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Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

  • Standing Watch against Space Weather

    Posted by Tamara Dickinson on April 26, 2013 at 3:17 PM EDT

    Just as there is weather on Earth, there is weather in space. And though we cannot directly see or feel it when we step outside, it has the potential impact our daily lives.

    “Space weather” originates on the Sun, can release the energy-equivalent of 100 hurricanes in just minutes, and can produce wind gusts that exceed one million mph. Every 11 years, the Sun undergoes a period of heightened activity called the "solar maximum”—a  period that is occurring right now—that can bring especially powerful solar eruptions and hurl energetic particles into space, sometimes toward the Earth. Though the likelihood that these solar storms will thrust particles in our planet’s general direction is very low—when they do, they can damage satellites, harm astronauts in space, make GPS information erratic or undependable, and in some cases even cause electricity blackouts on the Earth.

    That’s why the Federal Government works to maintain a range of sophisticated instruments on the ground and in space, which collect data on space weather phenomena spewing particles outward from the Sun. And, that’s why today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a new report, Space Weather Observing Systems: Current Capabilities and Requirements for the Next Decade—an assessment of our Nation’s capacity to monitor and forecast potentially harmful space weather aimed at ensuring these critical capabilities continue to be supported and maintained.

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  • Scientists Share Skills to Crack Cancer Cell Secrets

    Posted by Robbie Barbero on April 26, 2013 at 1:33 PM EDT

    In its November 2012 report, “Transformation and Opportunity: The Future of the U.S. Research Enterprise,” the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) encouraged the Federal Government to adopt policies that enable researchers to collaborate more efficiently. The recommendation recognized that interdisciplinary collaboration can increase productivity and innovation by ensuring that the best expertise and widest range of capacities are brought to bear on the toughest problems.

    Across the Federal Government, agencies are stepping up to do just that. In one recent example, the Physical Sciences – Oncology Centers Network (PS-OC), a program run by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), assembled an interdisciplinary group of physicists, engineers, mathematicians, chemists, computational scientists, and biologists from 20 laboratories across the country to investigate the biophysical progression of malignant tumor cells.

    Using identical cells and chemicals, and under carefully standardized and well-documented conditions, 95 researchers, including 46 graduate students and post-doctoral scholars, used nearly 20 distinct laboratory techniques to perform coordinated molecular and biophysical studies on tumor cells to accomplish what no scientist could have done alone: track what happens to a cell as it gains the capacity to  spread to other parts of the body—a key transition that makes cancer much more difficult to treat and is the main cause of cancer-related mortality.

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  • Leveraging Open Data, Building Apps for Public Safety

    Posted by Posted by Tom Power and Brian Forde on April 25, 2013 at 1:36 PM EDT

    One of the core goals of the President’s Safety Data Initiative is to empower first responders and the public with information to make the safest and smartest decisions when they need it. In support of this goal, there has been a proliferation of innovative public safety apps—a number of which have been highlighted at the OSTP-supported Safety Datapalooza—using open data from local governments and Federal agencies.

    The Red Cross Hurricane and Earthquake apps, for example, put lifesaving information in the hands of people who live in or are visiting hurricane- and earthquake-prone areas, giving instant access to local information on what to do before, during, and after hurricanes or earthquakes. And the PulsePoint app empowers citizens trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to provide life‐saving assistance to heart attack victims by notifying those trained citizens when someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency. The app also directs citizen rescuers to the location of the closest publicly accessible Automated External Defibrillator.

    To make this growing number of public safety apps more available and useful, organizations supporting the first responder community have begun to aggregate and promote them. Yesterday, for example, saw the launch of a new public safety application community, “AppComm,”created by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International.

    Separately, in support of the President’s call to improve public safety and emergency preparedness, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) had its latest board meeting on Tuesday.  

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  • White House Announces Girl emPower as Equal Futures Challenge Notable App

    Posted by Sarah Hurwitz and Brian Forde on April 23, 2013 at 4:06 PM EDT

    This article is cross-posted on the Council on Women and Girls blog.

    At the UN General Assembly in September 2011, President Obama issued the following challenge:

    “This week, the United States signed a new Declaration on Women’s Participation. Next year, we should each announce the steps we are taking to break down economic and political barriers that stand in the way of women and girls. That is what our commitment to human progress demands.”

    In response, the United States is working with countries around the world as part of a new international effort – the Equal Futures Partnership – to politically and economically empower women in each of our countries. As part of this effort, the White House launched the Equal Futures App Challenge to spur the creation of apps that inspire girls to become leaders in our democracy. Check out this video message about the challenge from President Obama:

    After a rigorous round of review from our panel of distinguished judges – including Jack Dorsey, Creator and Co-Founder of Twitter, and Academy Award-winning actor and advocate, Geena Davis – we’re thrilled to announce our notable app: Girl emPower, created by Laura Phelps and Andrew Cavanagh.

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  • Big Data is a Big Deal for Biomedical Research

    Posted by Tom Kalil and Eric Green on April 23, 2013 at 2:25 PM EDT

    In March 2012, the Obama Administration launched a $200 million Big Data Research and Development Initiative.  By improving our ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of digital data, the initiative promises to help accelerate the pace of discovery in science and engineering, strengthen our national security, transform teaching and learning, and improve health outcomes while lowering costs.

    Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health announced that the President’s FY14 budget proposal will provide at least $40 million to launch a new Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) program, significantly expanding NIH’s participation in the Administration’s initiative.  This program will:

    • Facilitate the broad use and sharing of large, complex biomedical data sets through the development of policies, resources and standards;
    • Develop and disseminate new analytical methods and software;
    • Enhance training of data scientists, computer engineers, and bioinformaticians; and
    • Establish Centers of Excellence to develop generalizable approaches that address important problems in biomedical analytics, computational biology, and medical informatics.

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  • Seeking Stellar “Citizen Scientists” as White House Champions of Change

    Posted by Joan M. Frye on April 23, 2013 at 11:46 AM EDT

    Every day, across the country, ordinary Americans known as “citizen scientists” make critical contributions to the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by collecting, analyzing, and sharing a wide range of data—from weather phenomena, to sightings of migrating birds, to the timing of flower blooms at different latitudes. Now, the White House is preparing to honor some of the Nation’s most effective contributors to these important but sometimes-overlooked public servants.

    Public participation in scientific research, also known as citizen science, is not a new phenomenon.  In fact, before the establishment of discipline-specific training programs in the 18th and 19th centuries, most scientific research was carried out by amateurs.  Many of our country’s most prominent scientists got their first taste of science by participating in citizen-science projects, and even today—despite the ascendance of a professional scientific corps—society has much to gain by including non-experts in the scientific enterprise. Among other benefits, public engagement in science can help citizens critically consider science-related public policy questions, make more informed decisions regarding the pros and cons of new technologies, and provide knowledgeable input about how tax dollars should be spent. 

    Today, advances such as Internet-based social media platforms and other information technology resources are increasingly allowing individuals to share information over large distances, enabling like-minded citizens to participate in research projects at unprecedented levels.  Many practicing scientists today are discovering that citizen scientists play an indispensable role, by helping to collect and analyze data at unparalleled rates and over wide geographical distances. 

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