Science and Technology Policy Commons^™

Strengthening Security And Oversight At Biological Research Laboratories, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

With the advent of the Anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, this Nation has been confronted with a serious policy conundrum. On the one hand, we have strengthened programs that encourage the use of our best scientific resources to develop countermeasures to the weaponization of highly dangerous biopathogens. On the other hand, research on those countermeasures requires the use of the very biopathogens we seek to defeat. There have been many mishaps in the handling of those pathogens, which raises the frightening prospect that the research may be as (or more) dangerous than the potential bioterrorist acts themselves. Indeed, …

The Convergence Of Broadcasting And Telephony: Legal And Regulatory Implications, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

This article, written for the inaugural issue of a new journal, analyzes the extent to which the convergence of broadcasting and telephony induced by the digitization of communications technologies is forcing policymakers to rethink their basic approach to regulating these industries. Now that voice and video are becoming available through every transmission technology, policymakers can no longer define the scope of regulatory obligations in terms of the mode of transmission. In addition, jurisdictions that employ separate agencies to regulate broadcasting and telephony must reform their institutional structures to bring both within the ambit of a single regulatory agency. The emergence …

The Obama Administration's Challenges After The 'War On Science': Reforming Staffing Practices And Protecting Scientific Integrity In The Executive Branch, Justin Vaughn, José Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

In this article, we examine the difficult leadership position President Barack Obama inherited as he took office with respect to science and technology policy making and implementation, particularly following the Bush administration and years of the so-called "war on science." We contend that the Obama administration's challenge is not only to take substantive policy action, but also to reform certain administrative practices, particularly in light of the previous administration's practice of the politics of strategic vacancies, a managerial technique that rearranges an agency's ideological inclinations not through the usual forms of active politicization (i.e., by filling the appointee ranks with …

Public Research Lab And Other Scientific Collaborations Of The Manchester City Region: A Bibliometric Analysis, Philip Shapira, Luciano Kay

Philip Shapira

This working paper examines the characteristics of the research collaborations of the Manchester City-Region, UK, based on a bibliometric analysis of co-authorship patterns of scientific publications published during the period 2006-2008. The paper focuses on Manchester City-Region collaborations with UK public research laboratories, but to place these in context the paper also contains overview analyses of all of the city-region’s research collaborations in the UK and internationally.

Renewable Energy As A Means To Community Development: A Case Study Of Solar Power With Avani In Kumaon, Uttarakhand, Sarah Connette

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For the woman who must spend four hours walking to the forest, cutting wood, carrying it back on her head and lighting a fire in her home, energy poverty is a harsh reality of everyday life. As of 2000, more than 500 million Indians did not have access to electricity, which accounts for 35% of the world’s population living without this facilityi. Energy poverty is defined as the inability to afford access to a sustainable energy supplyii. The concept of energy poverty as a focus of sustainable development is given more importance by the correlation between electricity consumption and GDP …

Blind Matching Versus Matchmaking: Comparison Group Selection For Highly Creative Researchers, Jan Youtie, Philip Shapira, Juan Rogers

Philip Shapira

This research examines approaches for constructing a comparison group relative to highly creative researchers in nanotechnology and human genetics in the US and Europe. Such a comparison group would be useful in identifying factors that contribute to scientific creativity in these emerging fields. Two comparison group development approaches are investigated. The first approach is based on propensity score analysis and the second is based on knowledge from the literature on scientific creativity and early career patterns. In the first approach, the log of citations over the years of activity in the domains under analysis produces a significant result, but the …

Strengthening Security And Oversight At Biological Research Laboratories, Michael Greenberger

Congressional Testimony

With the advent of the Anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, this Nation has been confronted with a serious policy conundrum. On the one hand, we have strengthened programs that encourage the use of our best scientific resources to develop countermeasures to the weaponization of highly dangerous biopathogens. On the other hand, research on those countermeasures requires the use of the very biopathogens we seek to defeat. There have been many mishaps in the handling of those pathogens, which raises the frightening prospect that the research may be as (or more) dangerous than the potential bioterrorist acts themselves. Indeed, …

Review: The Limits Of Boundaries: Why City-Regions Cannot Be Self-Governing, By Andrew Sancton, Christopher D. Gore

Christopher D Gore

No abstract provided.

