Transformative science, especially in the field of energy, may well hold the key to the future growth of the U.S. economy and arguably the fate of the world. That's why U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu's recent announcement of the first $151 million in grant funding through the Advanced Research Projects...

The good news for the United States from this year's Nobel Prizes in science -- announced earlier this week in Stockholm -- is that eight of the nine winners are Americans. But, a fuller analysis reveals facts and insights that should both concern and energize policymakers who care about future...

The scientific leadership that has been at the heart of American economic leadership for the past century is being challenged more broadly than ever before. As the U.S. government moves to shore up our financial institutions, it must also address these challenges, which similarly threaten our economic prosperity.

The...

One of the major stories in the media over the past week has been conservative outrage over the prospect of President Barack Obama addressing the nation's school children and advocating "his socialist agenda." In fact, his speech, which was delivered yesterday, focused on "the responsibility each of you has for...

A reform movement that arose in 19th-century England provides a metaphor for what is now needed by our institutions of 21st-century American science. In 1840s England, an initially somewhat inchoate longing for national betterment arose among the sons of aristocrats attending Eton and Cambridge. Eventually known as the Young England...

Geneticist Francis Collins is the latest in a stellar list of scientists brought to federal leadership positions by President Barack Obama. They include two Nobel Prize winners, among other distinguished and innovative researchers.

Dr. Collins is world-renowned for having led the Human Genome Project from 1993 until last year, which...

President Barack Obama has wisely made scientific research a federal priority in his early funding decisions, including $21.5 billion for research and development in the economic stimulus package and significantly increasing science funding in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2010. The challenge now is to maximize the potential for...

President Obama has set an aggressive course for the sciences in America -- with the appointment of renowned scientists to top positions in his administration, inclusion of $21.5 billion for research and development in the federal economic stimulus package, and a significant increase in science funding in his proposed budget...

As the head of a private foundation that has been funding transformational scientific research for generations, I applaud President Barack Obama's recent statements on the need to double America's capacity to generate renewable energy over the next few years. Advancing truly transformational science in the field of clean energy is...

"We can do this." With those four words in a speech before the National Academies of Science last Monday, April 27th, President Barack Obama launched the United States on its greatest intellectual and scientific mission since the race to the moon. But today the target is broader and of much...

Even as public attention focuses rightly on shoring up our nation's financial system and addressing the credit and mortgage crisis, there is something profoundly hopeful unfolding in the sciences that has extraordinary potential for advancing our nation's economic leadership.

President Barack Obama seems to understand intuitively the words of...

It's not surprising that scientists would applaud the nomination of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist to be U.S. Secretary of Energy, but the promise of Steven Chu's nomination goes far beyond clan identity. What's especially exciting is the prospect of having someone who understands, and believes in, complex scientific inquiry in...