Budget Wars Threaten Basic Science And Future Innovation
The Oscar-winning movie, The Imitation Game, opened with a scene that perfectly captured an age-old conflict between brilliant science and bureaucratic sensibilities.
Energy Realities “At This Moment,” And How We Got Here
The Daily Caller There was a certain surreal disconnect in the State Of The Union address last night. President Obama set the stage early on: “At this moment — with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, and booming energy production — we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation…
The Mobile Revolution Has Only Just Begun
Finally, there’s a number that says something useful about the mobile revolution. A newly released global survey finds that an average consumer puts an implied value of $6,000 on their smartphone. That single number explains all the other engineering-centric statistics that are thrown around about this domain, from the rapidity of adoption to megabytes of wireless bandwidth…
Raise Gasoline Taxes? Instead, Congress Should Lift The Ban On Oil Exports.
It was predictable. Oil gets cheap and now there’s a contingent in Congress looking to slap a new tax onto gasoline. What’s surprising is that there are some conservatives in both Congress and the pundictocracy also receptive to the notion, including the estimableCharles Krauthammer.
LEDs Light Way to Nobel Prize
Real Clear Science — co-author Julio Ottino Few inventions are as emblematic of modernity as artificial illumination. Even today access to artificial light epitomizes the separation of a billion poor from the rest of humanity. Thus it is fitting that the 2015 Draper Prize from the U.S. National Academy of Engineering — for “significant improvement in the well-being and…
Technology’s Promises And Perils For 2015
“Technology matters because it is inseparable from being human.” So wrote historian David Nye a few years ago in a marvelous short book, Technology Matters. Lists about the state of technology are arguably amongst the most important in the pantheon of year-end lists that fill cyberspace and paper news at this time of the year. Technology…