A Yuletide Apocalypse

- Prometheus: NAS President’s Address

My boss just sent me this link to the Prometheus Science policy blog at UC Bolder (see link on right), and I came across an interesting post on a speech given by the president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Bruce Alberts. For anyone interested in science policy, it’s an interesting and short read.

Here are his conlcuding remarks:

“As I see it, there are a number of clear challenges for those of us in the United States who would like to see science – and a science culture – spread much more widely around the world.

First, we must come to respect and support a wider range of sciences than is traditional for our typical university science departments.

Second, we must work to bring many more of our scientists and our students into close contact with the potential ways in which their expertise can make a difference for the 85 percent of the world’s people who live in developing nations.

Third, we must work to enact the vision in the InterAcademy Council report Inventing a Better Future. This will require that we focus much more intensively than we have in the past on helping our colleagues in developing nations build and maintain institutions of excellence in science and technology.”