This in my inbox today from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are soliciting ideas. The WUWT readership may want to send some along.
Here’s the political spin pitch:
Join the Conversation on the Future of Science
As a part of its efforts to introduce fully open government, the White House is reaching out to the at-large scientific community to discuss America’s national scientific and technological priorities.
Through AAAS, and our new Expert Labs program, the Obama administration wants to draw on the collective wisdom of scientists everywhere in deciding which scientific and technological challenges should be the focus of policy initiatives in the coming years.
In 2009 President Obama provided some examples of what these challenges might be:
- Complete DNA sequencing of every type of cancer.
- A universal vaccine for influenza that will protect against all future strains.
- Solar cells as cheap as paint, and green buildings that produce all of the energy they consume.
- A light-weight vest for soldiers and police officers that can stop an armor-piercing bullet.
- Educational software that is as compelling as the best video game and as effective as a personal tutor.
- Biological systems that can turn sunlight into carbon-neutral fuel, reduce the costs of producing antimalarial drugs by a factor of 10, and quickly and inexpensively dispose of radioactive wastes and toxic chemicals.
Now, the White House wants your help in shaping the federal government’s current and future scientific priorities. As scientists and concerned citizens, we have a great responsibility and a unique opportunity to be the voices that are helping to define the White House’s scientific agenda. Make your voice heard. Submit your ideas today.
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“Solar cells as cheap as paint, and green buildings that produce all of the energy they consume”
Hell, if we can do this, maybe we should repeal the second law of thermodynamics, too.
I got one! I got one!
Biological systems that can turn sunlight into carbon-neutral fuel
Trees! You can burn them and they produce exactly as much carbon as they consumed when growing! Totaly neutral!
Aw crap. I was supposed to get the grant BEFORE I told them the answer, wasn’t I.
Here’s an idea, why not have the government back off and let science explore what it wants to?
It is not as if scientists are in their labs thinking: “Screw cancer, I want to replace Kevlar”, research takes time and usually the breakthroughs come from unrelated research.
Look at all the money we’ve poured into the research of specific cancers, and then look at where the real breakthroughs came. Few breast cancer breakthroughs came from breast cancer research. The only good thing the government can do is raise standards for primary school-age students so that they can smell BS when someone tries to sell them wrinkle cream or carbon credits.
Pamela Gray (18:03:13) :
The Great Grand Challenge:
Research that determines how to get the government to stop raising taxes and stop spending money.
—————————-
Reply:
Glenn Beck is spending this whole week on exactly those two items, Pamela. Yeah, I know to some Beck isn’t popular, but he’s got a thing or two going for him:
1) He isn’t a Republican or Democrat hack (he hates ’em both).
2) He isn’t running for office.
So check it out; use an open mind, and consider realistic alternatives to the death spiral our government is currently going down. Because if we don’t solve these two problems, these two problems will destroy us.
I often feel like I am treading where I am not entitled when I venture an opinion on US politics. Although this article deals with what purports to be a call to “scientists” I again get that uneasy feeling that I am commenting on US politics. Funny that. Nevertheless, I sit here in Canada and find myself terrified that the nation I so denigrated as a lefty twit, is crumbling, and the consequences for the world are beyond measure. How I wish I could take back all the stupid things I said in my idiocy! Europe went insane at least twice in the past century, and America was there to put an end to the madness. (Canada was there along side) This time I fear that America won’t be there anymore to save us from ourselves as she is being dragged down the hall and beaten into a pulp from within. I think Ms. Gray states it most eloquently; “God help us”.
Indeed. God help us all. And God Bless The United States of America!
I got another one!
green buildings that produce all of the energy they consume>>
A tent! Produces exactly as much energy as it consumes!
That’s TWO for me! This science stuff is easy!
Aw crap I blew the grant thing again.
Obama has no intention of listening to anyone. You may recall that after passing health care, the first thing he said was “We heard the people.” Since the majority were against it, I wonder what people he was talking about. Anyway, asking for research ideas is just a smoke screen for him to squander more money on some pet project or some group he owes a favor to. The only thing consistent about Obama is obfuscation.
During the health care debate, Obama made medical recommendations (irregular heart beat, give her a pain pill), and now he thinks he’s a scientist.
while i find the content rather naive to the point of amusing, most of it is trite – as in pretty much nothing new. I’m not worried about it as it is not any more genuine than the call for assistance for academics in helping design the Next computer. That was merely a marketing ploy to get a bunch of people ‘invested’ in that new gizmo in order to sell a bunch of them, principally to academics in order to get students (future customers) hooked on the unit.
can we use nuclear waste on mosquitos?? Then heat buildings with radioactive mosquitos, will plutonium stop bullets?? and after all that who cares about the flu??
My idea for carbon capture and storage. Massive new levels of government paperwork. Carbon Dioxide is captured by trees, processed into paper then used for useless forms to be filled out with worthless data. These forms are delivered to the government where they are stores in cavernous warhouses.
And I think the Obama administration is just the one to pull it off!
This is a joke, right? There’s a picture of Buck Rogers on the page, right?
Would this be a good time to revisit the pi=3 legislation?
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/805/did-a-state-legislature-once-pass-a-law-saying-pi-equals-3
I got the same email. Notice that every single one of the initiatives is an engineering project. Not one of them involves curiosity-driven science or basic science. AAAS is not an engineering society.
