A new social network site, Labmeeting, is designed to let scientists easily upload their papers and lab notes to be shared with other members of their research team. TechCrunch tells us the site was started by Harvard graduate Mark Kaganovich with a $500,000 in seed round funding and opened last week to anyone with a college email account. His hope is to spur researchers to talk with each other more.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Given the fears about possible flaws and abuses with electronic voting machines, the California Secretary of State has announced the state will be relying on paper ballots that will be optically scanned but can be recounted by hand this election season. Debra Bowen says she opted for the paper ballots because they preserve the original vote, CNET News reports. Bowen commissioned a study last year that showed that electronic voting can be tampered with or have programming mistakes that alter the results.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

A project to re-think the Internet from the ground up has received $12 million in funding from the National Science Foundation. The Associated Press reports that the money will go toward developing prototypes for the Global Environment for Network Innovations, a testbed to try out new networking ideas. Actual construction of GENI would cost about $350 million.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

By Caitlin Webber, CQ Staff

The Hispanic illegal immigrant population has significantly declined in the previous year because of stepped-up enforcement efforts and, secondarily, a slower economy, says a report released Wednesday by the Center for Immigration Studies.

CIS, which favors reduced immigration levels, used Census Bureau data to report that the population of young, uneducated Hispanic illegal immigrants might have decreased by 11 percent from its peak in August 2007 to May 2008.

A number of chemical companies are supplying data to the Environmental Protection Agency so it can assess whether nanoscale materials used in their products may pose health risks. Scientific American reports that 13 companies, including BASF and General Electric, have provided data to the EPA, and another 17 are expected to do so. Some scientists worry that the tiny nanoparticles or carbon nanotubes could interact with human tissue, perhaps having an asbestos-like effect on the lungs.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

By Danielle Parnass, CQ Staff

The ever-evolving blogosphere is now helping to shape the health policy debate by allowing more interaction between the public and policy makers, said Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, a blogger himself.

Leavitt, who launched his blog on the HHS Web site in August 2007, said his entries follow a range of topics, from day-to-day experiences, to his thoughts and decisions surrounding health care issues and policies.

Car thefts could be reduced by having the cars in a parking lot keep tabs on each other, according to a plan by Sencun Zhu, a professor at Penn State University. MSNBC reports that Zhu would equip cars with small sensors that would wirelessly communicate with nearby parked cars, forming a mesh network. When the owner used his key to drive away, the car would send a goodbye signal, but if it stopped responding the other cars would send an alert to the parking lot owner.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

US Department of Health and Human Services head Michael Leavitt spoke at a panel in Washington DC about being the first cabinet secretary to have his own blog. He says he finds it a useful way to communicate about policy without the formality of a press conference, where reporters choose the topic. Ars Technica says a follow-up panel discussed blogging, and agreed that a lack of editors can cause some bloggers to "go off half-cocked." (Not a problem here---Ed.)

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

By Mark Stencel, Governing.com

If you ever dreamed of a career hauling freight into orbit or perhaps to the Moon, hopefully you got your resume to NASA earlier this month. That was the deadline to apply for 10 to 15 new astronaut slots. The agency's human resources staff estimates at least 3,000 people have asked to be considered.

The job requirements for space work are as steep as an orbital ascent. The agency is looking for U.S. citizens with engineering or science backgrounds to join the ranks of its 92 active astronauts. "Extensive experience flying high-performance jet aircraft" is a plus, one job posting said, although teachers with the right educational credentials also were welcome to apply. But be warned: "Frequent travel may be required."

The Federal Communications Commission has been looking for ways to deal with the problem of peer-to-peer file sharing eating up much of the Internet's bandwidth. But Robert McDowell, a member of the FCC, argues in an essay in the Washington Post that the government should leave the issue to unregulated groups of engineers. Those groups, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, have done a good job of solving previous issues that threatened the viability of the Net, he says.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Some climatologists are concerned that the natural progress of science, in which studies report new results, then are challenged by even newer studies, could be confusing the public about global warming. Part of the problem, according to The New York Times, is that it's difficult to clearly communicate scientific uncertainty through the media. Some experts say scientists have to be more careful about what they say to the public.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

from Governing.com Idea Center

CompStat famously cut New York City's crime rate in the 1990s by allowing police officers to map crime and create crime-intervention strategies.

