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.
This thing is about two weeks too late
Allow me to address the ‘answers’ to the suggested challenges:
[1]Complete DNA sequencing of every type of cancer.
Ludicrous! Virtually all cancers are the result of the body fighting itself.
The better solution would be to figure out WHY the body does such and seek to reduce or eliminate those causative agents from the environment. An ounce of prevention …
[2]A universal vaccine for influenza that will protect against all future strains.
MORE baloney! Stay away from sugar, i.e., added sugar. Sugars cause the suppression of the immune system. People who eat lots of it are less healthy, and get sick more often. Evidence: Have you ever noticed that at the times of Halloween, ThanksGiving and Christmas when LOTS AND LOTS of candy is consumed, that there’s an epidemic of colds and flu? End of story.
[3]Solar cells as cheap as paint, and green buildings that produce all of the energy they consume.
Yeah, right. And it never rains in Seattle either …
That’s not even considering the physical impossibilities of such energy production and transfer.
[4]A light-weight vest for soldiers and police officers that can stop an armor-piercing bullet.
Talk about putting the cart before horse …
I have a better idea: Why not mitigate the reasons that people shoot at cops? When 100% of the idiot laws which create criminals to begin with are eliminated, guess what? And then there’s the idea itself: For every strategy, there’s an effective anti-strategy. Think: Back to square one.
The corollary: The immovable object meets the unstoppable force.
[5]Educational software that is as compelling as the best video game and as effective as a personal tutor.
Yet MORE nonsense! If instead of relegating the teaching of things to inanimate objects, why not instead motivate parents to get involved in their offspring’s education? There’s absolutely nothing like ‘personal attention.’
Obama’s solution: Here, kid, take the computer, go play in the corner and stay out of my hair … Yeah, use computers to raise your kids.
[6]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.
Wow! Does anyone else here smell ‘BOONDOGGLE’ in the making?
Here, I’ve a better idea: Instead of government spending our hard-earned money (which is essentially worthless now anyway) on hair-brained schemes, why not just let private enterprise seek what it figures is the most important thing and stay OUT OF THEIR WAY?
“A light-weight vest for soldiers and police officers that can stop an armor-piercing bullet.”
For the vopos to wear?
“Educational software that is as compelling as the best video game and as effective as a personal tutor.”
And will teach our children to sing “Onward, Youth for Socialism” and “Forward Together With the Party and the People.”
This list is, at best, science-fiction, at worst, the shopping list of a tyrant.
This is a prince looking out for ever more flatterers. People with genuine original ideas and approaches are unlikely to get a look in.
Not the way scientific and technological discovery advances, methinks.
In 2009 President Obama provided some examples of what these challenges might be:
* Complete DNA sequencing of every type of cancer.
He obviously believes cancer is a virus.
* A universal vaccine for influenza that will protect against all future strains.
Good luck with that.
* Solar cells as cheap as paint…
Watch for paint to get more expensive.
* A light-weight vest for soldiers and police officers that can stop an armor-piercing bullet.
Comic book stuff. Dissipating the force of the dual impact of the round and the AP core without the shock killing the wearer is tough enough with a *heavy* vest with composite armor inserts.
* Biological systems that can turn sunlight into carbon-neutral fuel…
Trees.
…and quickly and inexpensively dispose of radioactive wastes and toxic chemicals.
Until someone invents a molecular disintegrator powered by radioactive waste, you’ll have to choose between quickly *or* inexpensively.
Couple points:
1) So WUWT has degenerated into a political, anti-Obama blog now? I thought you were all against mixing politics and science.
2) Its refreshing to see the level of optimism towards scientific development here and the fact that everyone here is an expert on every subject makes reading comments very insightful and thought provoking. But seriously, who pissed in your cheerios?
3) Just an example, for the item “A light-weight vest for soldiers and police officers that can stop an armor-piercing bullet,” work is already well underway this. See http://www.sc.edu/news/newsarticle.php?nid=876, http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123314249/abstract Luckily for the rest of us, there are people out there doing serious science and engineering instead of sitting around on blogs moaning about what can or cant be done.
Well, time-machine and FTL-drives were already mentioned, but I still miss anti-gravity, it would make life easier for the children working in some third-world mines..
And forget about fusion. I want matter-to-energy conversion through mini black holes. We could “fuel” it with radioactive wastes and toxic chemicals and thus also get rid of that.
The last bullet point is actually 4 proposals of which the one to produce a biological system that will eat radioactive material & make it inert sems to show an ignorance of the laws of physics & biology.
The big thing missing is space industrialisation. This could be done by putting up considerably less than NASA now eats as a jobs creation programme put into an X-Prize foundation.
I could add a way of producing unlimited electricity at under half the present price but we already have the capability to do that through nuclear & refuse to use it.
magicjava (20:20:10) :
Theyve left the perpetual motion machine off their list.
Actually, the oceans are a vast storage of energy and the deeper you go, the more pressure. All you need is to break the bonding water has that prevents just dropping a pipe down and have instant fountain.
Now as for Time machines, transporters, etc.
Totally bogus for one reason. Need a point to point exact location. Since the solar system is moving, the planet is orbiting and the planet is rotating, there is no point that is not stationary.
This is why I laugh at Quatum mechanics as scientists can produce this in the lab with lights and waves as a substitute.
Try space where there is no stationary points!
With an auditorium full of Mensa Society members President Obama would be more intelligent than all combined, don’t believe me ? ask him !
Dear AAAS,
We simply MUST develope Warp Drive capability in the next few months, and a functional onboard toilet!
signed –
Every Member of Congress
Every Member of Parlement
PS: “We gotta get out’a this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do!
“We gotta get out’a this place, girl there’s a better life for me and you!”
There’s no mention of a timeline anywhere. Is this going to be a 5, 10, 30 year or longer programme, remembering that a politician’s idea of the future is as only the time to the next election.
Imagine what the ‘wish list’ would have been 100 years ago. I doubt that anything we have now would have been on that list. As others have mentioned, many developments come from serendipitous events and there is no way of determining when they will occur.
What happened to more grand plans such as getting to the moon within 10 years. Look at the spin offs we have now due to the space programme.
Matt (02:20:52) :
But seriously, who pissed in your cheerios?
3) Just an example, for the item “A light-weight vest for soldiers and police officers that can stop an armor-piercing bullet,” work is already well underway this.
As I said before, you need to dissipate the impact forces from the *two* hits an armor-piercing round imparts — and you’ll need to dissipate it almost instantly — otherwise, the shock is likely to stop the soldier’s/policeman’s heart. A rifle bullet (non-AP) hitting you in your thick, kevlar-protected chest, even with an improved SAPI plate insert, *will* knock you down — and it *will* leave a bruise the size of a dinner plate.
Defund the EPA!
AAAS! GIRLS! FECK! DRINK!
This administration is fundamentally a bunch of street operatives from Chicago. They really have no interest in science. Can’t even fake it.
Find a technology to convert lithium car batteries to lithium tabs. Save a lot of trips to the pharmacy to treat bipolar issues and recycle the batteries so they don’t have to go to the dump.
How about finding a way to teach people not to elect representatives who systematically steal from them?
Oh, sorry. I thought I was at tAV. 😉
The White House should should get out of the science policy business, just like they should get out of the education business, the healthcare business and the interfering with and controlling every aspect of our lives business.
interesting how the apologists defend things by saying half the initiatives are already well under way. What’s the point of making it an initiative now? The WH should have made a strategic list of desires, not a tactical list of specific items more suited for an R&D department of a medium to large company and half of which appear to already be done.
Well, here’s what ~I~ think we should be working on:
1. Practical fusion (I like polywell or IEC)
2. Nanotechnology
3. Human genome and genetics
and last but not least…
4. Lightsabers. (come ON, you ~KNOW~ you want one.)
Doc
Since they’re looking for ideas, I want my own Robot Monkey. That would be really kewl, and I think everyone who wants their own Robot Monkey should have one. We can put a man on the moon, why can’t we give everyone their very own Robot Monkey???
Matt: last I heard, the White House is a political entity and what the government does and how programs are funded are political concerns, not scientific concerns.
With a political topic, the comments are also political in nature. My comments did not involve the scientific merits of the various concerns, but the role of the government.
For the record, the federal government does have a mandate for national defense.
I don’t support many of the present administrations efforts, and think much as being misguided, but don’t be too quick to reject this call. The examples given were not all realistic, but some were very desirable. In particular, the idea of educational software that is as compelling as the best video game and as effective as a personal tutor, is an idea I have long thought as needed. Keep in mind the examples shown were not necessarily limiting, they were just examples. Neither political party has moved this country in near ideal directions. If we try to be idealistic on all issues, we will never do the best for the country. The parties will swing us from one extreme to the other. We should try to do as much of the right things as we can despite the political situations.
“The wisdom of the science collective”
“Educational software that is as compelling as the best video game and as effective as a personal tutor.”
Like Forza 3 or the maybe, possibly, “soon” to be released Gran Turismo 5?