Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Readings, Videos and Web Links

By

M. Ali

Last Updated: Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Introduction to the Subject

- What is Science Policy?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_policy

- White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp

- Bird Flu Paper is Published After Debate by Donald McNeil, Jr. (2012)

- Bird flu researchers get green light to continue work on engineered virus,

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jan/23/bird-flu-researchers-engineered-virus

- Tiles in a worldwide sci-art mosaic explore what science means to writers, scientists, school children, and others, collaborative drawing activity

- Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence.

- The Proactionary Principle by Max More (2005)

- The Normative Structure of Science by Robert K. Merton (1942)

- Nova's Do Scientists Cheat (1988) (in 7 parts on You Tube), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VooaLRqTSPI

- Is Google making us stupid? http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/

- Is Stupid Making Us Google? By James Bowman, http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/is-stupid-making-us-google

Scientific Norms and Research Misconduct

- The Belmont Report

- Chapter 1 Introduction: Professional Challenge in The Policy Process by Tim W. Clark (2002). Buy online from: http://www.amazon.com/The-Policy-Process-Practical-Professionals/dp/0300090129

- Chapter 1 Reason, Rationality, and Public Policy: The Puzzle of Human Behavior by Dipak Gupta, http://www.amazon.com/Analyzing-Public-Policy-Concepts-Techniques/dp/1604265701

- Chapter 2 Analysts: Their Role and Their Tools by Dipak Gupta, http://www.amazon.com/Analyzing-Public-Policy-Concepts-Techniques/dp/1604265701

- The Normative Structure of Science by Robert K. Merton (1942).

- Chapter 5 Problem Orientation: Focusing on Problems to Find Solutions, in The Policy Process by Susan Clark

- Chapter 4 The Policy Process, in Analyzing Public Policy by Dipak Gupta, http://www.amazon.com/Analyzing-Public-Policy-Concepts-Techniques/dp/1604265701

Policy Process and Research Paper

- The Philosophy of the Technology of the Gun by Evan Selinger (2012)

- NSF under the Microscope by Senator Tom Coburn (2011)

- Academic Funding and the Public Interest: The Death of Political Science by Sarah Kendzior (2013), http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/04/20134265610113939.html

- A Neoliberal Economics of Science by Sheldon Krimsky (2011), http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/a-neoliberal-economics-of-science

- The Privatization of State Universities: It Makes Sense by Richard Vedder (2012), http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-privatization-of-state-universities-it-makes-sense/31744

- Society Shouldn't Pay for Your Higher Education (2012) by George Leef, http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2710

- The End of the University? by Louis Betty (2013), http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/02/01/dont-panic-amid-predictions-higher-eds-demise-essay

Technology, Society, and the Tech-fix

- Do Artifacts Have Politics? by Langdon Winner (1984), http://innovate.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Winner-Do-Artifacts-Have-Politics-1980.pdf

- The Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin (1968), http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_tragedy_of_the_commons.html

- Science - the Endless Frontier by Vannevar Bush (1945), http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm

- Beyond Basic and Applied by Roger Pielke, Jr. and Radford Byerly, Jr. (1998), http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-166-1998.12.pdf

Science in Society

- Don't Bring Back the Saber-Toothed Tiger by Frank Swain (2013)

- Affirming Gasland by Josh Fox (2010), http://one.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking/affirming-gasland

- Selections from Science - The Endless Frontier by Vannevar Bush (1945), http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm

- Beyond Basic and Applied by Roger Pielke, Jr. and Radford Byerly, Jr. (1998), http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-166-1998.12.pdf

Science in Environmental Policymaking

- Watch the short film The Sky is Pink by Josh Fox (2012)

- Watch the short film Truth Land by Energy In Depth (2012)

- Science and Environmental Policy: An Excess of Objectivity by Daniel Sarewitz (2000)

Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway (2010). Buy online at http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Doubt-Handful-Scientists-Obscured/dp/1608193942

R&D Budgets

- NSF under the Microscope by Senator Tom Coburn (2011)

- Academic Funding and the Public Interest: The Death of Political Science by Sarah Kendzior (2013).

- A Neoliberal Economics of Science by Sheldon Krimsky (2011)

- The Privatization of State Universities: It Makes Sense by Richard Vedder (2012)

- Society Shouldn't Pay for Your Higher Education (2012) by George Leef

- The End of the University as We Know it by Nathan Harden (2013), http://www.the-american-interest.com/2012/12/11/the-end-of-the-university-as-we-know-it/

- The End of the University? by Louis Betty (2013)

The Function and Future of the University

- Read the altmetrics manifesto.

