Science And Technology

WASHINGTON -- President Bush presented science and technology achievement medals yesterday to 15 laureates who have done work that has revolutionized organ transplants, led to development of global positioning systems, and helped feed millions around the world. "The spirit of discovery is one of our national strengths," Bush said before handing out the 2004 National Medals of Science and Technology in the White House's East Room. "Our greatest resource has always been the educated, hard-working, ambitious people who call this country their home.

CONCORD, N.H. - The state's community colleges and four-year campuses are working together to turn out more high-tech graduates, promising to double the number in the next 13 years. Last year, the four University System of New Hampshire schools and the 11 community colleges awarded about 8,200 degrees and certificates, including 1,100 degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math. Under an agreement signed Tuesday, the latter number would increase by 50 percent by 2020 and double by 2025.

CONCORD, N.H. - The state's community colleges and four-year campuses are working together to turn out more high-tech graduates, promising to double the number in the next 13 years. Last year, the four University System of New Hampshire schools and the 11 community colleges awarded about 8,200 degrees and certificates, including 1,100 degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math. Under an agreement signed Tuesday, the latter number would increase by 50 percent by 2020 and double by 2025.

WASHINGTON – Several New England research universities, scrambling to protect the federal subsidies and grants funding part of their work, are calling on the Obama administration to protect science and technology spending by the Homeland Security Department. Warning that additional cuts in such funding would kill jobs and cause "an unacceptable weakening of our nation's security," the presidents of Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Rhode Island, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute were among a dozen heads of research universities who...

Jennifer Chayes is the Managing Director of Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, which she cofounded in July 2008. On Wednesday, Chayes will participate in a panel discussion on the importance of STEM - science, technology, engineering, and math - to building a talent pipeline in Massachusetts. The event is part of The Boston Globe's "Building a Better Commonwealth" series of discussions aimed at making Massachusetts a more desirable place to live and work. Chayes spoke to Globe reporter D.C. Denison.

President Barack Obama will sign the America Invents Act on Friday, the first significant change in patent law since 1952. The president will travel to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., for the ceremony. He'll also watch demonstrations of several student projects. The legislation is aimed at streamlining the patent process and reducing costly legal battles.

WASHINGTON – Several New England research universities, scrambling to protect the federal subsidies and grants funding part of their work, are calling on the Obama administration to protect science and technology spending by the Homeland Security Department. Warning that additional cuts in such funding would kill jobs and cause "an unacceptable weakening of our nation's security," the presidents of Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Rhode Island, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute were among a dozen heads of research universities who...

WASHINGTON - Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough!" girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released yesterday in the journal Science. Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believing it wind up avoiding harder math classes.

The director of MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics does not usually prepare for a lecture by watching a Keanu Reeves film. Then again, he doesn't usually speak about "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. " But unusual preparation is required for Edward Farhi's Jan. 30 talk at the Coolidge Corner Theatre as part of its Science on Screen series. The independent Brookline movie house will show the 1989 film about two slackers who go back in history, and Farhi will discuss the feasibility of time travel.

PARIS -- Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, who cofounded the French newsweekly L'Express and encouraged Europe to emulate the United States, has died. He was 82. Mr. Servan-Schreiber, a journalist, essayist and politician, died Tuesday of complications from bronchitis, two days after he was hospitalized in the town of Fecamp in northwest France, his son Edouard said. President Jacques Chirac expressed condolences and called Servan-Schreiber "a passionate man full of ideas and action.

Jennifer Chayes is the Managing Director of Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, which she cofounded in July 2008. On Wednesday, Chayes will participate in a panel discussion on the importance of STEM - science, technology, engineering, and math - to building a talent pipeline in Massachusetts. The event is part of The Boston Globe's "Building a Better Commonwealth" series of discussions aimed at making Massachusetts a more desirable place to live and work. Chayes spoke to Globe reporter D.C. Denison.

The director of MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics does not usually prepare for a lecture by watching a Keanu Reeves film. Then again, he doesn't usually speak about "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. " But unusual preparation is required for Edward Farhi's Jan. 30 talk at the Coolidge Corner Theatre as part of its Science on Screen series. The independent Brookline movie house will show the 1989 film about two slackers who go back in history, and Farhi will discuss the feasibility of time travel.

Peter Thiel , co-founder and former CEO of Paypal and present-day hedge fund manager, has a great, opinionated article in the new issue of National Review : In " The End of the Future ," he argues that the last fifty years have seen the end of genuine technological progress, and that we are now feeling the consequences. The problem is that, nowadays, we simply take technological progress for granted -- we assume that it will just happen, the same way we assumed that housing prices would always just go up. It doesn't work that way. We need high-paying jobs to avoid...

The Boston area's office market has made a strong comeback during the last several months, with pharmaceutical and technology firms eating up large chunks of space and driving total occupancy to its highest level in a decade. Companies in the region added a net of 781,000 square feet of office space in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, marking the largest quarterly gain in four years. Average asking rents for top-rated space inside Interstate 495 have increased to $37.41 from $35.98 a year ago, according to the real estate firm Richards Barry Joyce & Partners LLC. The...

President Barack Obama will sign the America Invents Act on Friday, the first significant change in patent law since 1952. The president will travel to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., for the ceremony. He'll also watch demonstrations of several student projects. The legislation is aimed at streamlining the patent process and reducing costly legal battles.

WASHINGTON - The White House science adviser to President George W. Bush, John H. Marburger III, has died. He was 70. A Democrat, Mr. Marburger was in charge of science policy during the entire eight years of the Republican administration, often dealing with issues about man-made global warming and claims of political interference in science. He was a physicist. He was also the longest serving presidential science adviser in US history. In a statement, Bush said Mr. Marburger "was a joy to work with.

Peter Thiel , co-founder and former CEO of Paypal and present-day hedge fund manager, has a great, opinionated article in the new issue of National Review : In " The End of the Future ," he argues that the last fifty years have seen the end of genuine technological progress, and that we are now feeling the consequences. The problem is that, nowadays, we simply take technological progress for granted -- we assume that it will just happen, the same way we assumed that housing prices would always just go up. It doesn't work that way. We need high-paying jobs to avoid thinking about how...

A scientific tiff went public Friday as the journal Science took the unusual step of publishing challenges to a report about a strange, arsenic-eating bacteria. The authors of the study stood their ground, saying they still consider their interpretation of the research viable. In the report published in Science last year, researchers led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute said they discovered bacteria that can substitute arsenic for some of the phosphorous in its diet.