The case of Purdue’s Rusi Taleyarkhan, cleared by the university of charges of misconduct in a murky process, has taken another turn. Congress is getting involved, with the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee requesting more details from the university. On the one hand, I’m not enthusiastic about Congress getting… Continue reading Cold Fusion and Congress
Category: Policy
Pound Foolish
President Bush’s budget request for next year has been released. Surprising approximately no-one who has followed current events over the last seven years, it’s a mixed bag for science: President Bush rolled out a 2008 spending plan Monday that disappointed advocates for scientific research, even as it called for hefty increases for several key programs… Continue reading Pound Foolish
Blame Where Blame Is Due
A lot of people have commented on this New York Times article on science budgets, mostly echoing the author’s lament about the negative effects of operating at 2006 funding levels. I really don’t have much to add to that, but it’s worth reminding people where the blame for this belongs: Last year, Congress passed just… Continue reading Blame Where Blame Is Due
Classic Edition: Space Trilogy, Volume 4
Here’s the day’s final repost of an old blog post about space policy. This is yet another post from 2004, with the usual caveats about linkrot and dated numbers and the like. This one is more or less a direct response to comments made in response to the previous post attempting to argue that using… Continue reading Classic Edition: Space Trilogy, Volume 4
Classic Edition: The Moon is a Harsh Wossname
Yet another in today’s series of reposts of articles about space policy. This is another old blog post from 2004, back when the Moon-and-Mars plan was first announced. As with the previous posts, any numbers or links in the post may be badly out of date, and there are some good comments at the original… Continue reading Classic Edition: The Moon is a Harsh Wossname
Classic Edition: The Arrogance of Complexity
This is the second in a series of old posts about space exploration in general, and the Bush Moon-and-Mars plan specifically. This is a repost of an old blog post from 2004, so any numbers or links in the post may be out of date. There were also a few comments to the original article,… Continue reading Classic Edition: The Arrogance of Complexity
Classic Edition: Man vs. Machine in Space
As threatened in passing yesterday, I dug up some old posts on space policy, and will re-post them here. This first one dates from January of 2004, around the time that Bush first floated the idea of the new Moon-and-Mars plan that’s re-shaping NASA. The original post has a ton of links in it, and… Continue reading Classic Edition: Man vs. Machine in Space
Snarkin’ Across the Universe
Monte Davis, of “Thinking Clearly About Space” has another snarky look at overblown space enthusiasm, providing a helpful taxonomy of X-Treme Spacers: Alt.Tech Chemical rockets have let you down: after decades of gritty engineering they remain expensive and trouble-prone. It’s time to start over with a space elevator, deployed by laser launch and magnetic catapult.… Continue reading Snarkin’ Across the Universe
Thinking Clearly About Space
The articles in question are more than a year old, but I didn’t see them when they were first posted, so James Nicoll’s link to Monte Davis’s “Thinking Clearly About Space” series (part one, part two, part three, part four) was very welcome. Obviously, you should go read the whole thing (the parts aren’t that… Continue reading Thinking Clearly About Space
Good News from Outer Space
NASA has scheduled a mission to service the Hubble. This should keep the space telescope flying and producing great science until 2013 or so. Obviously, there are a lot of caveats in there– the mission isn’t scheduled until 2008, so the Hubble needs to last that long, and there can’t be major delays or disasters… Continue reading Good News from Outer Space