So the other day I was walking up the creek in my backyard with my son and he asked me, "Dad how do we know if the creek water is clean?"

I came across this interesting interview of Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and thought it should be shared.  I remember meeting Bill Nye at a Congressional Briefing on STEM education a few years ago and was struck with his passion. 

Continuing on Kevin's blog earlier this week the ACS has announced a green roof project.  Below is the complete announcement.  What do you think?

 

Senate Majority Leader harry Reid (D-NV) announced yesterday that the Senate's version of the energy bill will not be considered this week.  Instead the bill will be considered after the August congressional recess, which makes the new energy law unlikely.  A good summary of this news can be found ...

As I was reading the financial pages today, I came across this story on Yahoo! finance about a type of glass discovered by Corning nearly 50 years ago becoming the next generation screen for televisions and technology devices, I was struck with critical importance of basic research.   Even though, discoveries may not have economic pay offs immediately, investments in scientific understanding can lead to products and services that propel our economy forward in the future.  It would be a shame if investments in science are no longer supported a sustainable level.  Without the funding we can't make the discoveries.  What do you think?

Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the NIH spending bill.  Funding NIH at $32.007 billion  - the same level as the president's budget and the House of Representatives. This funding level is a $1 billion increase over last year and is equal to the rate of biomedical inflation.

Yesterday, the Department of Education announced the next group of finalists for Race to the Top funds.  The finalists include 18 states and the District of Columbia. 

Earlier today the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee  approved its FY 2011 spending bill. The subcommittee approved a $1 billion increase for NIH (same as the President’s budget and the House subcommittee bill).  Senator Specter raised the issue of increasing the NIH budget level but Chairman Harkin thought the numbers were at the proper level given the tight overall budget. ...

The Union of Concern Scientists (UCS) has launched a national advertising campaign designed to show the dedication and professionalism of those scientists studying climate change.  I think this is fantastic.  Hopefully this will help non-scientists better understand the science surrounding climate change.  Information on the UCS campaign can be found ...