science magazine

My new Science Magazine article “Water Strategies for the Next Administration” has just been released (embargo lifts 11am Pacific, November 3rd; the print version will appear in the November 4th issue of Science). It identifies six major water-related challenges facing the United States and offers explicit recommendations for strategies the next Administration and Congress should pursue, domestically and internationally. The article begins: “Issues around fresh water are not particularly high on the U.S. political agenda. They should be. Water problems directly threaten food production,…
  If there is anything that the past few decades of research and study of major global challenges tells us, it is that truly effective solutions to sustainability challenges require truly integrated approaches across disciplines, fields of study, data sets, and institutions. We are not going to solve 21st century global problems with 20th century tools. The planet is faced with a wide range of regional and global threats: air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, a rapidly changing climate and new risks from extreme weather events, energy and food security, conflicts over resources such…
Today’s new articles involve flow: the flow of positrons through the Universe and the flow of particles around the tiny cilia of corals. They involve beauty and mystery, as well. The particle flow, imaged in brilliant colors, won first place in the photography category of the 2013 Science/National Science Foundation International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge. And positrons – the anti-matter opposites of electrons – have been found in large numbers flowing in near-Earth space. Weizmann Institute research points to an answer to one riddle: Why did a satellite monitoring…
Nearly two years ago, Science magazine published the following Lead Letter, signed by 255 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences addressing attacks on the integrity of climate science. The science has continued to strengthen, the evidence in real world observations has become even stronger and more obvious. In response, in the past few months, there has been a last-gasp effort (see, for example,  here and here) on the part of the ever-shrinking group of hard-core climate deniers to confuse the public and especially our elected officials. Given this continuing profusion of false and…
To encourage innovation and excellence in education, Science magazine has established a prize for online resources in education. The SPORE prize will recognize outstanding projects from all regions of the world that bring freely available online resources to bear on science education. Winning projects should reinforce one or more of the four strands of science learning recommended by the National Academies and be consistent with the science education standards published by the National Academies and the AAAS. Read more about SPORE rules and where to send your entries.
After this little bit of good news, it seems almost gluttonous of me to tell you that I have a little more good news to share with you. Yesterday, while I languished at home, ill and without stable or consistent wireless access, I finally managed to access email .. and when I did, I learned that ... I received an email from the book reviews editor at Science magazine, asking me to write (what else?) .. a book review. Science, you say .. Do you mean ... ? Why yes, I do mean ... ! The editor emailed me to ask if I'd write a review of a particular book, Birdscapes: Birds in Our…