World / Politics
Sad Sacks
Week in Review / by / November 6, 2009
As a UK adviser is fired over politically unpalatable advice and an English teacher is suspended over an article about animal sexuality, the fate of facts is on the line.
Now In Politics
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Pluto, David Bowie, and the Flu
The president's science advisers tackle swine flu's resurgence while Pluto’s defenders mourn its "demotion," and a researcher writes the perfect Bowie song.
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Death and the Rumor Mill
With healthcare reform on the table, rumors about end of life care were greatly exaggerated. Plus a carnivorous plant is hyped and DNA evidence is faked.
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Counting Green Cars
While Cash for Clunkers is topped off with an extra $2 billion, science journalists do the math on its environmental impact. Plus, two diseases traced back to their primate origins.
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Roboethics Redux
After Fox News misrepresents a military robot’s dietary habits, the world muses over what ethical behavior means for intelligent programs and machines.
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Full Moon, Half Measures
As the world turned its attention to the moon, politicians tried to figure out how much it will cost to save the Earth and who is responsible for footing the bill.
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New York’s Stem Cell Coup
Now that new national stem cell guidelines are in place, New York’s recent policy shift could make it the stem cell capital of the country.
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The New Ambassadors of Science
Francis Collins and Regina Benjamin are tapped, SpaceX races NASA into orbit, a Pew Poll on the public perception of science, and Microsoft releases Feynman lectures.
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Analysis: UK, US Climate Reports
New reports from the US and UK back scientists that climate change is happening now and project fallout down to the regional and citywide level.
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Wooing Europe’s New Parliament
However little voters or the new MEPs care or know about science, the European Parliament controls billions in funding. The challenge for science is how to engage them.
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The New Interface of Governance
If we can just tweak the way we make choices, we can make smarter ones. A look at Obama’s plans to put the science of human nature to work.
Week in Review
Pushing a Power Portfolio
As alternative energy funding plans are rolled out, a long-running debate over nuclear rages on Earth and in space.
Week in Review
The One that Got Away
A dead fish has caused a stink over false positives in fMRI studies, and while gloom and doom reign at UN climate talks, renting a movie you actually like has never been easier.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Czar Wars
As a TV pundit takes down one of President Obama’s green “czars,” the US figures out how to pay its way back to the Moon and beyond, plus a nerd-rock band declares “Science is Real.”
WEEK IN REVIEW
Loggerheads at Bloggingheads
A falling out over creationism at a popular videoblogging site and muddled reactions to a report on geoengineering illustrate what’s at stake in the “framing wars.”
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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Innovation
Let There Be Light
Astronomers will soon find scores of Earth-sized exoplanets, but imaging them may be decades away. That is, unless NASA decides to build a starshade.
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Ideas
Into the Uncanny Valley
New findings shed light on a century’s worth of bizarre explanations for the eerie feeling we get around lifelike robots.
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World
Signs from Above
The release of an apocalyptic movie prompts NASA to debunk planetary rumors, fowl play shuts down the LHC, and the Catholic Church discusses alien life.
