Showing results for "The Policy" in Biological Sciences

When Speaker Newt Gingrich greeted Dr. David Lewis in his office overlooking the National Mall, he looked at Dr. Lewis and said: "You know you’re going to be fired for this, don’t you?" "I know," Dr. Lewis replied, "I just hope to stay out of prison." Gingrich had just read Dr. Lewis' commentary in Nature, titled "EPA Science: Casualty of Election Politics".

Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.

In this visionary book, Leslie Valiant argues that understanding the nature of our own educability is crucial to safeguarding our future. After breaking down how we process information to learn and apply knowledge, and drawing comparisons with other animals and AI systems, he explains why education should be humankind's central preoccupation. Will the unique capability that has been so foundational to our achievements and civilization continue to drive our progress, or will we fall victim to our vulnerabilities?

The enormous human and economic toll of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 disease offers a vivid reminder that infectious disease pandemics are one of the greatest existential threats to humanity. This book provides an accessible explanation of how viruses emerge to cause pandemics, how our immune system combats them, and how diagnostic tests, vaccines, and antiviral therapies work - concepts that are a foundation for our public health policies.

In brave and unforgettable terms, Al Gore, the passionate and lifelong defender of the environment, describes how human actions and decisions can endanger or safeguard the vulnerable ecosystem that sustains us.

"Let's Talk Better Forestry" is a podcast from the Forest Policy Group, exploring how we can create a more sustainable, diverse and resilient future for Scotland's forests and woodlands. Each episode brings together voices from across the sector – foresters, land managers, researchers, community members and policymakers – to share practical experience, fresh ideas and honest reflections. From continuous cover forestry to community involvement, training and policy, we dig into the challenges and opportunities shaping forestry today.

Confronting sustainable development challenges requires system transformation in Food, Land, and Water! Policy Pathways invites policymakers and sustainable development stakeholders to share their expertise on the policy solutions that can advance system transformation across the globe.CGIAR Research Initiative on National Policies and Strategies has produced a series of policy coherence reports focused on India, Colombia, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Laos. Each of these reports looks in detail at country-specific challenges and makes recommendations for the incorporation of policy tools that ...

We decode the newest international agreements, policies, and movements aimed at protecting biodiversity and combating climate change.

From one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, a powerful argument that the greatest damage from drugs flows from their being illegal, and a hopeful reckoning with the possibility of their use as part of a responsible and happy life Dr. Carl L. Hart, Ziff Professor at Columbia...

Let’s Talk Better Forestry is a podcast for anyone who cares about how we do forestry – and how we might do it better. Hosted by Morag Paterson from the Forest Policy Group, this series takes a slower, more reflective look at the people, practices, and policies shaping Scotland’s woodlands today.Through honest, thoughtful, and sometimes messy conversations, we go beyond the headlines to hear from the foresters, land managers, and thinkers working on the ground. Each episode is a chance to explore real experiences, big ideas, and the tensions that sit between them, with space for ...

What does EU climate policy need to look like to achieve the transformation to a net zero emissions economy by 2050? Tune into our podcast and learn about the four essential cross-cutting challenges on this path: fostering breakthrough INNOVATION, shifting INVESTMENT & finance, rolling out the INFRASTRUCTURE for a climate-neutral and resilient economy and, INTEGRATION of solutions across sectors. These four “I”s can make or break our chances to becoming climate neutral. Experts from different backgrounds will join in conversation to explore each of them and their relevance for EU ...

Global health is facing a tipping point. Scientific advancements have changed how we respond to epidemics like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria – and the pipeline of breakthrough innovations has never been stronger. But funding is down and priorities are shifting. Will the science come to scale so these diseases can finally be ended? Or will they surge instead? On The Threshold, reporters from around the world cover this unfolding crisis from all sides—talking to scientists, politicians, civil society leaders, pharmaceutical executives, and others. The Threshold is a seven-part Foreign ...

Antibiotics are powerful drugs that can prevent and treat infections, but they are becoming less effective as a result of drug resistance. Resistance develops because the bacteria that antibiotics target can evolve ways to defend themselves against these drugs. When antibiotics fail, there is very little else to prevent an infection from spreading. Unnecessary use of antibiotics in both humans and animals accelerates the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria, with potentially catastrophic personal and global consequences.

This Very Short Introduction audiobook celebrates the centrality of ecology in our lives. Jaboury Ghazoul explores how ecology has evolved rapidly from natural history to become a predictive science that explains how the natural world works and which guides environmental policy and management decisions.

Bright Green Lies exposes the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of leading environmental groups and their most prominent cheerleaders. The best-known environmentalists are not in the business of speaking truth, or even holding up rational solutions to blunt the impending ecocide, but instead indulge in a mendacious and self-serving delusion that provides comfort at the expense of reality. They fail to state the obvious: We cannot continue to wallow in hedonistic consumption and industrial expansion and survive as a species.

In this brave and provocative work, former US Vice President Al Gore asserts that only a radical rethinking of our relationship with nature will save the Earth's ecology for future generations. Gore's analysis of where we've gone wrong ranges across politics, history, science, economics, psychology, and religion. He argues that only a worldwide mobilization can save us from disaster and presents a brilliant and comprehensive plan for action that encompasses not only the Earth's ecology, but also population trends, appropriate technology, and environmental education.

The emergence of genomic science in the last quarter century has revolutionized medicine, the justice system, and our understanding of who we are. We use genomics to determine guilt and exonerate the falsely convicted; devise new medicines; test embryos; and discover our ethnic and national roots. One might think that, given these advances, most would favor the availability of genomic tools. Yet as Jennifer Hochschild explains in Genomic Politics, the uses of genomic science are both politically charged and hotly contested.

When Karin enters a high-ranked university to start her PhD she is brimming with hope and positively overflowing with grit determination to prove she is worthy. After all, she knows that only the extraordinarily learned and the astonishingly intelligent ever hold chairs and professorships. She knows researchers are idealists yearning to enrich the stock of human knowledge. She knows university is the apotheosis of civilised culture... She knows very little.

The Digital Age was expected to usher in an era of clean production, an alternative to smokestack industries and their pollutants. But as environmental journalist Elizabeth Grossman reveals in this penetrating analysis of high tech manufacture and disposal, digital may be sleek, but it's anything but clean. Deep within every electronic device lie toxic materials that make up the bits and bytes, a complex thicket of lead, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and a host of other often harmful ingredients.

In the 2012 edition of its flagship report, Worldwatch celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit with a far-reaching analysis of progress toward building sustainable economies. Written and read in clear language, State of the World 2012 offers a new perspective on what changes and policies will be necessary to make sustainability a permanent feature of the world's economies.