Who Owns the Results of Publicly funded Scientific Inquiry?

The National Institute of Health's (NIH) new policy is ruffling some feathers in the publishing industry. The growing riff is detailed in a recent blog posting in Salon.com which detailed the publishers backlash against the NIH policy of open access for research it funds.

Battle Lines for access, and copyright are being drawn for publicly funded as well as privately funded ( Howard Hughs Medical Institute, HHMI) and Burroughs Wellcome funded research. At the core of the issue is the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 sponsored by senators Cornyn and Lieberman. The rationale for the legislation is "

Because U.S. taxpayers underwrite this research, they have a right to expect that it's dissemination and use will be maximized, and that they themselves will have access to it.

Although this premise sounds simple enough, there has been a significant backlash among scientific publishers. They have formed an organization called the Prism Coalition as a means of lobbying against the Public Access Act of 2006. Their main argument and rationale is that since they organize the peer review process, they should own the copyrights of such publications and control access.

This is an example of how the digital age is forcing scientists to re-examine the epistemological foundations of scientific inquiry. Before the age of online archives, the Federal Government and other funding agencies were not interested in copyrights of their research because they had no interest in the mechanics of producing hard copy journals. Since journal articles are now most often communicated and viewed electronically, access has become an issue. Inexpensive or free software can typeset articles in the appropriate format, and online archives can easily house the resulting description of the relevant research.

If this emerging battle were an event that I could lay odds on, I would bet on the Federal Government Agencies to win, but only in the long haul. The powerful lobbyists are not going to make free access to research easy for the worlds researchers.

No Child Left Behind is Designed by Corporate Interests, not Educators

The Phrase "No Child Left Behind" is a politically designed euphemism intended to present the appearance of concern for learners while it in fact is a destructive program designed to produce windfall profits for foreign corporations. Perhaps the best analysis and demonstration of this statement has been developed by Jonathan Kozol and recently discussed in an interview in Salon.com .

I recommended to the Democrats that they replace these tests with
diagnostic tests, which are given individually by the teacher to her students.
They are anxiety-free and you don't have to wait six months for McGraw-Hill or Harcourt to mis-score them, as they often do. The teacher gets results immediately. And it's not time stolen from education because she actually learns while she's giving this test.

What Kozol is trying to communicate here is that there are two types of
assessment, formative and summative. NCLB is forcing schools to spend too much
time and resources on summative assessments, at the expense of actual
instruction and formative assessment. Only formative assessment is actually beneficial to students and considered part of the education process.The phrase "no child left behind" is designed to be a pseudo-patriotic catch phrase designed to eliminate consideration of the best ways to help learners. Using catch phrases in this manor is merely a way for corporations to steal money intended to benefit students in the same way many unscrupulous defense contractors steal money intended to support the troops, all the while they are endlessly repeating the mantra "support the troops".

Keen skills of observation reveal laughing rats and crosswalking crows.

Zoology as we know it usually refers to animals and how they are adapted to their natural environment. We usually think of animal behavior as pure instinct, and ignore adaptations that allow them to productively thrive while interacting with mans environment. In an article recently published on radioopensource.org, we are shown rats that can be recorded laughing while playing and crows that seem to have developed an intricate strategy to crack nuts.
first drop nuts onto a road to try to crack them. Failing that, they drop them where a car will run over that. This leads to difficulty in eating the nuts, so the birds are recorded drooping the nuts onto a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change and then walking out to eat the nuts.
Observation can open a parallel universe , to those who have sharpened their skills to those of a scientist!

Exotic Species Threaten the Chesapeake too

When we think about the problem of exotic species, those non-native invaders that when transplanted to a new environment proliferate without natural limitations, we usually think about Florida, and many of the exotic pets that have taken up homes in swamps and everglades. Now, Chesapeake bay may be facing a similar problem that involves a whelk which is native to the Sea of Japan. The Whelk is noted for it's large mouth, and cheerfully consumes native oysters whole and then spits out the unmarked shell. This is in contrast to other whelks, or drills that leave signature holes or marks on their prey.
Because of it's ominous potential to threaten the shellfish business of Chesapeake bay, the Veined Rapa Whelk is now a subject of research and concern at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, ( VIMS).
The goal of the research is to understand how the shellfish interacts with the local inhabitants of the bay. Obviously, when more is know about the behavior of this destructive species, more will be known about how to come up with a plan to control it's reproduction and spread.
It is thought that the Rapa arrived in the Chesapeake in the ballast water of passing ships. Because of it's ability to hitch a ride, it has the potential to spread and threaten the shellfish industry of the entire east coast.
As of now, the exotic whelk is thought to thrive in a wide range of temperature and salinity, making it's control difficult, and hampering any efforts to predict it's spread.

