Research Groups Seek Rollback of Diversity TrainingRestrictions
A Sept. 22 executive order restricting certain kinds of diversity and inclusion training has created confusion for universities and federal contractors, spurring some institutions to suspendtraining programs and postpone planned events. Federal agencies have also been instructed to suspend all diversity training programs pending a review of compliance with the order. Dozens of higher education associations sent a letter to President Trump last week requesting he withdraw the order, saying it has a chilling effect on campus efforts to ensure non-discriminatory workplaces and requires an unprecedented expansive review of internal training materials at both public and private entities. Separately, 50 scientific societies, including AIP, sent a letter to the White House last week denouncing the order, arguing it wrongfully insinuates that certain trainings are inherently anti-American and "sends a message of division, intolerance, and subjectivity that is damaging to our R&D community.
On Oct. 8, the New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial blasting the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, while not mentioning President Trump specifically, appealed to voters to cast out current federal government leaders. Calling them dangerously incompetent, the editorial argues those leaders have undercut trust in science and in government, causing damage that will certainly outlast them. The top-tier medical journal has not previously made such an exhortation to voters in its 208 year history. On Oct. 5, the United Kingdom-based journal Nature published a news feature surveying ways the Trump administration has damaged science, touching on issues such as the pandemic response, climate change, environmental regulation, and immigration policy. Citing policy experts, the article also reports that the administration has, across agencies, undermined scientific integrity by suppressing or distorting evidence to support political decisions. The journal has not taken an editorial position on the election, but its editors also announced last week that they plan to increase coverage of global politics and publish more political science research, partly due tosigns that politicians around the world are pushing back against the principle of protecting scholarly autonomy, or academic freedom. The two journals are the latest prestigious science publications to cast Trump as corrosive to science and science-informed policy. In recent weeks, the editor-in-chief of Science has excoriated Trump for lying about the pandemic, while Scientific American made its first-ever presidential endorsement, backing Democratic candidate Joe Biden. (Update: Nature has since endorsed Biden.)
On Oct. 2, former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration heads Conrad Lautenbacher and Jane Lubchenco wrote to the agency on behalf of an ocean policy advocacy group, expressing alarm over the recent appointments of climatologist David Legates and meteorologist Ryan Maue to high-level positions there. The appointments have attracted criticism because Legates and Maue have often dismissed mainstream views about the severity of anthropogenic climate change, and E&E News has reported the Trump administration expects its new appointees to influence the agencys work on climate and the next interagency National Climate Assessment. Lautenbacher and Lubchenco led NOAA during the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, respectively, and while Lubchenco has often protested Trump administration actions, Lautenbacher has been more reserved. Justifying their intervention, the two wrote, We cannot be silent on this we are concerned that the freedom of NOAA scientists to communicate honestly and openly about the impacts of climate change, the future of honest and accurate weather forecasting, objective fisheries management, disaster response, and much more will be further curtailed if these appointments go forward.
The Departments of Labor and Homeland Security issued rules last week that together increase the wages employers must offer workers seeking H-1B visas and require the applicants degree to more closely match their job category, among other changes. Both departments cite the increased unemployment caused by COVID-19 as justification for the rules taking effect immediately without a public notice and comment period. The H-1B visa program is used by many technology companies and universities to hire workers in STEM fields, but it has come under criticism in recent years that is largely focused on alleged abuses of the program by certain information technology companies. President Trump has already suspended issuance of H-1B visas through the end of the year, though a federal judge partially blocked the policy on Oct. 1.
The House Intelligence Subcommittee on Strategic Technologies and Advanced Research released a report last week recommending ways the U.S. can maintain a leading role in developing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology. Among its proposals, the report calls for the federal government to expand spending on basic research and couple those investments with changes to how the intelligence community organizes, establishes relationships, and sets priorities for R&D. The report also argues that the emphasis often placed on competition with China represents an overly narrow view, and stresses that the subcommittees recommendations are generally not calls for the hierarchy, direction, and centralized control that characterize Chinese innovation efforts [and instead] reflect the ideas of openness, flexibility and agility that gave rise to American innovative success from Los Alamos to Silicon Valley. The reportrecommends a number of moves to bolster the intelligence community workforce, including by creating a STEM fellowship program and reforming U.S. immigration policies. Subcommittee Chair Jim Himes (D-CT) is discussing the report at an event on Thursday.
