New at CSPO - Recent Posts

• Is there a better word for doom? In its May 21, 2009 issue, Seedmagazine.com asked a panel of experts – including CSPO’s associate director Clark Miller – about the merits of framing climate change, the language that troubles them, and the inherent bias of any chosen word. “Is the framing of climate change – rethinking the words and phrases in our environmental lexicon – a valuable and important approach, or does it amount to little more than a marketing ploy?” asked the magazine. Read Clark’s response, along with that of a geoscientist, ecologist, climate scientist, meteorologist and science writer, and social scientist. Read More
   

• Jameson Wetmore, an associate professor with CSPO, has been named the 2009 winner of the Faculty Award for Significant Contributions to Undergraduate Education in ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change. “Jamey is known for finding fresh approaches that engage students, for his interdisciplinary focus, his topical knowledge and his humor,” said the faculty selection committee. “Students note that he is adept at helping them think about technology and its social and political implications in new ways.” Congratulations, Jamey.
   

• Scientists Need to Listen: In a April 17, 2009 letter to Science, CSPO faculty Jamey Wetmore and Ira Bennett discuss why scientists need to listen to policymakers to be understood. Read More
   

• 35 Years and 160,000 Articles: In their paper �35 Years and 160,000 Articles: A Bibliometric Exploration of the Evolution of Ecology,� to be published in Scientometrics, Mark Neff and Elizabeth Corley utilize the bibliometric tool of co-word analysis to identify trends in the methods and subjects of ecology during the period 1970-2005. Read More
   

• CSPO to host public forum on climate change: Organized by The Danish Board of Technology and The Danish Cultural Institute, World Wide Views on Global Warming will hold citizen deliberations on climate change on September 26, 2009, in 45 countries. Arizona State University (ASU) will be the location for one of seven forums being conducted in the United States, and it will be organized by the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. Read More
   

• Creating Indicators of Sustainability: A Social Approach: CSPO faculty member Clark Miller's paper Creating Indicators of Sustainability: A Social Approach has been published on the International Institute for Sustainable Development�s Web site as part of their Project on Internet Governance and Sustainable Development, and it has been added to CSPO�s Library. Read More
   

• The Challenge for the Obama Administration Science Team: In a new Issues in Science and Technology Perspective, CSPO Co-Founder and ASU President Michael Crow states that the most important challenge facing the Obama Administration Science Team is to ensure that our scientific enterprise improves our environment, enhances our energy security, prepares us for global health risks, and brings new insights to the complex challenges associated with maintaining and improving the quality of life across this crowded planet. Read More
   

• Thinking longer term about technology: is there value in science fiction-inspired approaches to constructing futures? CSPO researchers Clark Miller and Ira Bennett explore the role of science fiction in thinking about the future of technology in this article in Science and Public Policy. Read More
   

• Three Rules for Technological Fixes. Not all problems will yield to technology. Deciding which will and which won�t should be central to setting innovation policy, say CSPO Co-Director Daniel Sarewitz and Richard Nelson in this Nature Commentary. For a copy, contact: cspo@asu.edu Read More
   

• Overcoming Stone Age Logic. In this Issues in Science and Technology Perspectives, CSPO Co-Founder and ASU President Michael Crow discusses the need for society to move out of our stone age logic to find solutions to challenges facing us. Read More
   

• The Sociology of the Future: Tracing Stories of Technology and Time. CSPO Assistant Research Professor Cynthia Selin introduces the sociology of the future and suggests some ways the field is taking definition in an article in Sociology Compass. Read More
   

• Innovation policy: not just a jumbo shrimp: Policies that predict and direct innovative research might seem to be a practical impossibility, says CSPO Co-Director David H. Guston in this Nature Commentary, but social sciences point to a solution.

   

• Can Technology Make you Better: As the future unfolds, the idea of mankind designed its own evolution through a mix of evolutionized technology is becoming a reality. In this exciting speech, CSPO's Daniel Sarewitz discusses the implications and the future of what is known as transhumanism.

