Announcing The Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Program 2007 Research Grants

Numerous grants and graduate fellowships in various environmental science and engineering disciplines can be obtained via a competitive bid process and independent peer review.

The program engages the nation’s best scientists and engineers in targeted research that complements EPA’s own outstanding intramural research program and those of our partners in other federal agencies. In addition, through this same competitive process, NCER periodically establishes large research centers in specific areas of national concern. At present, these centers focus on children’s health, hazardous substances, particulate matter, and estuarine and coastal monitoring.

PARTIAL LIST

* Issues in Tribal Environmental Research and Health Promotion: Novel Approaches for Assessing and Managing Cumulative Risks and Impacts of Global Climate Change - Open: September 25, 2006 - Closing: January 23, 2007

* Sources and Atmospheric Formation of Organic Particulate Matter - Open: November 20, 2006 - Closing: February 27, 2007

* An Interdisciplinary Approach To Examining The Links Between Social Stressors, Biodiversity And Human Health - Open: December 15, 2006 - Closing: April 19, 2007

* Computational Toxicology Centers: Development Of Predictive Environmental And Biomedical Computer-Based Simulations And Models - Opens: December 2006

* Ecological Impacts from the Interaction of Climate Change, Land Use Change and Invasive Species - Opens: December 2006

* Enhancing Ecosystem Services from Agricultural Lands: Developing Tools for Quantification and Decision Support - Opens: December 2006

* Development and Evaluation of Innovative Approaches for the Quantitative Assessment of Pathogens or Cyanobacteria and their Toxins in Drinking Water - Opens: January 2007.

Read more information.

Landing on the Moon is So ... Yesterday

The National Academies website reported today that NASA has announced plans for a solar-powered lunar base in preparation for eventual missions to Mars and beyond.

By 2020, four-person crews will begin to establish a lunar base by bringing power supplies and rovers and building living quarters in a series of seven-day missions. Next, the crews will stay at the lunar base for 180-day missions to get ready for voyages to Mars. Read more.

Fighting the Terminal Master's Blues


NISHAD H. MAJMUDAR reported in the The Wall Street Journal about the rise of a new science degree: the professional science master's (PSM).

Excerpted from the article:
Twyla Tiongson Pohar expected her bachelor's degree in molecular biology to help launch her career.

But employers told her she needed either a doctorate, requiring years of research, or business experience, which she didn't have, to land her ideal job as a biological information analyst. She turned instead to a newly available alternative: a degree that combines science and business. In 2002, Ms. Tiongson Pohar earned a professional science master's, or PSM, in computational biology from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark. She parlayed it into a $55,000-a-year job managing the development of software for researchers at Ohio State University's cancer center.

While Pohar went to NJIT, some 900 students are currently pursuing PSMs at 45 colleges and universities in 17 states, in fields including bioinformatics, biotechnology, financial mathematics and environmental sciences.

PSM-granting schools say the programs will increase the number of students in the sciences, promote greater science literacy in business and government, and reduce the outsourcing of higher-skilled U.S. jobs abroad. But critics, particularly in the Ivy League and other top colleges, say the degree waters down standards in graduate science courses and accentuates textbook learning over independent thought.

Read more.

PENN CENTER FOR BIOETHICS
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
“Pharmaceutical testing and evidence making:
An ethnography of the globalized clinical trial”
Adriana Petryna, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania

Tuesday, December 12, 2006
“How the success and failure of prenatal care
changed the way we think about pregnancy”
John Lantos, M.D.
Director, Center for Clinical Ethics
University of Chicago

Read more about upcoming events at the Penn Center for Bioethics

OECD Information Technology Outlook 2006

The OECD Information Technology Outlook 2006 analyses the development and impact of the changing global distribution of services activities and the rise of China and India as significant suppliers of ICT-related goods and services. ICT skills across the economy are also examined to provide insights into the dynamics of job creation and international sourcing.

The 2006 edition also looks at the increasing importance of digital content in selected industries and how it is transforming value chains and business models. The potential of technological developments is examined: ubiquitous networks, location-based services, natural disaster warning systems, the participative web and the convergence of information technology with nanotechnology and biotechnology.

Finally, this volume analyses changes in IT policies in OECD countries and the emergence of new priorities to meet new challenges.

Access to the underlying Excel spreadsheets used to create the tables and graphs is available from both the printed and electronic editions via the StatLinks provided on each page.

Publication of the OECD Information Technology Outlook alternates every year with the OECD Communications Outlook (latest edition published in August 2005).

National information technology policy profiles are available on the OECD Information Economy Web site at www.oecd.org/sti/information-economy.

The Global Networking Symposium on BioEnergy
November 9 - 10, 2006
Alberta, Canada

This alternative energy conference takes a business-oriented look at the opportunities and challenges surrounding biofuels. Participants will discover:

Who is investing in renewable energy and how do traditional investors view this investment opportunity? Where is the smart money going?

What percentage of the total world arable land should be used to produce renewable energy crops?

What crops and plant life worldwide have the greatest potential to be competitive in the global renewable fuel market?

