European science cooperation with Africa needs redefining, as it is failing to address wide-ranging needs and challenges experienced by African countries — and often ignores those countries most in need of support, a conference has heard. Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 (ESOF), in Ireland, Ismail Serageldin, director of the New Library of Alexandria,…
President Obama has proposed spending $1 billion to fund a “Master Teacher Corps” initiative, which would reward top-performing educators with $20,000 annually. In a statement, Obama said the master-teacher program would shine a light on the best STEM educators, and allow them to “mentor and model” for their less-experienced colleagues. The program would start with…
Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, may be getting ready to support legislation to grant green cards to holders of advanced degrees in the so-called STEM fields. The Texas republican, the gatekeeper on immigration bills in the House, is being urged to take action by a broad coalition of groups, including…
The headline on the press release about a new report warns of “R&D trends posing a threat” to the U.S. economy. Scary words, to be sure, especially coming from the presidentially appointed National Science Board, the policy-setting body for the $7 billion a year National Science Foundation. But the data upon which the board bases…
If we fail to understand and take care of the natural world, it can come back to haunt us in ways we know little about. A critical example is a developing model of infectious disease that shows that most epidemics — AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, Lyme disease and hundreds more that have occurred over…
In his most recent column in The New York Times, David Brooks laments the results of a study led by Robert Putnam, a Harvard political scientist, which demonstrate an “inequality of opportunity” between rich and poor children in America. The children of the rich and poor, we’re told, are raised “in starkly different ways and…
The misconduct of the financial industry no longer surprises most Americans. Only about one in five has much trust in banks, according to Gallup polls, about half the level in 2007. And it’s not just banks that are frowned upon. Trust in big business overall is declining as well – 62% of Americans believe corruption…
Making progress on family planning will require not only principles and commitments, but successful implementation, which must include four crucial elements, says John May of the US-based think tank Centre for Global Development. Millions of women, particularly in developing countries, lack information on — and access to — family planning services. This not only jeopardizes…
Physicists at CERN delivered big news when they announced the almost certain discovery of the Higgs boson — the so-called “God particle” thought to be the key to the formation of matter, and life. They were able to detect what they believe to be the Higgs boson by firing particles around a giant, $10 billion…
Diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans, such as bird flu and tuberculosis, can wreak havoc on the health of both organisms. Now researchers have found 13 so-called zoonoses are responsible for 2.2 million human deaths every year. The study, detailed in the report “Mapping of Poverty and Likely Zoonoses Hotspots,” shows the…