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scientificactivistprofile.gif A postdoc by day and a scientific activist by night, Nick Anthis isn't letting his research in protein structure and function get in the way of defending scientific and social progress.

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Bush Administration:

2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine: Telomeres and Telomerase

Category: Nobel Prize

Three Americans, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak, win the prize for the discovery of telomeres and telomerase.

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Public Comments Open on Draft NIH Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research

Category: stem cells

About a week ago, the NIH announced its draft guidelines covering the funding of human embryonic stem cell research. You can read the draft guidelines here and my post on the topic here. As these are draft guidelines, they are...

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Blinded by Legalese

Category: law

Contemplating the mindset that led to the CIA torture memos reminds me of an encounter I had at the Pentagon in September 2005.

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President Obama Begins to Reverse Bush Era Political Interference in Science

Category: stem cells

Today was a great day for science in the Executive Branch. Firstly, President Barack Obama (finally!) lifted George W. Bush's August 2001 restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research in an executive order entitled "Removing Barriers to...

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Most Poignant/Ironic Moment of Obama's Inauguration Address

Category: Obama Administration

A humorously well-timed shot of Bush drives the point home.

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Slowing the Pace of Change: Bush Appointees Fast-Tracked into Career Government Jobs

Category: Bush Administration

An insidious legacy

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I Don't See You, So You Can't See Me

Category: Bush Administration

The Bush Administration's sophisticated new strategy for not dealing with global warming

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Supreme Court to Address Navy Sonar Exercises

Category: environment

On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, a case regarding the Navy conducting sonar training exercises in the proximity of marine mammals--some of which are threatened or endangered species. A large body of...

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Fact-Checking The Washington Post's Claims About Its Role in Unearthing the 2006 NASA Censorship Scandal

Category: media

It doesn't live up to its own standard on this one.

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More Political Interference at the EPA

Category: political interference

The forced resignation of Mary Gade

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Pervasive Political Interference at the EPA

Category: political interference

Last week's report by the UCS indicates that the EPA has become little more than another political tool for the Bush Administration.

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Embryonic Stem Cell Debate Over; Thousands of Researchers Now Jobless

Category: stem cells

The media mangles otherwise interesting and significant stem cell findings.

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Bush Vetoes Children's Health Insurance Program Expansion

Category: public health

It's time for a few key Republicans to grow a heart and/or some balls and override this veto.

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House and Senate to Vote on Children's Health Insurance Expansion Despite Veto Threat

Category: health policy

Congress appears to be on track for another major standoff with President Bush. The Washington Post reports today that the House and Senate have reconciled their differing versions of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP or CHIP) expansion and...

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The Bush Legacy: Lowered Expectations

Category: Bush Administration

At least Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns didn't do anything warranting a jail sentence.

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From the Archives: My 9/11 Story

Category: Life of Nick

Last year, I recounted my personal experience on September 11, 2001, and I offered some commentary about what that day--and the events of the ensuing year--meant to me and to American politics in general. I've reposted my 9/11 story again...

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US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Resigns

Category: Bush Administration

They're dropping like flies now. In another blow to the Bush Administration, The New York Times reports that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will announce his resignation later has announced his resignation (update) today... and it's about damn time. Senator Charles...

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Bush Administration Bravely Fights the New Communist Threat of Children's Health Insurance

Category: health policy

...by placing unreasonable new restrictions on SCHIP.

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Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out

Category: Bush Administration

Karl Rove to resign at the end of the month.

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Interior Department to Correct for Past Political Interference

Category: political interference

Repent! Repent!

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Take Action on CHIP!

Category: health policy

Let's get this bill rolling....

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More on the Bush Administration's Antagonism Toward CHIP

Category: Bush Administration

And this administration's amazingly consistent ability to one-up itself.

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Bush Plans to Veto CHIP Expansion

Category: public health

Tobacco trumps children's health care.

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And the Saga Continues....

Category: political interference

It's YOUR fault that you were being politically suppressed, Mr. Surgeon General!

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Bush Administration Muzzled Surgeon General

Category: political interference

Add one more to the list.

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Bush Commutes Libby's Prison Sentence

Category: Bush Administration

Absurdity. Complete and total absurdity. George Bush, a president who has pardoned fewer people than any president in the past century, today commutes the sentence of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a guilty man who...

