Other TSC News

Federal Funding for Basic Research Gives Rise to Promising Energy Startup
First, University of Massachusetts Amherst microbiology professor Susan Leschine discovered a microbe that would break down leaves and plant fibers into ethanol. Then, she was persuaded to commercialize it. But Leschine says that was not an easy decision. "The last thing I ever wanted to do was start a company," she recalled in a Washington Post interview in October 2007.
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St. Louis Dispatch: Nation needs more engineers, scientists
After the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in the late 1950s, President John F. Kennedy called the nation to act, to produce the engineers and scientists needed to compete.
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Bloomington Herald-Times Op-Ed: Basic research the key to hopeful future
Imagine your child has leukemia, but there is no chemotherapy to treat it. Imagine your father has a brain disorder, but there is no magnetic resource imaging (MRI) technology to detect or diagnose it. Imagine your friends are lost deep in the wilderness, but there is no Global Positioning System (GPS) technology available to pinpoint their location.
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USA Today: Advice from the Top: University research helps USA compete
The Bayh-Dole Act was enacted 27 years ago, but the ramifications persist to this day. The act lets universities patent and commercialize inventions that come from federally funded research. It has gradually turned universities into incubators for breakthroughs in technology and medicine.
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The Politico: Science groups want war cash
With Congress entangled in another tussle over funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s easy to miss the universities, tech companies and scientists lobbying for a relatively small pot of money to finance scientific research they say is critical to maintaining America’s technological edge.
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The Courier-Journal Op-Ed: The U.S. economy desperately needs a transfusion, and Kentucky is no exception
Gas prices are spiraling out of control with motorists paying nearly $4 per gallon. Hard-working families are losing their homes because they cannot afford their mortgage payments. And Kentuckians have to struggle to find high-paying jobs.
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Boston Globe Op-Ed: Gaining ground on cancer
In 1971, President Nixon launched the War on Cancer, with the optimistic goal of defeating the disease in eight years with $100 million. More than 35 years and $79 billion later, the war is far from won. While 2002 marked the first-ever yearly decline in US cancer deaths, more than 40 percent of Americans will still contract cancer in their lifetime. What's more, although effective therapies have emerged for some cancers, other types stubbornly resist therapy, and many patients find treatment itself debilitating.
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Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) Op-Ed: Halt U.S. educational erosion
On Tuesday, I met with the presidents of some of America's most prestigious universities to discuss ways to improve our nation's global competitiveness.There is a growing consensus that America's future prosperity is threatened by an erosion in our educational capabilities. Compared with children in other countries, our nation's students are underperforming in the vitally important fields of science, technology, engineering and math. These are areas of expertise that spur creativity and new technologies, which are essential for economic growth.
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Graduate Students Feel the Funding Squeeze
An article in the Boston Globe last month described the plight of a nuclear physics student who worked at Cornell’s linear accelerator and halfway through a doctorate in quantum optics his adviser’s grant money ran out. With no job and no funding, he was forced to reconsider his career options. This scenario is not unique. It is playing out at university research facilities around the country. And, each time grant money is lost, the ripple effect is felt far beyond the original grantee.
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Boston Globle Column: Investing in the nation's future
IN MUMBAI last November, I addressed a conference of India's leading CEOs. Their interests had a single focus: What makes the American system of higher education such a powerful force for US prosperity? It was not an idle question, as India builds economic momentum. From 12,000 miles away, they understood something easy to lose sight of here at home, that this country's distinctively open, varied, and competitive system of higher education has served both as an escalator of individual social mobility and as an engine of our country's economic growth. Can we afford not to continue to invest in the future of our people and our nation?
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Chicago Tribune: Future science needs aid now
When I started hearing rumors last year that Congress might cut the high-energy physics budget, I never dreamed that it would be as bad as the whisperings suggested.
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Forbes Commentary: America The Unconventional
Even the most decent, charismatic or bold politicians tend to adhere to conventional wisdom and conventional prescriptions in addressing America's economic future. In doing so, they miss the point that it is the unconventional that has driven America's recent success, and the unconventional that must drive our future success.
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Daily Herald Editorial: Unwise retreat in funding research
We turn the key in the ignition, and the car starts up. When our rooms grow dark, we flip the switch, and the lights go on. When we want to relax, we turn on our TV sets, and hundreds of channels are available for our entertainment. We take all this for granted, never thinking about how these amenities came to be. It all started with research.
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News & Observer Editorial: No place to cut
Basic research in the physical sciences helps build a foundation. It can lead to progress in health care, in protecting the environment, in more efficient food production. And thanks to foolish, shortsighted budget cuts (omissions, really) by Congress, universities are facing crises in getting the money to advance such research.
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Chicago Tribune Editorial: Sacrificing science
When it comes to supporting basic scientific research with federal dollars, President Bush and members of Congress talk the talk. Last summer, they passed a law affirming the primacy of federally funded science in maintaining U.S. economic competitiveness.
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The Science Coalition Joins the Call to Congress to Act Quickly on Innovation
On March 13th, The Science Coalition, along with more than 270 business and higher education leaders signed The American Innovation Proclamation, urging Congress to take swift and immediate action to bolster U.S. innovation.
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Eight TSC Members release a report on America's Scientific and Medical Progress Threatened by Flat Funding for NIH
On Monday, March 19, 2007 Eight TSC Members released a report on America's Scientific and Medical Progress Threatened By Flat Funding for NIH.
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Science Coalition releases latest ad to appear in Roll Call newspaper
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Memo from TSC to Editorial Writers
Of the many items remaining on Congress’s legislative agenda before it adjourns for the 2006 elections, advancing American competitiveness should be a top priority.
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