United States
Print journal: The Resilience of the Internet
By: Wing Chan, writing for The Science in Society Review The new year was welcomed with fireworks, celebrations and a striking unconventional public protest: a virtual demonstration. A massive demonstration without a physical presence, but instead with crowds of websites, most notably Wikipedia, Wired and Google US, restricting their content as an illustration of what might [...]
Bilingualism and Immigrant Health: Primary Language Retention as Improving Health Status
Beginning in the 1920s, the Americanization movement sought to transform immigrants into “loyal Americans,” by imposing cultural norms and habits characteristic of the culturally dominant, native-born population of the United States on newcomers to American shores. Many immigrants, in hopes of being “accepted” by the mainstream culture, were happy to encourage such initiatives, and put pressures [...]
Striving for Scientific Integrity
It is far too easy to alter and dismiss scientific findings because of political pressure. US policy continues to struggle with the integration of scientific integrity within national issues. A dedication to accurate reporting of findings, along with a promise of policy guided by science, is crucial to repairing a flawed system. At the Science [...]
Precarious Preparations: The Advent of Affordable Care
Arguably the most important and polarizing policy issue of the Obama administration’s first term, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 – known together as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – will define the president’s time in office for the next four years. The [...]
Obama’s second term: Where the US stands on science policy
To mark the beginning of his second term as America’s President, The Triple Helix Online will be writing about the future of Barack Obama’s science policy. Through the rest of January, our staff writers will explore issues spanning healthcare reform, drug policy, and energy independence. Shortly after he took office in early 2009, Mr. Obama [...]
The Threat of Cybersecurity
Without the wireless networks surrounding us, the local networks of universities and hospitals, the heavily secured military and intelligence networks, and the ever-growing World Wide Web, the life we know would cease to exist. The world is more connected than ever, and although this is crucial to progress, it is this same interconnection that creates [...]
The “Fairer” Sex: Underrepresentation of Women in Clinical Trials
Even in the 21st century, women are consistently underrepresented in clinical trials involving drug therapy, medical devices, and behavioral interventions. Although various US federal agencies have made improvements to legislation regarding women’s participation in clinical trials over the past few decades, recent studies demonstrate that the underrepresentation of women remains a persistent problem that raises [...]
Is Ethanol the Champion Bio-Fuel?
The United States, along with the rest of the world, is currently facing a growing energy crisis due to rising oil prices. A potential war with Iran in the near future does not help alleviate these concerns, as regardless of who comes out of this possible conflict as a victor, that fuel is being used [...]
The STEM Imperative: Science Education in America
Science education in America is an incredibly pressing issue; in his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama made it his key theme. He stressed the need to lead the nation into a new Sputnik era in which the STEM fields—science, technology, engineering, and math—are popular and robust.1 This is because the STEM fields [...]
Supreme Healthcare Reform: Can the Court Resolve the Debate?
On November 14, 2011, the Supreme Court granted review to a challenge of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), announcing that it would rule on fundamental questions regarding the law’s constitutionality and role in determining the authority of the states versus the authority of the federal government.1 While the 2,700-page Act addresses many [...]
Staphylococcus Aureus: Horizontal Gene Transfer Scaring Antibiotics
Effective policy implementation is a challenging task, especially when taking into account a particular country’s large size and vast bureaucracy, such as those of the United States. One of the many fields that require constant attention is healthcare policy. Factors like age, social backgrounds, and community settings interact together to create a complex dynamic wave [...]
Multiplication Tables? Dismal State of U.S. Mathematics Education
Math Education It always shocks me to see high school students struggling to solve simple arithmetic problems. I happened to casually glance at the algebra homework of a ninth grader one day and saw “3×7 =” written next to a graphing question. Evidently, he did not immediately know the answer and was probably looking for [...]
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