NIH And FDA Announce Collaborative Initiative To Fast-Track Innovations To The Public

(NIH, February 24, 2010) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health today unveiled an initiative designed to accelerate the process from scientific breakthrough to the availability of new, innovative medical therapies for patients.  The initiative involves two interrelated scientific disciplines: translational science, the shaping of basic scientific discoveries into treatments; and regulatory science, the development and use of new tools, standards and approaches to more efficiently develop products and to more effectively evaluate product safety, efficacy and quality. Both disciplines are needed to turn biomedical discoveries into products that benefit people. As part of the effort, the agencies will establish a Joint NIH-FDA Leadership Council to spearhead collaborative work on important public health issues. Click here to read more…

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Funding Assistance to Help Rural Businesses: Guaranteed Loans Provided Through Recovery Act Funds Help Local Businesses and Supports the Nation’s Renewable Energy Strategy

(USDA, February 16, 2010) Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced $144 million in loan guarantees to assist 54 rural businesses through funding made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding is authorized through USDA Rural Development’s Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program. The program received $1.57 billion through the Act to help rural businesses stimulate economic development.   ”A number of the Recovery Act projects announced today support the President’s comprehensive energy strategy announced earlier this month,” said Vilsack.  Click here to read more…

The Real Avatar: Ocean Bacteria Act As ‘Superorganism’

By Catherine Brahic

(New Scientist, February 24, 2010) In the movie Avatar, the Na’vi people of Pandora plug themselves into a network that links all elements of the biosphere, from phosphorescent plants to pterodactyl-like birds. It turns out that Pandora’s interconnected ecosystem may have a parallel back on Earth: sulphur-eating bacteria that live in muddy sediments beneath the sea floor.  Some researchers believe that bacteria in ocean sediments are connected by a network of microbial nanowires. These fine protein filaments could shuttle electrons back and forth, allowing communities of bacteria to act as one super-organism. Now Lars Peter Nielsen of Aarhus University in Denmark and his team have found tantalising evidence to support this controversial theory. Click here to read more…

A Future For Fusion? Supporters Say It Isn’t A Question Of If, But When

By Leia Parker

(Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2010) It’s a tall order, but scientists at an English industrial complex near Oxford are attempting to develop an energy source that replicates the sun.  The problem isn’t whether fusion can work: It does. Scientists have successfully released energy from light atoms by fusing their nuclei together. The special reactor at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in England holds the world record for most fusion power produced.  The problem is turning fusion into a viable large-scale energy source—one that is economical, clean and safe. That is still somewhere over the horizon. After decades of research and billions of dollars in public financing, no fusion experiment yet has been able to generate more energy than it consumed in the process.  Click here to read more…

Massachusetts Launches Start Here Initiative For Business

(The Gov Monitor, February 25, 2010) To mark National Entrepreneurship Week and the groundbreaking of the newly expanded Cambridge Innovation Center, Governor Deval Patrick today announced a new Massachusetts: It’s All Here initiative to highlight the diverse resources available to entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout the Commonwealth.  The Start Here statewide collaborative campaign includes new opportunities, events, and access for small businesses, innovators and investors of Massachusetts that will take place throughout the next three months.  “The Massachusetts spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and opportunity has benefitted the state, the nation and the world,” said Governor Patrick. “This campaign will translate into business and job growth in the Commonwealth and help the state maintain its global competitiveness.”  Click here to read more…

New York To Help Businesses Produce Their Own Renewable Energy

(The Gov Monitor, February 25, 2010) Governor David A. Paterson today announced the passage of a three-way bill negotiated with the Legislature to improve net metering, which encourages the development of renewable energy systems.  Net metering allows electricity customers with qualified renewable energy systems to sell excess electricity back to their local utility.  “This is another step toward achieving the State’s clean energy goals,” Governor Paterson said. “As called for in the State Energy Plan, clean energy initiatives will create local job growth, reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and improve public health, the environment, and the State’s energy independence. I thank the Legislature, the renewables industry, and utilities for working with me to strengthen the net metering law.”  Click here to read more…

Bernanke: Fed To Evaluate If Additional Stimulus Necessary

By Steven K. Beckner

(Market News, February 24, 2010) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke not only signaled Wednesday that short-term interest rates would be kept near zero “for an extended period,” he said the Fed will “evaluate” whether additional monetary stimulus of some sort is needed. Unemployment, not inflation, is “the biggest problem we have,” he said. In testimony prepared for the House Financial Services Committee, Bernanke left the door open to further purchases of mortgage backed securities and agency debt beyond March, and in response to questions from committee members, he said the Fed would also be evaluating whether it should extend its financing of new commercial mortgage backed securities past June. Click here to read more…

National Science Board Urges Action To Sustain U.S. Leadership In Science And Engineering Research

(NSF, February 19, 2010) Today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Board (NSB) released the policy-oriented companion piece to its biennial publication, Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI). SEI 2010 was delivered to the President and to Congress and disseminated broadly on Jan. 15.  Carrying out its congressional mandate to oversee the collection of a very broad set of quantitative information about the U.S. science, engineering and technology enterprise, the NSB publishes the data and trends every two years in the SEI. When the data reveal trends that raise important policy concerns the NSB believes should be brought to the attention of the President, Congress and the public, it develops and shares a “companion” policy statement to the SEI.  Click here to read more…

Next Page »