Want to know the latest, greatest science news? You've reached the right place. Our Hot Topics page will provide you with a broad sampling of science news from across the globe. We will tailor our choices to best serve the need of Massachusetts citizens as they learn to live in a world where science is becoming a more central component of our daily lives. Read and Enjoy! And, as always, we welcome contributions to this page.
Governor Deval Patrick will unveil more than 50 recommendations this week that seek to dramatically change the way education is delivered and funded in Massachusetts.
Education, union, and business leaders briefed on the plan say Patrick will propose a plethora of initiatives aimed at closing the achievement gap among students. In addition, he will recommend that a statewide teacher contract take the place of contracts negotiated town by town; suggest higher pay for teachers in hard-to-staff subjects, such as math, and geographical areas, such as inner cities; and encourage some of the state's 391 school districts to merge. He is also expected to propose making community colleges, which cost an average of $3,657 a year, free for all students.
Wouldn't it be great if you could become invisible whenever you wanted? Harry Potter can do it, and so could certain groups of futuristic creatures on "Star Trek."
Such technology remains far off, but it may not be entirely impossible. Teams of scientists around the globe say they're making progress on theories and experiments involving cloaking -- that is, making things invisible.
In theory, all that's needed to make a small object invisible is something called a superlens, says Graeme Milton, a mathematician at the University of Utah.
He and Australia-based collaborators Nicolae Nicorovici, Lindsay Botten and Ross McPhedran have made mathematical models showing that at a critical distance from a superlens, an object would seem to disappear.
A superlens has a negative refractive index, meaning light that hits it reverses and goes in the opposite direction. Physicist John Pendry at Imperial College London was among the first to propose superlenses in 2000.
At a certain distance from a superlens, an object becomes invisible because light that bounces off it cancels out with light reflecting off the superlens, Milton said. It's a little like noise cancellation devices such as earphones, he said.
"We've seen it numerically -- not in practice, but we've got a theoretical proof that collections of particles become invisible," he said.
Bangladesh, a newly claimed "self-sufficient" country (as of 2005) is now facing devastating crop disease and damage by insects, causing huge setbacks in their progression towards being self-reliant. As a result, Dr. Robert Wick, a plant pathobiologist from the University of Massachusetts has co-founded the first Plant Disease Clinic in Bangladesh. This clinic will allow the farmers to investigate the causes of their crop problems using scientific techniques, not just the consistently inaccurate visual aspects of plant disease and destruction. This newly created organization will now advise the farmers on the best way for them to treat their crops and also act as a quality control center, to examine all exported crops to ensure they are free of pathogens.
Sector Driving Job Growth, Contributes $8.8 billion to State's Economy
The Massachusetts life sciences "Super Cluster" continues to change the face of medicine by driving research innovation, but it faces increasing competition for talent and funding from other states and countries, according to the 2008 Massachusetts Life Sciences Super Cluster report, released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the New England Healthcare Institute, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Xconomy and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
The Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives organization has estimated that the life sciences sector contributes approximately $8.8 billion annually to the Massachusetts economy. Behind the related industries of healthcare and education, the life sciences industry is a powerful driver of job growth in Massachusetts, directly employing 77,247 people, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and PricewaterhouseCoopers' analysis. Its workforce grew eight percent in the five-year period between 2001 and 2006 while the entire Massachusetts workforce shrunk by 2.5 percent in the same period.
Massachusetts has a high concentration of life sciences assets in close proximity, including academic medical centers, researchers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies. While the report highlights the region's strength, it also says there are signs that industry and government may need to work harder to protect the state's pipeline of innovation and ensure Massachusetts long-term success in life sciences.
Despite the fact that Massachusetts receives more funding from the National Institutes of Health on a per capita basis than any other state, NIH grants to Massachusetts researchers declined for the first time in 2006, and in 2007 were at their lowest level in three years, according to the report. Nationally, NIH funding has not kept pace with inflation for the past five years, and if this trend continues, the report states, it could hit particularly hard in Massachusetts, whose young researchers have served as a wellspring of ideas and products for the rest of the industry.
The 2008 Massachusetts Super Cluster report includes the personal perspectives of some of life sciences industry leaders from Massachusetts and findings of a survey of 147 industry executives from Massachusetts life sciences organizations. The report also raised some concerns about whether Massachusetts companies will be able to continue to mine its strengths in research and commercialize the ideas coming out of the state's laboratories. According to the findings in the survey:
* With federal research funding falling behind the rate of inflation in recent years, nearly half of respondents (44%) said that a lack of funding for collaborative efforts was the factor that had the biggest negative impact on cooperation between institutions."A key takeaway from the report is that while Massachusetts has world renowned scientists and researchers and is positioned to thrive in an environment that places a premium on innovation, making the jump from pure research to marketable products will require strengthening the partnerships among universities, teaching hospitals, life sciences companies and venture capitalists," said James Connolly, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and New England life sciences assurance practice leader.
"Massachusetts has a tradition of innovation in the life sciences that has produced a true Super Cluster of talent. However, we must build on the strength of this Super Cluster, because the future of our economy depends on it. That is why the Governor proposed a 10-year, $1 billion investment package to assist the private sector, academia and the research community in working together to reaffirm the position of the Commonwealth as the international home of the life sciences," said Daniel O'Connell, Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development.
The survey respondents see Massachusetts researchers excelling in several of the most promising areas in the life sciences during the coming decade. More than a quarter (27%) cited convergent technologies, such as drug-device combinations, as being the area in which the Commonwealth is most likely to excel, followed by biologic products (21%) and personalized medicine (19%). Other highlights of the 2008 Massachusetts Life Sciences Super Cluster Survey:
* While nearly three in five respondents (58%) are based in the Boston-Cambridge area, notable concentrations of life sciences researchers and companies are emerging in the Lowell, Lexington-Waltham and Framingham-Marlborough areas."Talent attracts talent, and success breeds success," said Dr. Wendy Everett, president of the New England Health Care Institute. "This clustering brings enormous benefits to the organizations and communities involved, such as ease of collaboration. That is why it is so important to maintain the momentum that the Massachusetts Super Cluster has made possible."
When asked what would cause them to consider leaving Massachusetts, surprisingly, fewer than eight percent cited the commute to work. One-quarter of respondents cited "pay" and four in 10 said "lifestyle." Each of these factors has been raised as a concern by employers attempting to recruit and retain workers in Massachusetts.
In spite of their concerns about the life sciences industry, the survey respondents looked to the future optimistically:
* More than half (55.1%) said that job opportunities in the Massachusetts Super Cluster would strengthen during the next decade, and an additional 35.9% said they would stay the same. Only nine percent thought that the life sciences job market would weaken.Source: PriceWaterHouseCoopers