Biotechnological Enhancements and Military Research

- A Transhumanist Manifesto, http://www.singularityweblog.com/a-transhumanist-manifesto/

- Human Enhancement Ethics, http://www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/human-enhancement-ethics.pdf

- Biomedical Enhancements Entering a New Era by Maxwell Mehlman (2009).

- A quick look at the R&D being funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

- Military Funds, Moral Demands: Personal Responsibilities of the Individual Scientist by Douglas Lackey (1994), http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1989.tb15057.x/abstract (Download the pdf)

- In Defense of Drones, they're the worst form of war, except for all the others: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2013/02/drones_war_and_civilian_casualties_how_unmanned_aircraft_reduce_collateral.html

Life Online . . . and Life on Mars?

- Friendship Does Not Compute by Peter Lopatin (2012)

- Springtime for Twitter by William Saletan (2011)

- Watch Terraforming Mars, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5k0MtlWPOs

- Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken by Amory Lovins (1976)

- Chapter 3 Soft Energy Illusions in Energy Myths and Realities by Vaclav Smil (2010), http://www.amazon.com/Energy-Myths-Realities-Bringing-Science/dp/0844743283

- Lovins and Smil articles (Read Introduction and Chapter 5 in Big Coal by Jeff Goodell (2006). Buy online at http://www.amazon.com/Big-Coal-Secret-Behind-Americas/dp/0618872248

Energy and Climate Policy

- Global Warming's Terrifying New Math by Bill McKibben (2012)

- Lecture on the STP dimensions of climate change - focus on IPCC and USGCRP.

- The Doomslayer by Ed Regis (1993).

- Watch Debate: Does the World Need Nuclear Energy? (Ted Talk forum, 2010)

- Watch Does the World Need Nuclear Energy? (Ted Talk forum, 2010), http://www.ted.com/talks/debate_does_the_world_need_nuclear_energy.html

- Read selections from Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken by Amory Lovins (1976), http://softpathinnovations.com/SoftPath/About_Us_files/Energy%20Strategy-%20The%20Road%20Not%20Taken.pdf

- Chapter 3 Soft Energy Illusions in Energy Myths and Realities by Vaclav Smil (2010), http://www.amazon.com/Energy-Myths-Realities-Bringing-Science/dp/0844743283

- Introduction and Chapter 5 in Big Coal by Jeff Goodell (2006), Buy online at http://www.amazon.com/Big-Coal-Secret-Behind-Americas/dp/0618872248

Development and Geo-engineering

- Read Re-Engineering the Earth by Graeme Wood (2009)

- Read Needs by Ivan Ilich1992, http://www.surrenderworks.com/ivanillich/1990_needs.pdf

- Human Development Indices and Data

- Read Chapter 1 Why We Must Disestablish School in Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich (1970), https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/voke-foundsofeducation/2008/01/14/ivan-illich-why-we-must-disestablish-school/

- Watch Climate of Doubt PBS Frontline (2012)

Healthcare and Agriculture

- The Cost Conundrum by Atul Gawande (2009)

- The Quagmire by Daniel Callahan and Sherwin Nuland (2011).

- The Case for Big Ag by Michael Grunwald (2009)

- Our Decrepit Food Factories by Michael Pollan (2007)

Research Paper Symposium

- Why I Froze My Eggs (And You Should Too) by Sarah Elizabeth Richards (2013), http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323628004578458882165244260.html

- Why the Future Doesn't Need Us by Bill Joy (2000)

- Watch The Coming Singularity Ray Kurzweil (2009) and other videos there, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uIzS1uCOcE

- Watch and debate Terraforming Mars video. http://youtu.be/O5k0MtlWPOs

Miscellaneous

- A Collective of Humans and Nonhumans, http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF9200/h12/readings/papers/Latour2.pdf

- Intellectual Property Rights and Access to Essential Medicines, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTDECINEQ/Resources/IntellectualPropRts.pdf

- Springtime for Twitter: Is the Internet driving the revolutions of the Arab Spring? http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2011/07/springtime_for_twitter.html

- The Case Against Perfection: What's wrong with designer children, bionic athletes, and genetic engineering http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-perfection/302927/

- Re-Engineering the Earth By Graeme Wood, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/07/re-engineering-the-earth/307552/

- Are Machines Really Taking Our Jobs? A brief history of technological progress and why it's not necessarily a bad thing, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/are-machines-really-taking-our-jobs/278755/

- In Defense of Posthuman Dignity by Nick Bostrom, http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/courses/hon182/Posthuman_dignity_Bostrom.pdf

- Technology Diffusion and Productivity Growth in Health Care,

http://www.nber.org/papers/w14865