How to get consumers to buy in to renewable energy strategies that at times

Sermo Partners with Penn Center for Bioethics to Develop Ethical Guidelines for Market-Based Clinical Informatics

Sermo, the fastest growing online community created by physicians for physicians, has announced a partnership with Arthur Caplan, Ph. D., and the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, to expand the development of ethical guidelines for Sermo and Sermo's users. Dr. Caplan is the Founding Director of the Center for Bioethics, as well as an author or editor of twenty-five books and over 500 papers in referenced journals of medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics and health policy. Dr. Caplan and the Bioethics Center will also work with Sermo to build an ethics council, overseeing Sermo's efforts on an ongoing basis as it establishes a new field of clinical informatics. Read more at Genetic Engineering News.

Homeroom: How Major Museums and Science Centers Ignite Student Interest in Research

As budgets tighten and both informal science venues and academic researchers compete for limited dollars, the challenge is to develop collaborations that sustain and stimulate ideas at the nexus of research, education, and outreach.

Such partnerships are already underway in major museums and science centers around the United States. Two weeks ago here in Philadelphia, the school district and its partner, the Franklin Institute, officially marked the opening of the Science Leadership Academy, a new magnet high school, with a ribbon cutting ceremony and program on September 28, 2006, at 10 a.m.

This special admission school offers students a college preparatory curriculum with a focus on science, technology, mathematics and entrepreneurship. Students learn in a project-based environment where the core values of inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation and reflection are emphasized in all classes.

The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York is not partnered with any one high school but there are several programs to engage the scientific interests of students and the public city-wide. One program in particular, the High School Science Research Program (HSSRP), was developed as a practicum for New York City students interested in pursuing a career in science. In the program HSSRP uses graduate students to ...

How Invisibility Cloaks Work


Using optical-camouflage technology developed by scientists at the University of Tokyo, an invisibility cloak - - the stuff of Harry Potter movies - - is actually a reality. Physicists there have revealed a super high-tech invisibility device. Learn more.

Marie Curie, The Mother of Physics

Many know Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes, one in 1903 for Physics and the other in 1911 for Chemistry, but how many people know she was the mother of two children? The quandry of how women balance a research profession and motherhood is being tackled by Emily Monosson according to a report on the The American Astronomical Society website. Ms. Monosson is focusing on women, science, and family and has tentatively titled the book Motherhood: The Elelphant in the Laboratory.

An excerpt follows:

The aim of this book is to initiate a national discussion about science, work,
and motherhood, by highlighting the unique accomplishments and challenges of
women, as scientists and as mothers, with the ultimate goal of redefining the
concept of career scientist.

Scientists with families, particularly women with young children, find it
difficult to achieve a balance between work and family in these highly
competitive often male dominated fields. But many do. They work
part-time or full-time, they opt-out, and opt back-in, they become
entrepreneurs, they job share, they get creative.

If you are interested in contributing and would like more information or would
like the full proposal, please respond to:

emonossonverizon.net

Use of Marrow Stromal Cells for the Therapy of Heart Disease

Darwin Prockop, PhD, Department of Medicine and Center for Gene Therapy at Tulane University is one of several investigators working on animal models of cardiac diseases using marrow Stromal cells and other immortal cell lines.

Dr. Prockop's work focuses on injecting stromal cells into damaged myocardium. The cells differentiate into myocardial muscle instead of skeletal muscle.

Companies interested in this therapy should contact Doug Adams at
Drexel University's Entrepreneurship & Technology Commercialization Office. He can be reached at 215-895-0304.

For more information on cardiac treatments and stem cell research go to the latest issue of The Scientist.com

Women, Heart to Heart

Female physicians at Penn Medicine dole out some thoughtful gems of advice on including themselves in their family's cardiac health equation.

"Women need to stop caring for all the members of their families for a few minutes and start caring for themselves. They need to know their risk factors for heart disease and take steps to reduce future risk. Heart disease kills women five times more than any cancer in the U.S."
Mariell Jessup, MD
Medical Director, Heart Failure & Transplant Program
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

"I often talk to women who insist that their husbands get evaluated, but they don’t apply the same standards to themselves. Women delay going to hospital, when having a heart attack, more than three hours more than men do. Women need to get to the emergency room quickly so that they're symptoms can be evaluated promptly.

"If I could tell my female patients one thing, it would be to stop smoking! The only young women I’ve seen with heart attacks are smokers."
-- Susan Wiegers, MD
Director, Clinical Echocardiography Laboratory
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

"A recent survey showed that a majority of women can not identify risk factors for heart disease or steps they can take to reduce their own risks. And many do not know their cholesterol levels, and have never discussed heart disease with their doctors. This illustrates the enormous treatment gap that results in premature strokes, heart attacks, heart failure, and death. Both health care providers and patients need to close this gap with better education, awareness, and communication."
-- Laura Demopoulos, MD
Director, Women's Cardiovascular Health
Penn Medicine at Radnor

"Women don't realize how important heart disease is to their own health. There's a major disconnect between what women know about heart disease and what they actually do to prevent it. They don't pay attention to their symptoms or take preventive measures. Why aren't women talking about heart disease with their primary physicians? They are talking about breast cancer.

"Women are starting to understand that heart disease is important but they still aren't connecting it to themselves and taking the steps to prevent it. Think about your risk factors and take care of them before you end up in a cardiologist's office."
Ruchira Glaser, MD
Interventional Cardiologist
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania