University of Michigan Press Blog

Science Policy in the New Obama Administration

By Tobin Smith, Co-author of Beyond Sputnik: US Science Policy in the 21st Century

During the recent presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama, now President-elect Obama, sent some very positive signals to the scientific community concerning how he would treat science and the policies that impact it if he were elected President. Several of his positions on major science and technology policy matters were outlined in the responses he provided to the 14 questions posed by ScienceDebate 2008 (http://www.sciencedebate2008.com).  Now that Senator Obama has been elected, the question will be “does he follow through?”  

Some early tests that will indicate how President Obama will treat science are: 1) how quickly he appoints his Science Advisor and the status he assigns to this position; 2) what actions he takes to loosen current restrictions on stem cell research; and 3) what commitment he shows to science funding for key research agencies in his FY 2010 budget proposal.   

Does media violence lead to real violence, and do video games impair academic performance?

By Caleb Crain, Guest Blogger and Contributer to The Best of Technology Writing 2008

"Twilight of the Books," an essay of mine published in The New Yorker on 24 December 2007, has been honored by inclusion in The Best of Technology Writing 2008, edited by Clive Thompson. When The New Yorker published my essay, I posted on my blog a series of mini-bibliographies, for anyone who wanted to dig into the research behind my article and try to answer for themselves whether television impaired intellect or whether literary was declining (here's an index/overview to all these research posts). A month or so ago, when the University of Michigan Press, the publisher of The Best of Technology Writing 2008, invited me to write about my essay for their blog, I was afraid I didn't have any more to say. Also, alas, I was under deadline. But I have a breather now, and looking over my year-old notes, I realize that there were a couple of categories of research that I never posted about at the time, because the topics didn't happen to make it into my article's final draft.