May 2010 Archives

On the last day that the University of Virginia could appeal a civil investigative demand (similar to a subpoena) by Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli to investigate former UVa scientist Michael Mann, the university went to court to defend its academic freedom on nine grounds.

At first, it looked like UVa's governing board was planning to comply with the CID, but the uproar among UVa faculty and elsewhere led UVa president John T. Casteen III to hire the law firm Hogan Lovells to see what options the university had.

UVa argued in a motion filed in Charlottesville that Cuccinelli's subpoena for papers and e-mail from Mann exceeds the attorney general's authority under state law. In particular, the CID did not specify "the nature of the conduct constituting the alleged violation," or why Mann was singled out for investigation.

One of the proposed international solutions to Iran's public plans to enrich uranium for its nuclear power program, is for Iran to ship its low enriched uranium abroad.

Halfway through the nuclear nonproliferation treaty review conference in New York, Iran agreed to do just that—to move 50% (1200 kg) of its low enriched uranium which contains about 3-5% uranium 235 (235U) to Turkey via a formal proposal to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran then hopes to get 120 kg of highly enriched 235U (about 20%) a year later.

Supporters of legislation that would extend the 1997 law that codified a doubling of the budgets for key federal basic physical sciences research programs over 10 years were mulling how to gain House passage of a bill after Republicans succeeded in defeating two versions of the measure in as many weeks.

Administration officials are seeking to reassure some lawmakers that the new START treaty signed this spring by President Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, will not require the US to abandon its development or deployment of missile defense systems.

The issue is one of the roadblocks that could hold up Senate ratification of the treaty.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other high-ranking administration figures insist that Russian statements to the contrary, the treaty signed by the two leaders on 8 April in Prague contains no restrictions on US efforts in missile defense.

They have dismissed an assertion by Medvedev’s office that warns Russia may withdraw from the new START if the US continues to pursue missile defense, saying it simply repeats decades of grumbling from Moscow that also had no impact on bilateral strategic arms reductions.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, in a blatantly political move to help strengthen his support among the right wing for his bid to become the next governor, is causing uproar in the science community by investigating climate scientist and former University of Virginia professor Michael Mann.

Qu Tanzhou, the director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration which is affiliated with the State Oceanic Administration, has told the China Daily that Beijing is planning to increase "scientific research and expeditions" in the Arctic, to better "deal with the challenges and opportunities arising from the melting ice cover."

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials last fall warned the Department of Interior, which regulates offshore oil drilling, that it was dramatically underestimating the frequency of offshore oil spills and was dangerously understating the risk and impacts a major spill would have on coastal residents, reports the Huffington Post.

According to Iranian human-rights activists, reports Science magazine, Iran's government has begun to remove academics who oppose President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad.

The new policy came to light after two electrical engineering professors at the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran were fired.

Science also discovered that a new set of hiring guidelines include checking whether applicants cooperate with institutions representing the Supreme Leader, and have belief in the existing political structure.

This new evaluation process "opens up the system to political influence," says Farhad Ardalan, a physicist who retired last year from Sharif University and is now a researcher at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences in Tehran. "They have lowered the minimum so much that pretty much anybody could be hired," he says. "It's the worst thing that has happened to Iranian universities in the past 30 years."