NASA is fine with cute robots on Mars but if there is anything that fiascoes like the Constellation program and the James Webb Space Telescope have taught us, it's that NASA is not all that competent with big plans.Projects that were once mission critical are now instead founded on the concept that there is zero tolerance for risk. If we are really going to venture into the Final Frontier,...
read moreWhile former Energy Secretary Stephen Chu is a fine scholar, he seemed to be lost when it came to drafting a federal energy policy that was evidence-based.It's easy for an academic to postulate that $9 a gallon gas will be 'good' for us but when it comes to managing a national constituency, including a lot of people who will be ruined by expensive gasoline, there has to be some real thought...
read moreA Washington state referendum to put warning labels on genetically modified foods, I-522, failed in the last election, but a new effort is more clever - they want to warn the public about Frankenfish and are couching it in an effort to simply make the public aware if it's farm-raised or caught in the wild or, oh yeah, a TRANSGENIC ABOMINATION OF NATURE. read...
read moreResearch and Development (R&D) has become something of a dirty word throughout a giant swath of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) community. Academia is where it's at, the saying goes, and basic research, learning for the sake of learning with no defined public benefit, is what scientists are told they must do if they want to be real scientists. Technology will be fine, it...
read moreIn the endless war on pharmaceutical companies, there is a consistent refrain; the US Food and Drug Administration is too slow to approve new drugs unless it approved drugs too quickly and the product hurt someone. Mainstream media highlight the complaints of doctors and patients that some drug or another is available in Europe or Asia but not here and then on another page delights in a lawsuit...
read moreYet another government science report has found that the Keystone XL pipeline is not going to be risky to the environment. read...
read more