Help make NIH-funded research findings freely available to everyone!

Back in July, the House of Representatives passed a bill that requires all the NIH-funded research to be made freely available to the public within at most 12 months subsequent to publication.

The equivalent bill has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this summer and will be up for vote in the Senate very soon! In advance of this important vote, The Alliance for Taxpayer Access has issued a Call for action:

As the Senate considers Appropriations measures for the 2008 fiscal year this fall, please take a moment to remind your Senators of your strong support for public access to publicly funded research and - specifically - ensuring the success of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy by making deposit mandatory for researchers.

Earlier this summer, the House of Representatives passed legislation with language that directs the NIH to make this change (http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/media/release07-0720.html). The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a similar measure (http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/media/release07-0628.html). Now, as the Appropriations process moves forward, it is critically important that our Senators are reminded of the breadth and depth of support for enhanced public access to the results of NIH-funded research. Please take a moment to weigh in with your Senator now.

Read the rest for talking points and the contact information of your Senators, then do your part and contact them! And spread the word - by e-mail, posting on your blog or website, on forums and mailing lists. Let's get this bill passed this month and thus ensure that taxpayer-funded research is freely available to its funders - the taxpayers.

This needs to be done no later than Friday, September 28, 2007, when the bill is slated to appear in the Senate.

Science Blogging Conference - Registration is now open!

Late last night we opened the registration for the 2nd Science Blogging Conference.

To register, go to the registration form and fill out the details.

To see who is already registered, go here.

If you will be here on Friday, January 18th and want to join us for dinner, add you name to this list.

If you are on Facebook, join the Conference Event and invite your friends. We will appreciate it if you could spread the word in whichever medium you are most comfortable - word of mouth, e-mail, online social networks, or your own blogs.

I know September 1st is a holiday, but opening the registration today will save our server as thousands of interested participants will spread themselves over a few days instead of all logging on at the same time ;-) This way, those of you who are perpetually online and get your information on blogs (and Facebook, etc.) will be able to get the first dibs, while the advertising for others will start on September 4th.

The wiki is ready for you to explore. The conference program is building up nicely - we secured some spectacular speakers and session leaders and are in negotiations with some others. Feel free to edit the bottom of that wiki page with your own ideas. Suggest a session and offer to lead it.

Of course, as the conference promises to be much bigger than last year (due to the media coverage after the first one - see this page for blog and media coverage) we need to cover the increased expenses (and provide food, swag, etc.), so if you and your organization are willing to be sponsors, please let us know.

And, we are planning to have the second Science Blogging Anthology released in time for the conference, so submit the best science posts written by you or by your favorite bloggers for our consideration.

Science Blogging Anthology is here!

The first of its kind, phenomenal, unbelievable collection of the best science blogging in history has just been published!

Timed to coincide with the first Science Blogging Conference, this anthology of best 50 blog posts from science and medical blogs is now available for sale. You can find all the information about the book, including the blog-typical democratic process of choosing 50 best posts of all time, at this URL

I would really appreciate it if you could steer your readers towards it!

You can buy the book here.

Call for Action - Free The Tripoli Six!

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor have been wrongfully charged and are awaiting execution by firing squad in Libya for allegedly infecting children with HIV. They were tortured and forced to sign "confessions" written in Arabic they did not understand. In fact, the poor hygiene and bad practices in the hospital are to blame.

You can get more information in Nature (free access) editorial and news report and even more detail in an official report (pdf) and a letter (pdf) to Qaddafi.

What can you do?

First, ask your congresscritters what are they going to do about this - are they going to put international pressure on Libya to release the prisoners?

Second, e-mail your story to friends and, if you have a blog, write a post about this. Make sure that you have the words "Tripoli Six" in your post so that it gets picked up by Connotea, Technorati and Google blogsearch engines. Update: For Google (and Google News) you can also use "Benghazi Six" as well as "Tripoli Six".

You can also see what my SciBlings have written about it so far.

More information and commentary:

Saratoga Spirit
Declan Butler
Pharyngula
Method
Thoughts In A Haystack
Gene Expression
Stranger Fruit
Effect Measure
Deltoid
Adventures in Ethics and Science
Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge
Pure Pedantry
Respectful Insolence
Aetiology
Uncertain Principles
The Questionable Authority (the best source of action/contact information)
Science Ripsaw
Firedoglake
LeftWorld
DailyKos
The World's Fair
Majikthise
Terra Sigillata
Open Reading Frame
Maya's Corner
Maya's Corner
Maya's Corner
Tinkerty Tonk
Thoughts From Kansas
Ovidio
Cyberspace Rendezvous
Effect Measure
Lingual Tremors
Crooked Timber
Cosmic Variance
BlinkBits
Nascent
Malaysian Medical Resources
Serialdeviant
Paeonia
Bouphonia
Alternet PEEK

Update: Revere and Lindsay now report that the Tripoli Six story has spread from science blogosphere to both Left and Right political blogs, ranging from DailyKos to Instapundit (gosh, even Free Republic!). This is certainly not just a science/medicine issue, and is certainly not a partisan issue - it is a matter of saving innocent lives!