Last week, the National Quantum Coordination Office rolled out its official logo and website quantum.gov, which collects strategy documents and updates about the National Quantum Initiative. The office also released a report summarizing frontier research areas in quantum information science and announced the inaugural meeting of the National Q12 Education Partnership, an effort to introduce students to QIS concepts at earlier grade levels. The White House established the coordination office last year, as required by the National Quantum Initiative Act, to keep tabs on the governments growing portfolio of QIS research centers and workforce development efforts. The office is led by physicist Charles Tahan, who is on detail from the National Security Agencys Laboratory for Physical Sciences, where he is chief scientist. Tahan also serves as co-chair of the newly established National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee, which is holding its first meeting on Oct. 27.
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The Week of October 12, 2020 - FYI: Science Policy News
- New quantum technology projects to solve mysteries of the universe - Open Access Government - January 14th, 2021
- Exploring the unanswered questions of our universe with quantum technologies - University of Birmingham - January 14th, 2021
- Wormholes may be lurking in the universe and new studies are proposing ways of finding them - The Conversation UK - January 14th, 2021
- University of Sheffield to lead multi-million pound project which could open up a new frontier in physics - University of Sheffield News - January 14th, 2021
- Raytheon UK part of team transforming the Royal Navy's technology, training and learning solutions - PRNewswire - January 14th, 2021
- Optical selection and sorting of nanoparticles according to quantum mechanical properties - Science Advances - January 14th, 2021
- The unhackable computers that could revolutionize the future - CNN - January 8th, 2021
- Birds Have a Mysterious 'Quantum Sense'. For The First Time, Scientists Saw It in Action - ScienceAlert - January 8th, 2021
- How understanding light has led to a hundred years of bright ideas - The Economist - January 8th, 2021
- Tokyo Institute of Technology: Quantum Mysteries: Probing an Unusual State in the Superconductor-Insulator Transition - India Education Diary - January 8th, 2021
- Quantum Nanodevice Can Be Both a Heat Engine and Refrigerator at the Same Time - SciTechDaily - January 8th, 2021
- Illumination at the limits of knowledge - The Economist - January 8th, 2021
- The top 20 most random things that happened in 2020: Nos. 16-20 - 104.3 The Fan - January 6th, 2021
- Detective Work in Theoretical Physics: Comprehensive Review of Physics of Interacting Particles - SciTechDaily - January 6th, 2021
- New Quantum-Based Distance Measurement Method for GPS and LIDAR - AZoQuantum - January 6th, 2021
- Raytheon Technologies Appoints Marie R. Sylla-Dixon as Chief Diversity Officer to Further Advance Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives -... - January 6th, 2021
- Quantum Superposition Evidenced by Measuring Interaction of Light with Vibration - AZoQuantum - December 24th, 2020
- Superpositions The Cosmic Weirdness of Quantum Mechanics - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel - December 24th, 2020
- Here's Why Quantum Computing Will Not Break Cryptocurrencies - Forbes - December 24th, 2020
- Irish researchers reveal how Santa delivers toys to billions in one night - BreakingNews.ie - December 24th, 2020
- Eight ways Argonne advanced science in 2020 - Newswise - December 24th, 2020
- Scaling the heights of quantum computing to deliver real results - Chinadaily.com.cn - China Daily - December 24th, 2020
- MIT's quantum entangled atomic clock could still be ticking after billions of years - SYFY WIRE - December 24th, 2020
- Matter Deconstructed: The Observer Effect and Photography - PetaPixel - December 24th, 2020
- Everything you need to know about quantum physics (almost ... - December 21st, 2020
- Quantum mechanics - Wikipedia - December 21st, 2020
- Six Things Everyone Should Know About Quantum Physics - December 21st, 2020
- Counter-Intuitive Quantum Mechanics: State of Vibration That Exists Simultaneously at Two Different Times - SciTechDaily - December 21st, 2020
- A state of vibration that exists simultaneously at two different times - Tech Explorist - December 21st, 2020
- This Incredible Particle Only Arises in Two Dimensions - Popular Mechanics - December 21st, 2020
- Quantum Mechanics, the Mind-Body Problem and Negative Theology - Scientific American - December 17th, 2020
- Quantum Interference Phenomenon Identified That Occurs Through Time - SciTechDaily - December 17th, 2020
- 9 Most Confusing Sci-Fi Movies That Feel Like You Need a PhD in Quantum Physics - FandomWire - December 17th, 2020
- Expanding the Scope of Electronic-Structure Theory - Physics - December 17th, 2020
- Physicists attempt to unify all forces of nature and rectify Einstein's biggest failure - Livescience.com - December 17th, 2020
- Black dwarf supernovae: The last explosions in the Universe - SYFY WIRE - December 17th, 2020
- Orford 17-year-old is among brightest young minds in north west - Warrington Guardian - December 17th, 2020
- Meet the kaon - Symmetry magazine - November 10th, 2020
- There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness by Carlo Rovelli review - The Guardian - November 10th, 2020
- Digging into the 3D Quantum Hall Effect - Physics - November 10th, 2020
- Physicists Circumvent 178-Year Old Theory to Cancel Magnetic Fields - SciTechDaily - November 10th, 2020
- A Modem With a Tiny Mirror Cabinet Could Help Connect The Quantum Internet - ScienceAlert - November 8th, 2020
- Quantum Technology: Harnessing the Power of Quantum Mechanics - Analytics Insight - November 8th, 2020
- Will the Universe Remember Us after We're Gone? - Scientific American - November 8th, 2020
- Threat of Quantum Computing to Bitcoin Should be Taken Seriously, But theres Enough Time to Upgrade Current Security Systems, Experts Claim -... - November 8th, 2020
- Pablo Jarillo-Herrero receives the Lise Meitner Distinguished Lecture and Medal - MIT News - November 8th, 2020
- Lighting up the ion trap - MIT News - November 8th, 2020
- For Thomas Searles, a passion for people and science at HBCUs and MIT - MIT News - November 8th, 2020
- University of Kansas Team Explore Heavy-Ion Particle Physics - Pagosa Daily Post - November 8th, 2020
- Reimagining the laser: new ideas from quantum theory could herald a revolution - The Conversation AU - October 29th, 2020
- Deep Reality: Art, Physics, the Unseeable and Space-Time - UNM Newsroom - October 29th, 2020
- Physicist breaks down the science of 11 iconic DC movie scenes - Insider - INSIDER - October 29th, 2020
- Q&A: Stanford MacArthur fellows talk creativity and 'publish or perish' - The Stanford Daily - October 29th, 2020
- Prime Minister's Prize for Science awarded to gravitational wave scientists - ABC News - October 29th, 2020
- Is math really the language of nature? This physicist is on a quest to find out. - News@Northeastern - October 29th, 2020
- Life and Work: Teaching in the Time of COVID: A Tale of Three Universities - All Together - Society of Women Engineers - October 29th, 2020
- COMMENTARY Covid seen to worsen poverty - The BVI Beacon - BVI Beacon - October 29th, 2020
- Quantum Time Twist Offers a Way to Create Schrdinger's Clock - Scientific American - October 24th, 2020
- Quantum Tunnels Show How Particles Can Break the Speed of Light - Quanta Magazine - October 24th, 2020
- A New Timekeeping Theory Reconciles Einstein's Relativity and Quantum Clocks - Science Times - October 24th, 2020
- Could Schrdingers cat exist in real life? We propose an experiment to find out - Scroll.in - October 24th, 2020
- Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Physics job with THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG | 230760 - Times Higher Education (THE) - October 24th, 2020
- Province gives $11.8M to U of C for quantum research, other projects - Calgary Herald - October 24th, 2020
- Physicists clock the fastest possible speed of sound - Live Science - October 24th, 2020
- Column: A new era of electric vehicles could be on the way - Gainesville Times - October 24th, 2020
- Beyond Homo Sapiens A Slightly Different Roll of the Darwinian Dice (Weekend Feature) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel - October 24th, 2020
- Diamonds Are a Quantum Scientist's Best Friend: Discovery May Revolutionize the High-Tech Industry - SciTechDaily - October 24th, 2020
- The many paths of muon math | symmetry magazine - Symmetry magazine - October 24th, 2020
- Sumit Das to Deliver 2019-20 A&S Distinguished Professor Lecture on 'Deconstructing Space-Time' - UKNow - October 24th, 2020
- Of Science, Philosophy and Revelation - Greater Kashmir - October 24th, 2020
- In Waterloo they're looking for nature's deepest and weirdest secrets - National Observer - October 24th, 2020
- Max Planck and the Birth of Quantum Mechanics - SciTechDaily - October 15th, 2020
- Reality Does Not Depend on the Measurer According to New Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics - SciTechDaily - October 15th, 2020
- Bringing the promise of quantum computing to nuclear physics - MSUToday - October 15th, 2020
- Could Schrdinger's cat exist in real life? Our research may soon provide the answer - The Conversation AU - October 15th, 2020
- A Force From Nothing Used to Control and Manipulate Objects - SciTechDaily - October 15th, 2020
- Facebook and Carnegie Mellon launch project to discover better ways to store renewable energy - VentureBeat - October 15th, 2020
- Analyst: Holding Company Sentiment Has Gone From 'Cautiously Optimistic' To 'Apathetic,' IPG To Lead The Group 10/14/2020 - MediaPost Communications - October 15th, 2020
- Book review: 'The Book of Two Ways' | Features | telegraphherald.com - telegraphherald.com - September 27th, 2020
- Book Review: Six Impossible Things, By John Gribbbin - Forbes - September 27th, 2020
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