Clean-Energy Policy Community Town Hall: Part A, Al Gore, Harry Reid, T. Boone Pickens, Cathy Zoi

National Clean Energy Summit

Moderator: John D. Podesta, President & CEO, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Ubiquitäres Computing Im Gesundheitswesen, Michael Friedewald

Michael Friedewald

Der Fortschritt von Mikroelektronik, Kommunikationstechnik und Informations- technologie hält weiter an. Damit rückt auch die Vision einer umfassenden »In- formatisierung« und »Vernetzung« der Welt durch ubiquitäres Computing (Ubi- Comp) näher. Die technischen Voraussetzungen hierfür sind bereits geschaffen. Durch drahtlos kommunizierende Prozessoren und Sensoren, die – immer win- ziger, leistungsfähiger und energieeffizienter – in fast jeden Gegenstand inte- griert werden können, dringt die Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik in so gut wie jeden Bereich des gesellschaftlichen Lebens und Arbeitens vor. Com- puter werden »allgegenwärtig« und gleichzeitig doch weitgehend unsichtbar. Im Folgenden werden Anwendungsperspektiven dieser Technik im Bereich des Gesundheitswesens aufgezeigt und diskutiert.

Innovation For The Manchester City Region: A Discussion Paper, Philip Shapira, Michael Luger, Elvira Uyarra, Chiara Marzocchi

Philip Shapira

After considering what is meant by innovation, we conceptualize the uses and sources of innovation at the level of a city-region. We suggest that this conceptualization, drawing on frameworks available in the literature, can provide a useful basis both for interpretation and policy operationalization. We then consider examples from practice, drawing on mini-case studies of innovation strategies in selected multi-area metropolitan agglomerations in other countries. This leads to a discussion of grand challenges and implementation problems of innovation facing the Manchester city-region. Finally, we consider implications strategy development and for the Manchester city-region innovation prospectus itself.

Breathing New Life Into Old Technological Infrastructure: Broadband Internet As A Means Of Jump-Starting The Economy And Connecting The Country, Elizabeth Chernow

Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This paper examines the current structure of universal service and the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, recent pushes to expand the definition of and funding for universal service to include broadband access, and how broadband internet can contribute to saving the ailing economy. The paper concludes by calling for the inclusion of broadband internet in the Universal Service Fund.

Current financial support for the Universal Service Fund is problematic in that only telecommunications carriers providing interstate services are required to contribute to the fund. The author maintains that the contribution base should be expanded to include companies providing broadband internet access. …

Towards A Bibliometric Database For The Social Sciences And Humanities, Diana Hicks, Jian Wang

Diana Hicks

In the social sciences, humanities or arts it is largely impossible to substantiate statements on research excellence with reliable indicators for international benchmarking of fields and institutions. To help overcome this limitation, this report examined bibliometric systems in the social science and humanities from the perspective of assessing their potential for institutional research evaluation nationally or internationally.

To assess the feasibility of an adequate bibliometric system in SSH, we must ask: how large is the SSH literature and how much of it should be counted in an evaluation? Working with limited time and resources, our efforts focused on assessing international …

Scientists Have Been Out For Some Time Now: A Response To Sonia Shah, Clair Apodaca

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sonia Shah's categorization of the scientific community as having been "by and large. impassively unmoved [by human rights], churning out their papers, applying for grants and debating esoterica at their private professional meetings" is grossly inaccurate on at least two accounts.

March Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Scientists Come Out for Human Rights ” by Sonia Shah. The Nation. January 27, 2009.

Scientists Promoting Human Rights, Edward Friedman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Scientists have long been involved with work to protect fundamental human rights. The activities of the Federation of American Scientists to expose the health impact of nuclear testing in the atmosphere is typical. In the Soviet Union , many of the leading human rights activists, starting with the great Andrei Sakharov , were scientists. The same is true in China where a major intellectual force inspiring China's 1989 democracy movement was Fang Lizhi , an astrophysicist. Often their contribution to military security even gives them a little bit of protection.

Enlightenment: Science And Human Rights, Christien Van Den Anker

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The subject of science and human rights sparks off thoughts of how this link has historically and geographically been severed, which has the effect of finding it newsworthy that scientists speak out in favor of human rights.

The ancient Greek philosophers were not limited in their subject matters in the same way as we take for granted now: science, society and the self were all deliberated about both empirically and normatively. Moreover, there was no division of labor between thinkers about one or other of these subjects.

Pre-Islamic Persian influences also affected debates on science. In the Middle Ages with …

Measuring The Unconscionable, Sarah Stanlick

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The combination of level-headed scientific approaches and passionate activism seems at first glance an incompatible relationship. For the passionate humanitarian, there is a hesitation in fear of "selling out" to the black and white world of science, that science would somehow take the "human" dimension away from human rights. However, the bigger issue-and opportunity-is the multitude of ways that the partnership between scientific method and human rights can yield possibilities and innovations. As described in Sonia Shah's piece in The Nation , scientists are coming together to lend their unique skills and perspective to the ever-changing global status of human …

Network Neutrality After Comcast: Toward A Case-By-Case Approach To Reasonable Network Management, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Federal Communications Commission’s recent Comcast decision has rejected categorical, ex ante restrictions on Internet providers’ ability to manage their networks in favor of a more flexible approach that examines each dispute on a case-by-case basis, as I have long advocated. This book chapter, written for a conference held in February 2009, discusses the considerations that a case-by-case approach should take into account. First, allowing the network to evolve will promote innovation by allowing the emergence of applications that depend on a fundamentally different network architecture. Indeed, as the universe of Internet users and applications becomes more heterogeneous, it is …

University Researchers Working With Private Companies, Craig Boardman, Branco Ponomariov

Branco Ponomariov

No abstract provided.

