Sabtu, 19 Februari 2011

Science makes a difficult

Our “charticle” puts the current debate about
science and technology budgets into historical
context. A few things might surprise you. Click
here to download the PDF.
The White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy earlier this week unveiled its
plan for the fiscal year 2012 science and
technology budget in an event at the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in
Washington, D.C. The budget echoes the
priorities identified by the president in his State of
the Union address and in his “Strategy for
American Innovation,” which the White House
released last week. Here’s a look at how the two
documents match up the strategy with the
money.
A tough-love budget
In what OSTP Director John P. Holdren referred
to as a “tough-love budget” at the release event,
this year’s request to Congress keeps overall
nondefense spending flat while increasing the
crucial investments in science and technology
R&D , so-called STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and math) education, and 21st
century infrastructure that we need to “out-
innovate, out-educate, and out-build” our
economic competitors. Proposing $147.9 billion
for federal research and development overall, the
budget provides increases for areas identified by
the president as critically important to America’s
competitive future, such as sustainable energy,
information technology, advanced
manufacturing, and STEM education initiatives.
Programs that were uncompetitive with these
high-priority areas were reduced, including the
R&D programs at the Department of Veterans
Affairs (falling 12 percent from the 2010 enacted
level) and the Environmental Protection Agency,
which was cut by $11 million. Developmental
research overall saw a decrease in funding from
previous budgets with a total of $79.4 billion —a
decrease mostly due to cuts made in defense
research. The budget proposes a $4 billion
decrease for the Department of Defense R&D
budget from 2010 levels, putting it at $76.6
billion.
Holdren credited tactical, hard-nosed financial
discipline as the reason why the 2012 budget,
which begins in October this year, achieved what
most people thought wasn ’t possible. This year’s
budget calls for a total nondefense R&D budget of
$66.8 billion ($4.1 billion or 6.5 percent more
than the 2010 enacted budget).
Doubling path for key science agency
budgets
The FY 2012 budget proposed by the White
House does not lose focus on previous long-term
agency goals set by the Obama administration.
The three key agencies identified by the president
as crucial to national competitiveness —the
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
the National Science Foundation, and the
Department of Energy ’s Office of Science—
maintain financial momentum to reach their
budget-doubling goal by 2017. The budget
proposes an increase for these agencies of 12.2
percent from the 2010 enacted budget for a total
of $13.9 billion in funding. The NSF increases 13
percent from 2010 enacted levels to $7.8 billion,
the DOE Office of Science increases 10.7 percent
to $5.4 billion, and NIST intramural laboratories
increase to $764 million, a 15.1 percent increase
over 2010.
Clean energy innovation
To further advance American clean energy
innovation, $550 million was directed to continue
to fund DOE ’s Advanced Research Projects
Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. Additionally, the
budget provides financial support to double the
number of Energy Innovation Hubs from three to
six in order to promote collaboration between
industry and academia.
The three new hubs will focus on rare earth
materials, advanced car batteries, and new
materials to advance the smart grid. Funding for
the existing hubs for building energy efficiency,
fuels from sunlight, and nuclear modeling
continue to receive funding.
Educating our children in science,
technology, engineering, and math
Recognizing that a workforce well trained in
science, technology, engineering, and math, or
STEM, is a critical building block for long-run,
innovation-driven economic success, the budget
also includes $3.4 billion across the federal
government for STEM education. New STEM
initiatives include a $100 million “down payment”
on preparing 100,000 new STEM teachers within
the upcoming decade with 80 percent going to
the Department of Education and 20 percent of
the down payment going to NSF.
Also included is $90 million for the Department of
Education to create a new agency called
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Education,
or ARPA-ED. This new agency mimics the
successful model used by DARPA and ARPA-E to
develop and commercialize game-changing and
transformational new technologies of national
importance. ARPA-ED, according to the OSTP,
will:
Push the field of education research,
development, and demonstration forward by:
sponsoring synthesis and vetting of public and
private R&D efforts; identifying breakthrough
development opportunities; shaping the next
wave of R&D; investing in the development of
new education technologies, learning systems,
and digital learning materials; and identifying and
transitioning the best and most relevant R&D
from other federal agencies.
Infrastructure to keep people, goods, and
information on the move
At the budget-release event at the AAAS on
Monday, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh
Chopra discussed how investments in 21st
century infrastructure will provide the
foundational capacity to foster the growth of new
jobs and industries. Specific infrastructure
investments that the budget makes include a one-
time $5 billion investment in the Universal Service
Fund to ensure all Americans have access to 4G
high-speed wireless, even those living in remote
areas. Some of this will be paid for by increasing
the wireless spectrum available for mobile
broadband. The auction of these new frequencies
to companies will cut the deficit by nearly $10
billion over the next decade.
Advancing manufacturing innovation
We’ve pointed out at Science Progress many
times that innovation does not just take place in
labs; it also happens on assembly lines. The
president ’s budget would increase funding for the
National Science Foundation, the National Institute
of Standards and Technology, the Department of
Energy, and the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency to support development of
advanced manufacturing technologies.
Investments in nanomanufacturing,
biomanufacturing, next-generation robotics, and
cyber-physical systems are important to keeping
American manufacturing on the cutting edge of
innovation. In addition, the budget proposes
reauthorizing the wildly successful and
oversubscribed section 48(c) clean energy
manufacturing tax credit for $5 billion.
Leveraging private-sector investment in
innovation
The FY 2012 budget also displays a solid
realization of the importance of private-sector
investment in innovation. The government
simply does not have the size, expertise, or
resources to directly develop the technologies of
the future. The research and experimentation tax
credit helps unlock private investment in research
and development by encouraging companies to
develop new technology.
But since 1981 the R&D tax credit has been
renewed by Congress on a temporary basis
every two to three years, creating considerable
uncertainty for businesses trying to make the
necessarily long-term investments in technology
research and development. The president ’s
budget proposes finally to expand, simplify, and
make permanent the R&D tax credit.
The budget also includes a new Innovation Fund
within the Small Business Investment Company,
or SBIC, program. The new fund will specifically
address the “valley of death” financing gap that
prevents promising technical ideas from
becoming job-creating business plans by making
$200 million in matching grant funds available to
augment private investments that support job-
creating and innovative startup technology
companies with high growth potential.
In addition, the budget includes $15 million for the
Small Business Administration ’s Emerging
Leaders initiative to “enhance small business
participation in regional economic clusters.” By
signaling to the private sector that investments in
research and development will carry tax benefits
long into the future, this administration hopes to
help kick start innovation across all of America ’s
industries.
Looming budget battle
Though these key investments in science and
innovation have made it into the president ’s
budget, they still face a long road ahead to secure
funding in the eventual FY 2012 budget that
Congress must pass and the president must sign.
President Obama ’s budget can be thought of as
an “opening bid,” as he characterized it earlier this
week, in a long process of haggling that will take
place between the Republican-controlled House
and the Democrat-controlled Senate and White
House.
Elaine Sedenberg is an Intern at Science Progress
and an undergraduate in honors biochemistry at
the University of Texas at Austin. Sean Pool is
Assistant Editor for Science Progress. Also see
our new “charticle” on U.S. Science R&D 101 (pdf).