Declan Butler, who has been on top of this, has already collected 82 blog links on Connotea and is working on the next step - getting the MSM to place this story on front pages. Can you help? Blogswarm this story by blogging about this, or blogging about this again, and again. Urge your readers to peruse this list of contact information and ask the congrescritters to pay attention and do something. If you know anyone in the MSM, hound them to write about this. This is not about the self-congratulatory pat-on-the-back about the "power of the blogosphere" - it is about righting a wrong and saving innocent lives.

Scientists are such wet blankets

Thought this was a nice, evenhanded take on the latest propa--I  mean, um news from the administration on the 100 Billion dollar missle defense boondogg--I mean program.

Daily Kos: National Missile Defense: The Myth of Succcess (again)

From the Union of Concerned Scientists report on the program:

First, the test conditions have not been varied: The test geometries and closing speed and angle have been nearly identical. The tests have occurred at the same time of day, even though the infrared signal of an object in space depends strongly on whether it is in sunlight or in shadow. And in each test the target cluster included the same or similar objects.

Second, the system's ability to discriminate the warhead from other elements in the target cluster has not been realistically tested: The mock warhead and balloons have had very different radar and infrared signatures.

More important, the defense was provided with detailed a priori information about the characteristics and expected appearance of all the objects in the test. The radars that will be part of the Block 2004 system will not be able to discriminate warheads from other objects (decoys or debris), so discrimination will rely on the kill vehicle alone. Yet no tests in which the kill vehicle relies on its sensor to discriminate the warhead have been conducted, and none are planned through 2007.

The basic goal of these intercept tests has, according to the MDA, been to demonstrate hit to kill. But hit to kill was first demonstrated more than 20 years ago; the goal here should be to demonstrate hit to kill under conditions relevant to intercepting long-range missiles.

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Rationalism is Overrated

New Stem Cell Method Avoids Destroying Embryos - New York Times

Biologists have developed a technique for establishing colonies of human embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos, a method that, if confirmed in other laboratories, would seem to remove the principal objection to stem cell research.

“There is no rational reason left to oppose this research,” said Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of Advanced Cell Technology and leader of a team that reported the new method in an article published online by the journal Nature.

I think the key word here is rational. And this is the problem. There never has really been a rational reason to argue against the use of embryonic stem cells. This is not to dismiss irrational arguments in the least. I don't mean the word in a pejorative sense. There have been moral, emotional, and religious arguments against the technique. But purely rationally, I have never read, or heard, a really solid case against.

We do lots of things for moral reasons. I do. You do. I think we all live by one code or another in some way. But we aren't always rational.

So if he thinks this is going to settle things, he's dead wrong.

Science bloggers join SEED

Holy Moly! Scienceblogs just expanded a whole bunch, including a number of the gang that originally joined the Ring here at Science Assessment.

Congratulations are in order!

I had at one point contemplated the move myself, being contacted prior to the original opening by a representative from SEED, but was hesitant. Do I regret that decision? Sure, sorta - the traffic going through there is tremendous, compared to the 50-100 hits/day I'm used to on A Concerned Scientist. But I'm happy to have the chance to change my focus a bit towards my professional field (cell and molecular biology) over at Migrations, and follow my muse instead of feel obligated to continue rants on topics that I'm more of a layperson on.

Perhaps I'll reconsider when I finish my PhD in 2-3 months, when I can explore the possibility of joining the next round of expansion on Scienceblogs.

Till then, keep up the good blogging!

Migrations: Cells, birds, etc.

Admittedly, I've been out of touch on Science Assessment, and this is some shameless self-promotion, but it is science related:

A few weeks ago, I started out a new blog, Migrations, where I plan to blog on cell migration, signal transduction, and other bits of cell biology, as well as the occaisional birdwatching story (relating that to migration in general).

The purpose - to provide a forum for me to review and present interesting research papers (as a journal club, if you will), and to communicated the science that I study in my "day job" to interested members of the general public.

Thanks.

Global Warning: The Inconvenient Truth

From my Responsible Nanotechnology blog:

Get a group of scientists together to discuss issues of worldwide consequence, and one topic -- human-caused climate change -- is likely to emerge as the most prominent.

Last week, I participated in a symposium on "Nanotechnology Governance: Environmental Management from a Global Perspective" at Vanderbilt University. Between speakers, a common point of discussion was the dire need for solutions to counteract global warming; a common conclusion was that the only technology that may offer more than stopgap measures is advanced generation nanotechnology -- especially molecular manufacturing.

More here, and here.

Tags: Ideas Politics Reviews Science Society

Prix Ars Electronica!

I'm very pleased to report that CRN's Responsible Nanotechnology blog has been nominated for Prix Ars Electronica, the annual "International Competition for CyberArts."

Since 1987, the Prix Ars Electronica has served as an interdisciplinary platform for everyone who uses the computer as a universal medium for implementing and designing their creative projects at the interface of art, technology and society. The competition is organized by the Ars Electronica Center and ORF’s Upper Austria Regional Studio, and the prizes are awarded during the Ars Electronica Festival each year. The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important awards for creativity and pioneering spirit in the field of digital media.

We will be competing in the "Digital Communities" category, which covers:

Political, social, and cultural projects, initiatives, groups, and scenes from all over the world utilizing digital technology to better society and assume social responsibility.

Just to be nominated is quite an honor, and it is both gratifying and humbling. Next week, juries made up of "experts from around the world" will convene in Linz, Austria, to evaluate the entries and select the winners.

Wish us luck!

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog