As the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s 2009 report indicates, climate-related impacts are already evident and expected to increase. Signs of change abound. Sea level rise. Longer growing seasons. Increases in heavy downpours. Droughts. Extended ice-free seasons and more. Individuals, decision makers and government officials are asking how they can best prepare their families, businesses and communities for the impacts of climate change. They worry about managing flood risks, planting the right crops, allocating water and making smart business decisions. In just about every sector the need for data and other climate information to support vital decisions is on a fast track, from requests to inform local planning policies, to regional and national questions about energy and food security, to worldwide concerns about diminishing water resources. The National Oceanic and Atmospheri...
NOAA
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Every two years, the National Science Board reports to the president and Congress about the state of the science landscape. This year’s Science and Engineering Indicators report was presented to the White House on January 15. The chairman of the board’s Science and Engineering Indicators committee, physicist Louis Lanzerotti of the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, recently spoke with staff writer Laura Sanders about how the lay of the science land has changed. Overall, is this report good news, bad news or interesting news? Overall, I view these data as good. The United States is still very strong in research and development, and I think the data show that. But they also demonstrate that there are areas we need to look at and adapt to. The rest of the world is catching up to us in many instances — China and some of the Far East countries, for example. In what way...
National Science Board
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In November, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a nongovernmental advisory panel of health experts, recommended that routine mammography for breast cancer screening start at age 50, not 40. It met with a chorus of objections. Lisa Schwartz, a general internist at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Lebanon, N.H., investigates such public health issues. She spoke recently with Science News biomedical writer Nathan Seppa. Were you surprised at the outcry that arose from this recommendation? Yes and no. This happened in 1997 when a National Institutes of Health consensus panel recommended that women in their 40s decide for themselves about mammography: an intensely negative public and political reaction. But I also hoped that with the growing acknowledgment of the harms of mammography — in medical journals, in the news and by the head of the Americ...
Alexandra Howell
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