Using CompStat as a guide, Washington, D.C.'s Court Services and Offenders Supervision Agency, which oversees 15,000 parolees, supervised releases and probationers, created a similar system to cut the District's recidivism rate.

By John Reichard, CQ HealthBeat Editor

Democrats in the health overhaul debate have been hammering private health plans for charging high administrative costs compared with government-run health insurance programs, but that argument overlooks pioneering work done by private insurers in controlling certain costs such as that of high-tech imaging, an industry briefing suggested Monday.

The briefing by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the nation's largest health insurance lobby, focused on the successes of certain private sector insurance plans in restraining growth in the costs of imaging procedures such as MRI and CT scans, a fast-growing area of health spending that critics often identify as a place to go to reduce unnecessary health care spending.

By Aliya Sternstein, CQ Staff

House and Senate conferees say they have reached a deal on product safety legislation, and they hope to clear the measure this week.

Conferees said Monday they have resolved the last outstanding issues that had mired negotiations, including tighter regulations on certain plastic-softeners.

The House may take up the bill overhauling the Consumer Product Safety Commission as early as Wednesday, according to a House leadership aide.

With the Patriot Act allowing the government to seize library records and lawmakers trying to regulate the use of library computers, the American Library Association is launching a campaign to promote information privacy. Ars Technica reports that the ALA is raising more than a million dollars to fund its campaign. The group worries that law enforcement agencies are using concerns about terrorism and child safety to strip away privacy protections.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

The market for "green" housing that's more environmentally friendly than traditional homes is growing, even during the housing slump, CNN reports. According to McGraw-Hill Construction Research and Analytics, about 6 percent of new homes will be built to green standards in 2008. That's up from 2 percent in 2005.

Web picks posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Using evidence-based design, in which architectural decisions are based on scientific studies, hospitals are beginning to build new facilities with an eye toward preventing hospital-acquired infections. The Los Angeles Times reports that hospitals across the country are looking to better ventilation systems with air filters, non-porous surfaces that won't hold germs, and plenty of sinks to encourage handwashing as elements of safer facilities.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Fenglin Niu of Rice University, Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution and Tom Daley of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory gathered measurements from sensors in deep wells  at the San Andreas fault In California.

by Zack Beauchamp

We have satellites to detect hurricanes, rainfall projections to predict floods and even tsunami detectors. All provide precious time to evacuate before the worst happens.

But despite more than 30 years of research, there is still no accurate earthquake detector, as China heartbreakingly found out earlier this year. The Sichuan Basin quake killed over 60,000 people.

But there is new hope: a team of researchers working in the Parkfield region of the San Andreas Fault in California believe that a novel approach for measuring seismic waves may hold the key to developing a practical, early-warning earthquake detector.

A new electrical storage device that is part battery and part chemical fuel cell could pack more energy than the same volume of gasoline, says New Scientist. The device was designed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. They say it could overcome the main limitation of batteries planned for electric vehicles - that they can't pack enough power to give the car the same traveling range as gasoline does.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Researchers at Ohio State University have created a new alloy with double the ability of previous materials to turn waste heat from power plants or car engines into electricity. Technology Review reports that the researchers added trace amounts of thallium to lead telluride, changing the material's electrical properties. The material could potentially convert 10 percent of the energy in heat into electricity.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

by Daniel Fowler, CQ Staff

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff emphasized concerns about improvised explosive devices and not allowing DHS grant programs to evolve into block grants while announcing $1.8 billion in preparedness grants.

"In terms of funding priorities, we continued our focus on critical national preparedness capabilities, which of course are consistent with our National Preparedness Guidelines and the National Response Framework, which we released at the beginning of the year," Chertoff said. "A particular focus has been improved explosive device deterrence, prevention and protection."

In an effort to streamline adoption of useful software applications, the Defense Information Systems Agency is visiting tech companies large and small to find inspiration. The Wall Street Journal reports that traditional big projects working their way through the military bureaucracy would take five years to produce software on four-and-a-half-year-old technology. Chief Information Officer John Garing has been impressed by concepts like social networking at LinkedIn and mashups, and would like to see them adapted for military use.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

The Republican National Committee has come up with a new way to raise funds on the Internet. Working with the Boston-based company FreeCause, they've developed a toolbar for the Yahoo browser that lets users donate two or three cents to the committee each time they do an Internet search. The New York Times reports that the money actually comes from advertisers, and will be tracked to make sure no one donor exceeds federal donation limits.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Aptera's three-wheeled electric vehicle, Typ-1, which reportedly gets 231 miles per gallon. It is actually classified as a motorcycle.   

