenge – but it’s also much simpler than that | Impact of Social Sciences.

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, CSID Publications, Field Philosophy, institutionalizing interdisciplinarity, Libraries, Metrics, Peer Review, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

New Peer Review Pilot at NSF: Applicants as Reviewers? | CHS Sponsored Programs

For this pilot project, instead of a traditional review panel, all principal investigators submitting proposals to the Sensors and Sensing Systems (SSS) will be required to review seven competing proposals! The program officer will then compile the final rankings and … Continue reading

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Nigel Warburton’s negative vision of what philosophy isn’t | jbrittholbrook

Does not resisting impact requirements mean you’re not a real philosopher? Nigel Warburton’s negative vision of what philosophy isn’t | jbrittholbrook.  

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, CSID Publications, Future of the University, institutionalizing interdisciplinarity, Metrics, NSF, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy, Transdisciplinarity | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On Reinventing the Wheel of Interdisciplinarity

Perhaps! But who wishes to concern himself with such dangerous “Perhapses”!                                                                                                                                             … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, CSID Publications, Future of the University, institutionalizing interdisciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity, Multidisciplinarity, STEM Policy, Transdisciplinarity | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pure hype of pure research helps no one : Nature News & Comment

Dan Sarewitz on continued belief in myths of science policy. Pure hype of pure research helps no one : Nature News & Comment. I blogged my immediate thoughts about Dan’s article here.

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What Representative Lamar Smith Is Really Trying to Do at NSF – ScienceInsider

Essential reading: What Representative Lamar Smith Is Really Trying to Do at NSF – ScienceInsider. The real question is whether an ‘extra layer’ of accountability is necessary. Before adding more government red tape, it would be better to ask NSF … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, NSF, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | 1 Comment

Not Safe for Funding: The N.S.F. and the Economics of Science : The New Yorker

Aside from the inherent interest of all things having to do with NSF merit review … what, that’s not just us CSID folks, is it? … anyway, there’s also some really interesting stuff about what motivates scientists in this article. … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, Metrics, NSF, Peer Review, STEM Policy, Transformative Research, US Science Agencies | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Humanity 2.0: What it Means to be Human Past, Present and Future | LSE Review of Books

Francis Remedios offers his review of Steve Fuller’s Humanity 2.0. Book Review: Humanity 2.0: What it Means to be Human Past, Present and Future | LSE Review of Books.

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Communities of Integration Workshop – Field Philosophy

I’m very pleased to be attending the upcoming workshop at Arizona State on “Communities of Integration” at the invitation of Erik Fisher of STIR fame. You can get a sneak peak at the developing website, including our contribution on Field … Continue reading

Posted in Future of the University, Gas Fracking, institutionalizing interdisciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity, Metrics, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy, Transdisciplinarity | Tagged | 1 Comment

Holdren Attacks House Bill, Defends NSF’s Grant Selection Process – ScienceInsider

Holdren Attacks House Bill, Defends NSF’s Grant Selection Process – ScienceInsider.

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, Future of the University, Metrics, NSF, Peer Review, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | Leave a comment

Developing nations should avoid ‘slow science’ – SciDev.Net

Developing nations should avoid ‘slow science’ – SciDev.Net. Worth reading, even if you disagree.

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The ‘Broader Impacts’ of Sequestration on Science

CSID Director Bob Frodeman has some suggestions about the interconnection of research & society in post-austerity world. Now that we’ve been driven off the “fiscal cliff,” perhaps we should look around and assess the results. It turns out that sequestration … Continue reading

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Subcommittee Reviews NSF’s FY 2014 Budget Request | Democrats -Committee on Science, Space and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives

Links on NSF Merit Review hearing: Subcommittee Reviews NSF’s FY 2014 Budget Request | Democrats -Committee on Science, Space and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives. http://science.house.gov/press-release/subcommittee-reviews-nsf-budget-explores-ways-improve-grant-approval-process http://science.house.gov/hearing/research-subcommittee-hearing-overview-national-science-foundation-budget-fiscal-year-2014 http://science.edgeboss.net/wmedia/science/sst2013/RS041713.wvx        

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NSF Peer Review Under Scrutiny by House Science Panel – ScienceInsider

John Holdren to Science House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology: “I think it’s a dangerous thing for Congress, or anybody else, to be trying to specify in detail what types of fundamental research NSF should be funding.” NSF Peer … Continue reading

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Exchange on Holbrook and Briggle’s “Knowing and Acting”, Briggle, Fuller, Holbrook and Lipinska « Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective

Exchange on Holbrook and Briggle’s “Knowing and Acting”, Briggle, Fuller, Holbrook and Lipinska « Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective.

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Knowing and acting: The precautionary and proactionary principles in relation to policy making, J. Britt Holbrook and Adam Briggle « Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective

The Social Epistemology Review and Reply collective is now hosting preprints: Knowing and acting: The precautionary and proactionary principles in relation to policy making, J. Britt Holbrook and Adam Briggle « Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective. Yes! Adam and … Continue reading

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