Jumat, 04 Februari 2011

Taylor Alison Swift Profile

Taylor Swift yang lahir pada 13 Desember 1989 adalah
penyanyi sekaligus pencipta lagu musik country. Memulai
debutnya lewat jalur indie di tahun 2006, Swift memulai
perjalanan karir bermusiknya dengan merilis single Tim
McGraw dan langsung menempati posisi di tangga lagu U.S.
Billboard.
Swift lahir di Pennsylvania dan tinggal dengan orang tuanya
serta saudara lelakinya, Austin di Tennesse. Bakat
bermusiknya diperolehnya dari neneknya yang seorang
penyanyi opera serta dipengaruhi oleh penyanyi LeAnn
Rimes. Di usia 10 tahun, ia sudah mulai tampil di depan
umum dan mulai menulis lirik lagu.
Pada 24 Oktober 2006, Swift yang mempunyai nama asli
Taylor Alison Swift merilis albumnya yang berjudul
TAYLOR SWIFT. Hampir seluruh lagu di album ini ditulis
olehnya sendiri. Dan hasilnya, album penyanyi muda berbakat
ini dapat terjual hingga 61.000 kopi pada minggu pertamanya.
Tak berapa lama setelahnya, album ini menjadi juara di tangga
lagu Billboard Top Country.
Swift juga mengeluarkan album SOUNDS OF THE SEASON
yang dirilis pada 16 Oktober 2007. Sayangnya, album ini tidak
sesukses album perdananya.
Pada musim gugur 2008, pelantung tembang Love Story dan
White Horse ini merilis album keduanya, FEARLESS. Dalam
tiga minggu saja sudah terjual sebanyak 330 ribu keping.
Lewat album FEARLESS, Swift mendapatkan penghargaan di
ajang Academy of Country Music Awards Ke-44 dalam
kategori Album of The Year. Ia juga menerima trofi crystal
milestone sebagai artis musik country dengan penjualan
terbaik selama 2008.