January 30, 2018
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Public Health & Healthcare Preparedness
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COMMENTARY
PEPFAR -- 15 Years and Counting the Lives Saved.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci: In the long history of successful public health initiatives, such as those leading to the eradication of smallpox, the elimination of polio throughout most of the world, and the marked reduction globally in vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, few programs have matched the impact of one that began in 2003, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. This innovative program has had an unprecedented impact on the pandemic of HIV and AIDS.
(New England Journal of Medicine, 1/25/18)
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NEWS
Short-Term Spending Bills Leave Public Health Agencies in Suspense.
Congress's inability to pass a long-term spending bill has major ramifications for public health, advocates and former agency officials warn. State and local agencies -- like health departments -- rely on federal funding and grants from agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
(The Hill, 1/24/18)
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Homeland Security & Disaster Preparedness
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NEWS
Retired Astronaut Picked to Lead US Geological Survey.
President Donald Trump plans to nominate James Reilly, a former NASA astronaut and exploration geologist, to lead the US Geological Survey, the White House announced today. If confirmed, the 63-year-old Reilly would lead a science agency whose researchers monitor for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, among a host of other duties.
(Science, 1/26/18)
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NEWS
DNA Origami: Unfolding Risk?
The US military has already shown interest in DNA origami. For example, the Pentagon would like to use the technology to create artificial antibodies that could be integrated into portable devices and used in war zones to detect the hostile use of biological agents such as those that cause smallpox or Ebola virus disease.
(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1/25/18)
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FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
NOAA Coastal Resilience Grants Program (FY 2018).
The principal objective of the NOAA Coastal Resilience Grants Program is to implement projects that build resilience of US coastal communities and ecosystems. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, this solicitation is seeking coastal habitat restoration projects that build resilience by conserving and restoring sustainable ecosystem processes and functions and reducing the vulnerability of coastal communities and infrastructure from the impacts of extreme weather events, climate hazards, and changing ocean conditions.
(Grants.gov, 1/24/18)
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Radiological & Nuclear Disaster Preparedness
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Science & Technology Policy
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NEWS
How Germs from Earth Would Impact Life on Mars.
To get more information on the ins and outs of safely exploring Mars, Teen Vogue went to NASA's planetary protection officer, Dr. Cassie Conley. She answered some of our pressing questions about manned missions to Mars and what we will do to make sure we protect the Red Planet, and we found out that a lot of it comes down to where we land.
(Teen Vogue, 1/29/18)
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NEWS
Scientists Hate the NIH's New Rules for Experimenting on Humans.
This week, after almost a decade of work, some new rules go into effect for researchers funded by NIH. If they're using human beings in their experiments, most of them now have to register their methodologies on a government-built website, clinicaltrials.gov. They have to promise to share whatever they find, even if they don't prove what they hoped -- especially if they don't prove it. They have to get trained up in modern clinical practices.
(Wired, 1/26/18)
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NEWS
DARPA Wants to Build an Image Search Engine Out of DNA.
In the last few months, the Department of Defense agency tasked with funding science's most far-out hopes has begun investing millions in discovering radical, non-binary ways to work with data. "Molecules offer a very different approach to 'computing' than the 0s and 1s of our existing digital systems," says Anne Fischer, program manager for Darpa's Molecular Informatics program, which has so far awarded $15.3 million to projects at Harvard, Brown, the University of Illinois, and the University of Washington.
(Wired, 1/24/18)
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EDITORIAL
Science After a Year of President Trump.
After a year of President Trump, scientists in the United States are doing their best in difficult circumstances, and Nature applauds them for it. It's increasingly clear that Trump has been just as bad for many aspects of science as we and others feared. Most crucially, the role of science and scientific advice in public life has been repeatedly undermined.
(Nature, 1/19/18)
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| Ensuring Effective and Reliable Alerts and Warnings. US House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications. 1/6/18, 10 AM. House Capitol Visitor Center, Room 210. More |
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