Category: Science & Technology
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Learning from the “Fat Hypothesis” and the Intersection of Science and Politics
by James A. Bacon Ian Leslie has written a long piece for The Guardian, a left-wing English newspaper that to the best of my knowledge is not funded by the Koch Brothers. He chronicles how the medical hypothesis blaming fat and cholesterol for heart disease became ensconced as scientific orthodoxy in the United States and…
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Yeah, It Makes Sense for Virginia to Invest in Cybersecurity
by James A. Bacon Normally, it’s a terrible idea for government to pick economic winners and losers. Politicians latch onto fads and enthusiasms arising from the private sector but allow wishful thinking to override investment discipline when it comes to allocating government capital. Bacon’s dictum is that if “everyone” knows a sector is hot, and “everyone” is investing…
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Virginia Beach on Another Wild Goose Chase
by James A. Bacon Virginia Beach City Council voted yesterday to give 155 acres to build a biomedical park, reports the Virginian-Pilot. The Virginia Beach Development Authority will oversee the design and promotion of the property. Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms justified the initiative to lure health care and biotech companies as a way to diversify the city’s…
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SCHEV Approves First School of Neuroscience
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has approved the Virginia Tech School of Neuroscience, the first school of neuroscience in the country. The school will study disorders of the brain, such as Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury, and the mind itself, including decision-making, behavior and creativity, reports Virginia Business. The school will…
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A Partial Mea Culpa on Shukla and GMU
by James A. Bacon I fess up. I raised questions and made insinuations unwarranted by the facts in a recent post, “Did Shukla Fudge His Conflict-of-Interest Waiver Form?” When I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to admit it, so here goes…. The article addressed a conflict-of-interest waiver form submitted by George Mason University climatology professor Jagadish…
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An Economic Development Incentive for the Knowledge Economy
As a follow-up to the Inova-driven Center for Personalized Health initiative I wrote about yesterday… The final 2017-2018 budget approved by the General Assembly includes $28 million to help get Inova’s proposed biotech research initiative get off the ground. According to a Senate Finance Committee document, state goodies include $8 million in General Fund monies and $20 million in bond…
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Did Shukla Fudge His Conflict-of-Interest Waiver Form?
by James A. Bacon George Mason University climatology professor Jagadish Shukla obtained a waiver from the university’s conflict-of-interest committee for payments received from the federally funded Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES) in addition to his full-time faculty salary, according to Freedom of Information Act documents acquired by Bacon’s Rebellion. In his waiver request, Shukla revealed that…
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The Weiner-ification of America
by James A. Bacon When I was raising my oldest offspring, now about 30 years old, a public awareness campaign would ask, “It’s 11 o’clock. Do you know where your children are?” Parents don’t seem nearly as worried where their children are these days — odds are, they’re at home. A better picture is, what are…
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Speaking of Storing Electricity…
In the previous post, I quoted Dominion Resources CEO Thomas F. Farrell II as alluding to the impracticality of storing electricity on a large scale. He is indubitably right about the high cost of storage today, but scientists and entrepreneurs are looking for ways to drive the costs down. Battery storage of electricity is no…
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Mobility-As-a-Service Is Coming Soon
by James A. Bacon In the world of surface transportation, self-driving cars are generating a tremendous amount of excitement. While such vehicles undoubtedly will transform the driving experience, I question whether they will alter the underlying economics of transportation. Yes, they will be safer, and they even may allow a passenger to stream Netflix or answer emails instead of keeping his…
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$1 Billion in Bonds for R&D Initiatives
by James A. Bacon Governor Terry McAuliffe has unveiled a $2.43 billion bond package, about $1 billion of which will go to Virginia colleges and universities for technology initiatives. “The bond package represents the largest research-oriented capital investment in the Commonwealth’s history as well as the largest state investment,” states the press release issued by the…
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How the Digital Trinity is Transforming Health Insurance
by Christopher Surdak, JD In his recent post, “The Politics of Big Data,” my friend and colleague Jim Bacon asked some pertinent questions regarding how our government, and our society at-large, can put data to use for the common good. In a fairly short discourse Jim hit on a range of explosive topics, from privacy, data…
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Why Is GMU Stonewalling?
by James A. Bacon Two months ago, Jagadish Shukla, a George Mason University professor, was one of twenty climate scientists to affix their signatures to a letter calling for a federal investigation into “corporations and other organizations that have knowingly deceived the American people about the risks of climate change.” It was imperative, stated the…
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Virginia’s Commitment to Smart Cars and Smart Roads
by James A. Bacon Tom Dingus has done as much as anyone to advance vehicle automation and the advent of self-driving cars. Many of the automated features found in automobiles today — automated braking, active cruise control, rear-view cameras — were tested at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, where he serves as director. But Dingus is…
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Building an “Unmanned” Industry Cluster
by James A. Bacon Two decades ago the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) had two sponsors, fifteen employees and a dream of becoming a major player in testing new automotive technologies. Sixteen years ago, it opened a literal road to nowhere — a 2.2-mile “smart road” cutting through the hills of Montgomery County that ended in…