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Is California's stem cell program preparing to waste $700,000? - Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2012
Report: Calif. stem cell agency needs overhaul - Businessweek, December 6, 2012
Will California stem cell program take new criticisms to heart? - Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2012
NASA Lost? National Academy Of Sciences Panel Says Agency Lacks Vision, Needs Direction - Huffington Post, December 5, 2012
NASA workers don't agree on next deep-space mission - USA Today, December 5, 2012
NASA on verge of losing its edge, report says - Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2012
Lead limits on military firing ranges outdated, report says - Baltimore Sun, December 4, 2012
New report warns of high lead risk for military firing range workers - Baltimore Sun, December 4, 2012
Firing range workers face lead poisoning risk - Marine Corps Times, December 4, 2012
US Scientists Find Lessons From Japan Nuke Crisis - ABC News, November 27, 2012
Lack of Humility and Fear of Public Misunderstandings Led to Fukushima Accident - Science, November 26, 2012
Power grid threats detailed - Columbia Daily Tribune, November 21, 2012
NRC Calls for New Steps to Track Progress in STEM Education - Education Week, November 16, 2012
BP Will Plead Guilty and Pay Over $4 Billion - New York Times, November 15, 2012
BP settles criminal charges for $4 billion in spill; supervisors indicted on manslaughter - Washington Post, November 15, 2012
BP Slapped With Record Fine - Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2012
Report warns electricity grid vulnerable to attack - Reuters, November 14, 2012
Study: U.S. power grid vulnerable to terrorist attack - USA Today, November 14, 2012
Terrorist Attack on Power Grid Could Cause Broad Hardship, Report Says - New York Times, November 14, 2012
U.S. Urged to Step Up Research Linking Climate Change to National Security - Chronicle of Higher Education, November 9, 2012
An Empty Debate: Politics Without Science - NPR, November 6, 2012
Let's hope Sandy wakes people up - HeraldNet, November 5, 2012
Arctic sea ice subject of NRC report - The Examiner, November 2, 2012
Pressure Cooking Algae-Based Biofuel; Researchers Map Bird Evolution - The Atlantic Wire, October 31, 2012
Algae As Car Fuel: Possible, But Not Sustainable? - NPR, October 25, 2012
Large-Scale Algae Biofuels Currently Unsustainable, New Report Concludes - Science, October 24, 2012
Report: Lovell's computers still out of sync - Chicago Tribune, October 19, 2012
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Dec. 6, 2012
 The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has helped establish the state of California as an international hub of stem cell research and development, but the institute's efforts could be enhanced by changes in its governance, policies, and operations, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The report recommends creating an external scientific advisory board to provide continuing and consistent strategic advice, dealing more effectively with the perception of conflicts of interest among the institute’s governing board members, and separating operations from oversight by delegating more authority and responsibility for daily affairs from the board to senior management.
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Dec. 5, 2012
 Without a national consensus on strategic goals and objectives for NASA, the agency cannot be expected to establish or work toward achieving long-term priorities, says a new report from the National Research Council. In addition, there is a mismatch between the portfolio of programs and activities assigned to the agency and the budget allocated by Congress, and legislative restrictions inhibit NASA from more efficiently managing its personnel and infrastructure. The White House should take the lead in forging a new consensus on NASA's future in order to more closely align the agency's budget and objectives and remove restrictions impeding NASA's efficient operations.
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Dec. 3, 2012
 A new National Research Council report says there is overwhelming evidence that the Occupational Safety and Heath Administration’s general industry standards for lead exposure are inadequate to protect employees at U.S. Department of Defense firing ranges and other worker populations.
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Nov. 15, 2012
 As part of the $4 billion court settlement announced today concerning the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the U.S. Department of Justice has asked the National Academy of Sciences to establish a program to fund projects and carry out activities focused on human health and environmental protection in the Gulf of Mexico. In response and in keeping with its mission, the NAS -- a private, nonprofit institution chartered by Congress in 1863 to advise the government on matters of science -- has agreed to bring its resources to bear on this important national priority. The legal settlement between the federal government and BP Exploration and Production Inc. requires penalty payments (formally called "remedial order payments") by the company that will total $350 million over a five-year period. These payments will be made to a fund administered by the NAS.
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Nov. 14, 2012
 The U.S. electric power delivery system is vulnerable to terrorist attacks that could cause much more damage to the system than natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, blacking out large regions of the country for weeks or months and costing many billions of dollars, says a newly released report by the National Research Council.
Physically the power grid is inherently vulnerable, because it is spread across hundreds of miles and many key facilities are unguarded. This is exacerbated by a reorganizational shift in the mid-1990s, prompted by federal legislation to introduce competition in bulk power across the country, resulting in the transmission network being used in ways for which it was not designed. As a result, many parts of the bulk high-voltage system are heavily stressed, leaving it especially at risk to multiple failures following an attack. Important pieces of equipment are decades old and lack improved technology for sensing and control that could help limit outages and their consequences -- not only those caused by a terrorist attack but also in the event of natural disasters.