Google has begun investing in green-car startups, announcing $2.75 million in funding split between green-car maker Aptera Motors and ActaCell, which develops rechargeable batteries for the cars. Earth2Tech calls the move "significant" as it starts to position Google as an incubator for the next generation of electric vehicles.

 Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy. com

Converting cow manure into methane and burning that instead of coal could cut greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by about 4 percent, according to scientists at the University of Texas at Austin. The researchers tell Discovery News that the plan is a two-for-one win. Switching from coal to cow patties not only cuts the use of fossil fuel, it also keeps methane and nitrous oxide -- two very powerful greenhouse gases produced by the decay of manure -- from entering the atmosphere. Get out the shovels.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

By Alex Wayne, CQ Staff

A bill to encourage health providers to adopt electronic medical records could see substantial changes in the Ways and Means Committee before it goes to the House floor, panel members indicated Thursday.

The bill was approved Wednesday by the Energy and Commerce Committee. It would authorize $560 million in grants and loans over five years to encourage hospitals and doctors to buy and install electronic systems for collecting and transmitting health records.

The renewable energy industry wants the U.S. government to make tax credits for clean energy more permanent, saying it's hard to build an industry on two-year subsidies. But a writer at the Wall Street Journal argues that short-term subsidies may actually boost the industry, as consumers rush to install solar panels before the tax credit expires.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Scientists have long considered converting garbage and crop waste into biofuels, but until gasoline hit record high prices it didn't make economic sense. Now, the New York Times reports, several companies are building plants to convert waste into fuel, and their products could be on the market within months. Big-name companies such as Honeywell, DuPont, and General Motors are starting to invest.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Shell is exploring an idea from the 1990s that would dump quicklime into the ocean, where it would absorb carbon dioxide and store it on the ocean floor. Wired says that Shell is providing seed funding to a British start-up, Cquestrate, to explore the idea. Proponents say the plan would also combat acidification of the ocean, which could destroy coral reefs. But it could take 300 billion cubic feet of limestone to capture one year's worth of carbon emissions.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

By Reed Cooley, CQ Staff

Four former surgeon generals joined with cancer patients and physicians Wednesday to call for congressional support of any and all legislation that would boost funding levels and quality of care for cancer patients.

One such bill could be the high-profile Kennedy-Hutchison measure, sponsored by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that's currently in the works and aimed at increasing funding and resources for cancer research and care.

By Colby Itkowitz, CQ Staff

Hoping to press the Senate for quick passage, the transportation and manufacturing industries have thrown their weight behind a bill the House passed Wednesday that would shore up federal highway funding.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the bill, which is aimed at covering an expected shortfall in federal highway accounts, could be taken up before the end of the year. But chances for its enactment before the August recess are nil.

Businesses are worried that the U.S. will lose its competitive edge to China and India if it doesn't produce significantly more engineering and science graduates. But a writer at Business Week argues that companies have a role to play, too. He suggests that they can learn from the way Indian companies have dealt with their own shortage of high-tech workers: through more extensive employee training and development.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

A new poll finds that a majority of California voters support a proposal on the state's November ballot to require the state to move toward renewable energy, when they hear about it. Reuters reports on a Field poll that found 63 percent support for Proposition 7, although 82 percent of people interviewed said they were not aware of the measure. If passed, the proposition would require that half of California's electricity come from renewable sources by 2025.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Health policy analysts see many opportunities for eliminating wasteful spending on health care and improving quality at the same time, but lament a lack of funding for organizing these efforts.

Now under a little-noticed provision of the new Medicare law blocking physician payment cuts, efforts to set national priorities for quality and efficiency gains will accelerate, those analysts say.

 

A new database of soils around the world, created by the United Nations, can help track both agricultural output and carbon storage, the UN claims. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization is also producing a Global Carbon Gap Map, according to Reuters. The map will show degraded soils where billions of tons of carbon dioxide could be stored.

 

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com