invasive species as both problems and solutions in the environment

One mans problem may be another mans solution. Such is the case with the tall reedy grass known as Carrizo cane, elephant reed, or by it's scientific name Arundo donax. As discussed by Andrew Leonard, putting a precise label on Arundo is a difficult task. On one hand, it has been introduced to the Texas border where it grows without natural enemies. In the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security, it is a nuisance because illegal immigrants can hide in it and it makes guarding the border with Mexico that much more difficult.
On the other hand, Arundo is a species that could turn nonproductive arid land into a productive force in the biofuels industry. Once the creation of ethanol from cellulose is perfected and scaled up, Arundo could be a low cost replacement for corn.
What is at issue is Homeland Securities proposal to introduce insects from the Iberian peninsula, natural consumers of Arundo into Texas.
What are the risks associated with introducing new species to control existing non-native species?

Abandoned Oil Rigs Have been found to make great fish habitats

Milton Love is a marine scientist who has a unique way of counting fish, and thus assessing the marine environment. He goes down beneath abandoned oil rigs off the coast of California and counts fish. This is interesting because in this case, the findings of the scientist may actually help the case of the oil companies involved, and in fact directly save them money. Dr. Love is sponsored by, and his research supports California's Rigs-to-Reefs program where by oil companies may pay half the cost of dismantling an abandoned oil rig to the state, and then the state will monitor the reef as an "artificial reef". Many species that are otherwise endangered are found living and nesting on and beneath the rigs because it is difficult for commercial fisherman to approach the rigs and put down nets.
Thus, in order to protect endangered species, the state and the oil companies involved have been able to come to a somewhat unique agreement.
The program is not without it's skeptics though, many scientists feel that research funded by oil companies is not objective.
In this case, as in all cases, scientific objectivity can be difficult to define and assess.
In this case, Dr. Love controls all of the data being produced about the abandoned wells. Does that make his work lack objectivity.
The critical environmentalists themselves do not seem to be critical of Dr. Loves observations and data.
In short, this is a scientific and environmental problem in which professional jealousy seems to be intertwined with scientific objectivity. What type of objective experiments or observational procedures could be implemented that would enhance Dr. Love's work's perceived objectivity?

How Epogen Helps Cancer patients

In The article today "Amgen Hammered Anew" we are informed of the FDA's decision to place warnings on the use of Amgen's drug Epogen and Aranesp by cancer patients. I wanted to use this opportunity to discuss the nature of the biotechnology industries largest family of products and how they were concieved and put into common use. Epogen is a synthetic version of the protein erythropoetin which in manufactured in the kidneys. In kidney patients, production of erythropoetin is hindered or eliminated, and as such, the first patients to receive Epogen were kidney patients. The natural function of erythropoetin is to stimulate the production of red blood cells ( erythrocytes ) in the bone marrow. Thus kidney patients often suffer from anemia which can be treated with erythropoetin, or Epogen.
Cancer patients are often treated by a process called chemotherapy which involves administration of toxic agents such as Taxol. Taxol is a chemical that is produced from the Pacific Yew tree that inhibits cell division in all cells. This is toxic to all dividing cells in the body, and is useful to stop the rapidly dividing cells of a tumor. In addition to stopping cell division of the tumor cells, there are side effects in all bodily functions that involve cell division. Hair production stops in the hair follicles, there are abnormalities in the lining of the digestive system, and blood cell creation ( hematopoesis ) in the bone marrow ceases.
As such, Epogen is useful in helping cancer patients recover from the affects of chemotherapy by raising their hematocrit ( blood count ).
That is why this news event is somewhat surprising. There does not seem to be a side affect listed that accounts for the FDA decision.
Physicians and their patients will be watching the situation closely.


References

Amgen Hammered Anew
http://www.thestreet.com/_mktw/newsanalysis/pharmaceuticals/10356260.html