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Nov. 14, 2012
 The Institute of Medicine and the Avon Foundation for Women today announced the four winners of "Ending Violence @ Home App Challenge," a global contest aimed at harnessing communication technology to prevent domestic abuse. The contest grew out of a workshop hosted by the IOM’s Forum on Global Violence Prevention. The winning products, selected from 19 submissions from nine countries, are:
First prize: Çocuktan Al Haberi, or Wisdom of the Children, a website that encourages people, especially parents and children, to create positive new expressions out of old sayings that condone violence.
Second prize: Circle of 6, a mobile app and Facebook pledge designed to prevent dating violence on university campuses.
Third prize: R3, an app that helps health care providers recognize and respond to victims of domestic abuse and refer them to help.
Fourth prize: HealtheSAVE, a team developing a website and mobile apps to help health care providers better recognize patients who have experienced violence, ask them about that experience, and refer them to appropriate services.
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Nov. 13, 2012
 Infusing Real World Experiences into Engineering Education, a new publication from the National Academy of Engineering, showcases 29 engineering programs at colleges and universities across the nation that effectively incorporate “real-world” activities into their curriculum, and highlights best practices for schools seeking to create new programs.
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Nov. 13, 2012
 A new report from the National Research Council says that systemwide responses to juvenile offending should be grounded in scientific knowledge about adolescent development and tailored to an individual offender’s needs and social environment. Community-based programs that foster positive socialization and law-abiding behavior are more likely than confinement to reduce the likelihood of reoffending and help adolescents transition successfully into adulthood.
The report adds that the juvenile justice system should ensure the fair treatment of youths by providing properly trained counsel, making sure an adolescent is competent enough to understand the legal procedures, and allowing the offender to participate in the proceedings. In addition, state and local systems should set guidelines for processing offenders when they enter the system to reduce racial and ethnic discrimination.
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Nov. 9, 2012
 Scientific evidence indicates that the global climate is moving outside the bounds of past experience and can be expected to put new stresses on societies around the world, prompting examination of a variety of plausible scenarios through which climate change might pose or alter security risks for the United States. A new report from the National Research Council offers recommendations to improve understanding of the links between climate and security, monitoring and analysis of the factors linking climate change to security risks, and the ability to anticipate potential security risks arising from climate phenomena.
The report focuses on social and political stresses outside the United States, and on security risks that might arise from situations in which climate-related events have consequences that exceed the capacity of affected populations to cope and respond. It also emphasizes climate-driven security risks that call for action within the coming decade either to anticipate or respond to security threats.
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Nov. 8, 2012
 At least 126,000 sites across the U.S. have contaminated groundwater that requires remediation, and about 10 percent of these sites are considered "complex," meaning restoration is unlikely to be achieved in the next 50 to 100 years due to technological limitations, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report adds that the estimated cost of complete cleanup at these sites ranges from $110 billion to $127 billion, but the figures for both the number of sites and costs are probably underestimates.
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Nov. 2, 2012
 Hurricane Sandy caused widespread devastation this week in New Jersey and New York and elsewhere, but the storm’s toll would have been worse if not for the ability of forecasters to accurately predict its path and intensity. Links between climate change and extreme weather events and the nation’s resilience to disasters are the subject of much attention as well in the storm’s wake. Many of our projects are relevant to the conversation, including the following:
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Nov. 2, 2012
 The current and projected conditions and activity levels in the Arctic call for an improvement to predict its sea ice cover, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report adds that an integrated approach is needed among the user, modeling, and observation communities to inform effective research activities and to set realistic expectations for Arctic sea ice predictions.
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Nov. 1, 2012
 Using input from girls across the country, the National Academy of Engineering redesigned its popular EngineerGirl website, which was unveiled Oct. 22. The website is a platform for informing, inspiring, and supporting students interested in engineering. Its target audience is middle school girls, with the aim of introducing them to the rewards of an engineering career. The annual EngineerGirl essay contest for 2013 was also announced today and focuses on engineering advancements for disease prevention.
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Oct. 25, 2012
 U.S. and U.K. Academies Protest Verdict in Italy The presidents of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society, the national science academy of the U.K., issued a statement today protesting an Italian court's decision to sentence six scientists to jail for failing to warn of an earthquake in 2009.
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Oct. 25, 2012
 The principal challenge for the U.S. Department of Defense's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) work force is recruiting and retaining top quality professionals for critical positions, says a new report from the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. The agency must become -- and be perceived as -- an appealing career destination for the most capable scientists, engineers, and technicians, all of whom are in great demand in the global marketplace.
To that end, DOD recruitment policies and practices should be reviewed and overhauled as necessary to ensure that the department is fully competitive with all sectors of American industry and the global STEM marketplace. The agency will also need to reassess its requirement for security clearances for some STEM positions.
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Oct. 24, 2012
 Scaling up the production of biofuels made from algae to meet at least 5 percent -- approximately 39 billion liters -- of U.S. transportation fuel needs would place unsustainable demands on energy, water, and nutrients, says a new report from the National Research Council. However, these concerns are not a definitive barrier for future production, and innovations that would require research and development could help realize algal biofuels’ full potential.
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The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences media and communications office web site can be found here.
Inquiries should be sent to PNASnews@nas.edu.
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