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U.S. Lawmakers Unveil Bold $100 Billion Plan to Remake NSF

U.S. Lawmakers Unveil Bold $100 Billion Plan to Remake NSF

Agency would get a huge infusion of cash, and responsibility for maintaining U.S. global leadership in innovation, under bipartisan bills that have just been introduced in both houses of Congress.

Vaccine Experts Say Moderna's Covid-19 Data Leave Big Questions

Vaccine Experts Say Moderna's Covid-19 Data Leave Big Questions

While Moderna blitzed the media, it revealed very little information - and most of what it did disclose were words, not data.

The Coronavirus in America: The Year Ahead

The Coronavirus in America: The Year Ahead

There will be no quick return to our previous lives, according to nearly two dozen experts. But there is hope for managing the scourge now and in the long term.

EPA Can't Bar Grantees from Sitting on Science Advisory Panels, Judge Rules

EPA Can't Bar Grantees from Sitting on Science Advisory Panels, Judge Rules

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot block recipients of agency funding from participating on its science advisory boards, a federal judge said yesterday.

There's Been a Spike in People Dying at Home in Several Cities. That…

There's Been a Spike in People Dying at Home in Several Cities. That…

Coronavirus death counts are based on positive tests and driven by hospital deaths. But data from major metropolitan areas shows a spike in at-home deaths, prompting one expert to say current numbers were just "the tip of the iceberg."

Putin's Long War Against American Science

Putin's Long War Against American Science

A decade of health disinformation promoted by President Vladimir Putin of Russia has sown wide confusion, hurt major institutions and encouraged the spread of deadly illnesses.

'I'm Going to Keep Pushing.' Anthony Fauci Tries to Make the White House Listen to Facts of the Pandemic

'I'm Going to Keep Pushing.' Anthony Fauci Tries to Make the White House Listen to Facts of the Pandemic

The infectious disease researcher has become the United States's most trusted coronavirus expert.

The Move to Online College is Hitting Adjunct Professors the Hardest

The Move to Online College is Hitting Adjunct Professors the Hardest

Non-tenure track faculty at community and city colleges across the country told Motherboard they have not received sufficient pay, training, or equipment to teach classes online-and the consequences could be devastating for students.

NSF Marshals Data Science, Blockchain to Streamline Federal Grant Processing

NSF Marshals Data Science, Blockchain to Streamline Federal Grant Processing

The National Science Foundation is testing a creative mix of machine learning, blockchain technology and data science to tackle a stubborn challenge: How to better evaluate more than 60,000 grant applications it receives each year.

Time for NIH to Lead on Data Sharing

Time for NIH to Lead on Data Sharing

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is in the midst of digesting public comments toward finalizing a data sharing policy. Although the draft policy is generally supportive of data sharing, it needs strengthening if we are to collectively achieve a long-standing vision of open science built on the FAIR principles.

EPA Proposes Broad Science Restrictions in Midst of Coronavirus Pandemic

EPA Proposes Broad Science Restrictions in Midst of Coronavirus Pandemic

The Environmental Protection Agency moved today to restrict the types of research that can be used in public health protection decisions and scientific assessments. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the agency is recklessly giving the public just 30 days to comment on this sweeping proposal.

Do Us a Favor

Do Us a Favor

While scientists are trying to share facts about the epidemic, the administration either blocks those facts or restates them with contradictions. Transmission rates and death rates are not measurements that can be changed with will and an extroverted presentation.

#COLA4ALL Shuts Down UC Santa Cruz

#COLA4ALL Shuts Down UC Santa Cruz

Graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shut down campus Thursday as part of their ongoing strike for a cost of living adjustment, and all other system campuses saw their own one-day protests. Santa Cruz graduate assistants went on a grade strike in December, then a full labor strike this month. Tensions mounted last week when the university fired or disqualified 80-some grads from spring assistantships for continuing to withhold undergraduate grades. Graduate assistants blocked all entrances to the Santa Cruz campus before dawn, forcing the university to cancel classes, except those offered online. Many faculty and undergraduate supporters joined the picket lines on that campus and across the UC system starting midmorning. As of last week, graduate assistants at the Santa Barbara campus are also on a labor strike for a COLA, and assistants at the Davis campus are on a grade strike. Systemwide, graduate instructors make about $2,400 pre-tax, per month, for nine months out of the year. Strikers say that they need between $1,400 and $1,800 extra per month to be able to secure housing in California's expensive rental markets and have anything left over for utilities and food. The United Auto Workers, with which UC's graduate workers are affiliated, has urged the university to reopen their contract to bargain for a COLA. This week it authorized a systemwide strike vote for April on the grounds that the university has committed unfair labor practices. The university has filed a similar claim against graduate workers. The system said in a statement that it "values all our graduate students, including academic student employees (ASEs) who are essential to UC's teaching mission, supporting the university as teaching assistants, readers and tutors. However, that mission is in jeopardy when ASEs refuse to fulfill their teaching obligations." The system noted that these assistants are striking in violation of their union contract, negotiated in 2018, and said it's "unfortunate that the UAW has resorted to announcing a strike authorization vote as the university continues pursuing opportunities to engage productively with graduate students on housing affordability and other issues."

Get Political Reporters off the Coronavirus Story Because They Don't Distinguish Between Right and Wrong

Get Political Reporters off the Coronavirus Story Because They Don't Distinguish Between Right and Wrong

News organizations should take political reporters – and perhaps even more importantly, political editors – entirely out of the loop on this story. It’s too important to be covered as a two-sided battle over who’s winning the narrative.

The United States Badly Bungled Coronavirus Testing - but Things May Soon Improve

The United States Badly Bungled Coronavirus Testing - but Things May Soon Improve

A faulty reagent in a test kit and bureaucratic hurdles have slowed testing for the virus that causes COVID-19.

Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials

Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials

The White House's attempt to impose a more disciplined approach to communications about the virus was undermined by President Trump, who complained the news media was overstating the threat.

Metrics of Inequality: The Concentration of Resources in the U.S. Biomedical Elite

Metrics of Inequality: The Concentration of Resources in the U.S. Biomedical Elite

Academic scientists and research institutes are increasingly being evaluated using digital metrics, from bibliometrics to patent counts. These metrics are often framed, by science policy analysts, economists of science as well as funding agencies, as objective and universal proxies for scientific worth, potential, and productivity.

EPA Can't Kick Scientists Off Science Advisory Panels, Court Says

EPA Can't Kick Scientists Off Science Advisory Panels, Court Says

In a victory for science and public health, a federal court determined that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cannot exclude scientists who have received EPA research grants - who happen to be mainly academic scientists from research universities - from serving on its advisory panels.

Key Findings About Americans' Confidence in Science and Their Views on Scientists' Role in Society

Key Findings About Americans' Confidence in Science and Their Views on Scientists' Role in Society

Here is a roundup of key takeaways from our studies of U.S. public opinion about science issues and their effect on society.

How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang

Academic systems rely on the existence of a supply of "outsiders" ready to forgo wages and employment security in exchange for the prospect of uncertain security, prestige, freedom and reasonably high salaries that tenured positions entail.

Washington to Brussels: We Don't Like the Horizon Deal You're Offering

Washington to Brussels: We Don't Like the Horizon Deal You're Offering

The Trump administration fired a diplomatic shot across the European Commission's bow, with a public warning that it may reject an offer for the US to join the EU's next big research programme.