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Bush Vetoes Stem Cell Bill

Category: stem cells

President Bush vetoes S. 5 and offers an awful alternative.

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Abstinence-Only Promoter Can't Keep it in His Pants

Category: Bush Administration

On Friday, Randall Tobias--the Bush Administration's chief promoter of foreign abstinence-only sex education programs--resigned from his position as Deputy Secretary of State after getting busted for frequenting DC prostitutes. If your head hasn't already exploded, check out Timothy Noah's humorous...

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Christopher Hitchens: Karl Rove is an Atheist

Category: religion

In a recent interview published in New York Magazine, writer Christopher Hitchens is asked "Has anyone in the Bush administration confided in you about being an atheist?". His answer: Well, I don't talk that much to them--maybe people think I...

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George Deutsch to Testify at Upcoming Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Hearing

Category: political interference

This should be interesting....

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Bush Administration Institutes More Political Interference in Scientific Regulation

Category: political interference

A new Bush Administration directive serves no other purpose than to further institutionalize Administration interference in science.

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Another Unqualified Bush Appointee at NASA

Category: NASA

They must have a stockroom full of these guys!

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This Says It All

Category: Bush Administration

On Bush and Iraq

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Oversight of Bush Administration High on Democrats' Agenda

Category: Democratic Party

The Democrats are already making big plans to investigate some of the Bush Administration's more outrageous instances of political interference in science.

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Beyond Victory: What 2006 Means for the Democrats and for Science

Category: elections

As the sun sets on the conservative movement in America, 2006 marks a new beginning for the Democrats, and hopefully for American science.

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Rumsfeld Steps Down, Bush Nominates A&M President Robert Gates

Category: Bush Administration

It has just been announced that unpopular Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is "stepping down". This is no doubt a positive step for the Bush Administration, the nation, and the world as a whole, but it comes as too little...

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My Election Day Message

Category: elections

There is so much to say about the importance of today's election, but not a great deal that hasn't already been spelled out time and time again. Most importantly, if you haven't already voted, go vote today! Hopefully you'll have...

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Another Reason to Vote Democratic

Category: elections

If George Bush is driving our nation down a one-way road to hell, it's the Republican-controlled House and Senate that are enabling him to do this. On October 17th, Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which...

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Bush Administration Interferes with Science... Again.

Category: political interference

Is anyone surprised?

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My 9/11 Story

Category: Life of Nick

When I was a freshman in college, at Texas A&M University, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings I had two classes back-to-back in the same lecture hall. Because of a weird scheduling fluke, these classes were about 45 minutes apart, though....

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Five Years, Nineteen Days, One Hour, Forty-Five Minutes, and Fifty-Five Seconds

Category: stem cells

...since Bush announced his restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.

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Private Stem Cell Funding Good for Now, Not Forever

Category: stem cells

Wealthy billionaires, including many Republicans, are picking up the tab for US embryonic stem cell research in the face of restrictive Bush Administration policies. Is this a permanent solution, and does this mean that the Republican Party is now an ally of science? Not likely.

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Bush Vetoes Stem Cell Act

Category: stem cells

After it passed in the Senate on Tuesday, Bush proved he was as stubborn as promised and vetoed HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, on Wednesday. This was another step backwards for science in the US and a...

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Bush to Scientists, Public: Go Fuck Yourselves

Category: stem cells

Bush hasn't used his veto yet, but he's promised to employ it on, of all issues, stem cell funding. Not surprisingly, this is indicative of the general Republican Party attitude toward the field.

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Progress of Stem Cell Bill, and Its Media Coverage, Still Plagued by Problems

Category: stem cells

On the 29th of June, the Senate finally announced an upcoming vote on HR 810, a bill which would overturn President Bush's current prohibitions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The progress of the bill still faces many hurdles, and a recent article in the journal Science did little to publicize them and in fact contained several problematic and even inaccurate statements.

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NASA Admits Censorship Occurred

Category: NASA

The Bad Astronomy Blog reports that NASA has officially admitted that censorship did in fact take place there recently. In a letter to Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), NASA writes: ...an internal inquiry has revealed that one recent media request to...

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Bush Science Adviser Answers Questions, but Not the Toughest Ones

Category: Bush Administration

I mentioned earlier this week on my old blog that White House Science Adviser John Marburger would be answering questions from the public via Newsweek, and his answers have now been posted. My reactions are mixed, although he was more...

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