If the AAAS wanted to be true to their calling and to their constituency they’d be politely reminding the government that science is not engineering, and that particular list ought to be distributed to American engineering societies through the National Academy of Engineering.
The list of projects is extremely short-sighted, given the mandate to foster innovation. All of our innovation has sprouted out of the rich soil of curiosity-driven science. That has spawned all of the technological and engineering breaks-through that have powered our industry and has created our prosperity. No one knows what project will open the door to a landscape of unexpected opportunity.
The AAAS has lost its vision. So has the government. They should consciously foster blue-sky science, knowing that the pay-off will always come. All this social-needs research is stultifying to our creative expansion.
I’m with stan (17:53:12) :
I think climate scientists should learn to calibrate and properly situate thermometers. It may be a greater challenge than the president wants to take on, but I think it worth the effort.
Carl Chapman (18:02:02) :
snip…
“Complete DNA sequencing of every type of cancer”. Does cancer have its own DNA? I thought it was caused by the disruption of the host’s DNA, allowing the host’s cells to reproduce uncontrollably.
Cancer cells frequently have large sections of a chromosome or an entire chromosome missing. This last thing is called aneuploidy. Needless to say, this results in altered DNA content. I think the writer who described the goal of DNA sequencing was oversimplifying the problem. The current problem facing cancer researchers is the use of something called linkage analysis to track down which odd portions of DNA are associated with which cancers (in a probabilistic sense). They use this to build up a map of genes of interest across multiple individuals. A more modern method of linkage analysis uses Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) to track the offending DNA. This is a complex way of saying that researchers look for DNA that has a single change in a base pair and by induction conclude that anyone who inherited this mutated DNA also inherited mutated genes responsible for the cancer. Sequencing the actual genes for every cancer patient is currently prohibitively expensive, and, that is exactly what they’re proposing to do.
Personal chemotherapy is the up-and-coming treatment option for cancer. It will allow you to predict which drug(s) will work against your particular cancer, and, since cancers mutate over time, there may be some time-dependence on which drugs will work best. Hope that makes the White House’s proposal seem like less of a joke.
I am inspired by D. Hoffer’s ideas and I have one too (although it isn’t nearly as good as his are.) “Solar cells as cheap as paint,” OK, here we go… Tax paint until it is just as expensive as solar cells. Now solar cells are just as cheap as paint. Kind of an Obamian slight of hand, if you will.
Now just hold on a gosh darned minute! There’s no push to develop warp drive on that list. Doesn’t the Obama adminstration know that we are seriously behind the Star Trek timeline for making rapid interstellar travel a reality.
The Klingons could be lurking just beyond the astreroid belt this very minute, and we wouldn’t even know it!
{JAE (19:20:17) :
“Solar cells as cheap as paint, and green buildings that produce all of the energy they consume”
Hell, if we can do this, maybe we should repeal the second law of thermodynamics, too.}
Jae, the funny thing about this, is that way back when, most people in europe lived in these types of buildings. A lot of sod was used, and the animals were stabled in what would now be called the basement. With a little fire to cook and for some heat, most of the heat during the winter was produced by the animals from below. In the warmer summers, the animals were pasturized (no not that pastureized!) and the living quarters were moved to the cooler basement/stables.
Of course back then, most europeans thought that if you took a bath, you’d get pneunomia!
No joke, never under estimate the insanity, greed for power and raw stupidity of our governments and their cling-ons.There is no way to hide the decline on this front.
After reading the list more carefully, I would say that about half that list is already being accomplished. Many of the things that “harumphers” on this blog think are fiction are actually completely defensible goals, just not that original.
“Educational software that is as compelling as the best video game and as effective as a personal tutor.”???
Read ‘Diamond Age’ by Neal Stevenson
Due on April 15th? If the Administration thinks they’ll get enough tax money to restart the Carbon Exchange through this there are a few problems: 1) interest will wipe out the revenue; 2) the Mints can’t print enough money fast enough to continue CE subsidies; 3) no more problems needed.
Anti-malarial drug? DDT.
They’ve left the perpetual motion machine off their list. Don’t these AAAS guys know anything about science?
Thank God the CIA is spending our tax dollars trying to farm zero-point energy. At least someone in the government knows first-rate science when they see it.
Items #3 and #6 on Obama’s list:
No need to spend $$$ on those science intitatives when one can easily hire a herd of perpetual motion machine experts. The job couldn’t get any greener than the ink on the bills.
As for the armor-piercing bullet proof vests, Kevlar was the answer until a plastic-coated bullet (Teflon) came along and defeated the Kevlar. He does not understand the leapfrogging of weaponry that is never-ending.
Universal vaccine for Influenza?? He needs to sit down and watch Jurassic Park again. Life (Influenza bug included) always finds a way.
The perfect software=based teaching game needs the perfect video game running on the perfect game computer made by the perfect game programmer modeling the perfect teacher….
Dream on.
Does the President even realize that cancer can mutate because it’s alive?
None of this can be solved permanently without defying the laws of physics or halting nature, and that is where Obama is errant.
Yes, it is quite the dream list.
Obviously, the correct climate for the planet should be determined for us, and then guaranteed to us, via multiplying government actions and fees.
This all should be based on “incontrovertible” evidence and absolute “consensus.”
Now put that in with all of the other answers you got from second grade school children.
Jesse Gump (19:08:58) :
I like the time machine idea except I’d ship CO2 and nuclear waste into the future.
We are doing that even as we speak.