Making The Case For Community-Based Laboratories, Earthea Nance

Earthea Nance

No abstract provided.

Wobbling Back To The Fire: Economic Efficiency And The Creation Of A Retail Market For Set-Top Boxes, T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak, Michael Stern

GEORGE S FORD

Under Section 629 of the Communications Act, Congress directed the FCC to adopt regulations to promote a retail market for set-top boxes. The Commission’s first attempt was the ill-fated CableCard experiment, which—by the Commission’s own admission—was a dismal failure. In response, the Commission is now contemplating an aggressive new “AllVid” regime, whereby the agency would mandate multichannel video program distributors (“MVPDs”) to provide an adapter to serve as a “common interface for connection to televisions, DVRs, and other smart video devices.” Because the FCC is again proceeding without any formal economic analysis of the nature of the service-equipment relationship in …

The Need For Better Analysis Of High Capacity Services, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak

GEORGE S FORD

In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) began to grant incumbent local exchange carriers (“LECs”) pricing flexibility on special access services in some Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) when specific evidence of competitive alternatives is present. The propriety of that deregulatory move by the FCC has been criticized by the purchasers of such services ever since. Proponents of special access price regulation rely on three central arguments to support a retreat to strict price regulation: (1) the market(s) for special access and similar services is unduly concentrated; (2) rates of return on special access services, computed using FCC ARMIS data, are …

R. Hoppe, Ex Ante Evaluation Of Legislation: Between Puzzling And Powering, In J. Verschuuren (Ed.), 2009, 81-104, Robert Hoppe

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Scientific Advice And Public Policy: Expert Advisers' And Policymakers' Discourses On Boundary Work, Robert Hoppe

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Organizational And Institutional Influences On Creativity In Scientific Research, Thomas Heinze, Philip Shapira, Juan D. Rogers, Jacqueline M. Senker

Philip Shapira

This paper explores institutional and organizational influences on creativity in scientific research. Using a method for identifying creative scientific research accomplishments in two fields of science (nanotechnology and human genetics) in Europe and the US, the paper summarizes results derived from twenty case studies of highly creative research accomplishments, focusing on contextual patterns at the group, organizational, and institutional levels. We find that creative accomplishments are associated with small group size, organizational contexts with sufficient access to a complementary variety of technical skills, stable research sponsorship, timely access to extramural skills and resources, and facilitating leadership. A potential institutional threat …

Nanotechnology Development In Latin America, Luciano Kay, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

This article investigates the development of nanotechnology in Latin America with a particular focus on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. Based on data for nanotechnology research publications and patents and suggesting a framework for analyzing the development of R&D networks, we identify three potential strategies of nanotechnology research collaboration. Then, we seek to identify the balance of emphasis upon each of the three strategies by mapping the current research profile of those four countries. In general, we find that they are implementing policies and programs to develop nanotechnologies but differ in their collaboration strategies, institutional involvement, and level of development. …

Technological Diversity, Scientific Excellence And The Location Of Inventive Activities Abroad: The Case Of Nanotechnology, Andrea Fernández-Ribas, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

Our contribution to the expanding literature on the globalization of research and innovation is to investigate the extent to which sector-specific developments in an emerging technology (such as increasing interdisciplinarity and complexity) affect inventive activities developed abroad. We look at how technological diversity and scientific excellence of host countries in the field of nanotechnology affect the development of inventive activities by US multinational companies (MNCs). We identify the most active US-based MNCs in nanotechnology-related patenting and examine location decisions of these companies and their international subsidiaries. Econometric results confirm our hypothesis that technological breadth of host countries positively influence the …

Die Zukunft Der Informationstechnik Ist GrüN, Michael Friedewald, Timo Leimbach

Michael Friedewald

No abstract provided.

Privacy, Trust And Policy-Making: Challenges And Responses, David Wright, Serge Gutwirth, Michael Friedewald, Paul De Hert, Marc Langheinrich, Anna Moscibroda

Michael Friedewald

The authors contend that the emerging ubiquitous Information Society (aka ambient intelligence, pervasive computing, ubiquitous networking and so on) will raise many privacy and trust issues that are context-dependent. These issues will pose many challenges for policy- makers and stakeholders because people’s notions of privacy and trust are different and shifting. People’s attitudes towards privacy and protecting their personal data can vary significantly according to differing circumstances. In addition, notions of privacy and trust are changing over time. The authors provide numerous examples of the challenges facing policy-makers and identify some possible responses, but they see a need for improvements …