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Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky will be joined by representatives from several invited countries to announce plans for an international forum to advance carbon and storage technologies. In addition, Secretary Abraham will announce a government-sponsored, public-private partnership to create the world's first pollution-free, fossil fuel fired power plant. The announcements follow a briefing to the President by Secretary Abraham, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman.
A new Web site has been developed by the government's Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR) to gather comments and recommendations on research needs for Americans with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education announced today. The committee, chaired by Steven James Tingus, director of the Education Department's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), produced the site to help ensure that federal research efforts meet the needs of the disability community. The site can be found at http://www.icdr.us/.
In a major victory for community water fluoridation, California?s largest water agency approved a measure Feb. 11 to add fluoride to the 1.7 billion gallons of water it supplies daily to nearly 17 million people in southern California.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the first certification for fuel economy and emissions of a U.S. hydrogen fuel cell zero emission vehicle. This comes shortly after a Presidential commitment to further the progress of hydrogen fuel cells as a way to make the air significantly cleaner, and our country less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
Citing a need to reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism and minimize the damage and help recovery from attacks that do occur, U.S. President George Bush has requested a $36.2 billion budget for the new Office of Homeland Security. This represents a 7.4 percent increase in funding over FY2003, and a 64 percent increase ($14.1 billion) over FY2002, with over 60 thousand staff added to protect the country. The consolidation of numerous entities from Border Patrol to Coast Guard into the new Department is the largest federal reorganization in more than 50 years.
NASA engineers continued to review data and recover debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia today as the analysis of what caused the orbiter to break up Saturday en route to landing continued. Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore told an afternoon briefing that several teams of engineers are making progress in their study of data and video from Columbia's launch and entry, but cautioned that it is a "massive job" requiring round-the-clock efforts to piece together the events that led to a loss of communications with the Shuttle over north central Texas 16 minutes prior to touchdown.
In his State of the Union address, President Bush announced a $1.2 billion Freedom Fuel initiative to reverse America?s growing dependence on foreign oil by developing the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to power cars, trucks, homes and businesses with no pollution or greenhouse gases. The Freedom Fuel initiative will include $720 million in new funding over the next five years to develop the technologies and infrastructure to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen for use in fuel cell vehicles and electricity generation. Combined with the FreedomCAR (Cooperative Automotive Research) initiative, President Bush is proposing a total of $1.7 billion over the next five years to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells, hydrogen infrastructure and advanced automotive technologies.
University of California President Richard C. Atkinson has named longtime UC senior administrator Bruce B. Darling as interim vice president for laboratory management. Darling, who currently serves as systemwide senior vice president for university affairs, will take on the additional responsibilities of overseeing the university's administration of the national laboratories UC manages for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. "By making this appointment of Bruce Darling, one of my oldest and closest associates, I am sending a very clear signal that the University of California's management of the national laboratories is among my highest priorities," said Atkinson. "Bruce has been intimately involved in getting to the bottom of recent allegations surrounding business practices at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has worked closely with the Department of Energy and the NNSA on these matters, and has proved again and again that he is a trusted and effective manager and problem solver on a wide range of university issues. All these are the attributes I need in the vice president position at this critical time."
University of California President Richard C. Atkinson has announced sweeping management changes at Los Alamos National Laboratory, including the resignation of Director John C. Browne. Atkinson immediately appointed as interim director retired Vice Admiral George P. "Pete" Nanos, the former commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and of the Navy's strategic nuclear program. Nanos currently is principal deputy associate director for Los Alamos' Threat Reduction Directorate. Nanos will serve as interim director for a period of several months while the University conducts a nationwide search for a new permanent director.
Two people eat the same egg, cheese and ham muffin for breakfast, yet one absorbs significantly more cholesterol into his or her blood than the other. Why? The answer, and all of its implications for combating heart disease, remains stubbornly hidden within our DNA. In recent genetic studies with lab mice, however, researchers at The Rockefeller University have begun to close in on the culprit genes. "By determining the genetic basis behind the observation that some people absorb 25 percent of cholesterol from their diet, while others absorb up to 75 percent, we hope to develop new treatments to protect this latter group," says senior co-author Jan. L. Breslow, M.D., head of The Rockefeller University's Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism and former national president of the American Heart Association.
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today invited all persons with questions about smallpox and the President's vaccination plan to visit www.smallpox.gov for comprehensive and up-to-the-minute information. "This is a complicated issue that involves a careful balance between the possibility that smallpox might actually be released at some time by terrorists, and the known risks that are associated with the vaccine itself," Secretary Thompson said. "I know from my own experience that this issue is complex and difficult, and we need to have answers easily available."
Intel-rival Advanced Micro Devices got a nice science win Monday when Sandia National Laboratory and Cray Inc. said they would build a supercomputer capable 40 trillion calculations per second using AMD's forthcoming Opteron processor. Ten thousand of them, to be precise. Total cost: $90 million. Sandia says it will use the computing heavyweight for "modeling and simulation of complex problems that were only recently thought impractical, if not impossible."
It's one of those stories that simultaneously gives great hope but also a little dread. Researchers in Pennsylvania say they've successfully stimulated the production of a pain-blocking protein in mice by using a modified herpes virus to attach the appropriate genes onto the animals' DNA. That's potentially terrific news. If the same technique held true in humans, it could offer a new way to treat the devastating pain associated with some forms of cancer, such as bone cancer. Of course, a hell of a lot of mice were bred specifically develop the extremely painful bone tumors, just so the technique could be tested. It's no doubt a necessary sacrifice, but one that shouldn't be overlooked entirely. You don't have to be a wacko member of PETA to spare a thought for the millions of mice and other lab animals that are sacrificed each year so humans can live healthier lives.
I don't know why everyone's getting excited about this crow being so smart. First, crows are woeful creatures that like as not'll ruin my corn crop again this year. They trick Pete into giving them access to the tools -- flashing fake badges, or telling Pete he's needed on another part of the farm "pronto." Then they harvest, bag and truck off the best of the ears. But that makes them smart? A half-bright bunch of third-graders could fool Pete. When a crow tells the president when the big one's coming, or picks me the right lotto numbers, then, yeah, that's pretty smart. But for now I'm just laughing. Hell, I can make bent wire tools.