   

• ASU Asks for Science Funds: ASU representatives went to Washington, D.C., last week to urge congressional leaders to boost what they say is insufficient federal science funding. The supplemental package is necessary now because of weaker grants in coming years for ASU and other universities. Daniel Sarewitz, director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at ASU, disuccsses how progressive ASU projects are attracting more funding than ever before.

   

• Is a Gene Test Right for You? The eternal search to live longer, healthier lives is driving technology faster every day, with advances in diagnosing and treating many diseases. One of the newest technologies in this growing field is personal genome testing. In this interesting article, Jason Roberts, CSPO faculty member, discusses the potential risk associated with the emergence of these tests.
   

• Elizabeth Corley, Research Team Leader at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at ASU, comments in an article regarding nanotechnology. The unknown human health and environmental impacts of nanotechnology are a bigger worry for scientists than for the public, according to a new report in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
   

• STS Graduate Student Summer Opportunity: In summer 2008, the Social Science Research Council will sponsor 12 Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowships in the field of Critical Studies of Science and Technology Policy. Deadline 2/9/08 apply at:
  http://programs.ssrc.org/dpdf/scitechpolicy/
   

• ASU’s new Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology Interdisciplinary Graduate Degree Program is now accepting applications. For more information, visit http://hsd.asu.edu/.
   

• ASU Faculty Share in Nobel Honors: ASU Researchers have long been working with IPCC, and the IPCC is now sharing the Nobel Prize with Al Gore. ASU’s connection to IPCC includes Netra Chhetri, an assistant professor in ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes.
   

• Fall 2007 Courses: CSPO faculty and affiliates are offering courses in medicine and the media; science and governance; science, technology and inequality; technology and society; global change; and more�
   

• Democratization, International Knowledge Institutions and Global Knowledge: Clark Miller examines the rapid rise in the creation of international knowledge institutions, arguing that these institutions reflect a growing effort by nations and publics to assert democratic constraints on the on the global exercise of power.
   

• Science, Policy and Social Equity: This special issue of Science and Public Policy explores the opportunities for, and difficulties with, addressing inequities through science policy.
   

• CSPO in the news:

  • CSPO's own Lori Hidinger experiences philanthropy first hand.

  • U.S. Science Advisor Tells Researchers to Look Elsewhere: Read what Dan Sarewitz had to say about Marburger's advice in the latest edition of Science

   

• The May 2007 Newsletter: The Monthly newsletter is now online for your viewing pleasure.
   

• Future of Earth's Climate Tough for Science to Predict: CSPO Post Doc and Professor of Geography, Netra Chhetri discusses climate change and its potential implications for water in the U.S. Southwest in The Arizona Republic...
   

• The Enlightening Lunches are back: Come join us on Tuesday, May 1st, for a talk with Claire Gordon.
   

• The Dreams of a Dissenting Science: Energy and Democracy in India: Come join us on April 26th as CSPO's Shiv Visvanathan gives a talk on this topic. 
   

• Five Questions on the Philosophy of Technology: �If technological innovation is understood as a core activity of the human species, as organic as composing music or falling in love�which it is�rather than an elective hobby that can either be pursued or not, then the core question about technology becomes one of governing, of modulating, the innovation activity itself.� From an essay by Dan Sarewitz in the Philosophy of Technology.

   

• The January 2007 Newsletter is now online.
   

• Jamey Wetmore's letter to the editor.
   

• Workshop Report: Policy Implications of Technologies for Cognitive Enhancement: This is a report on the workshop held at Arizona State University, May 3-5, 2006, sponsored by the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University and the Advanced Concepts Group at Sandia National Laboratories.
   

• Decision Making Under Uncertainty: Ranking of Multiple Stressors on Central Arizona Water Resources: This draft sensitivity analysis of multiple stressors on Phoenix water resources is developed as part of the SPARC project.
   

• "Surveillance and Security: Technological Politics and Power in Everyday Life" written by Torin Monahan, a CSPO affiliated faculty member.
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