Foreign Policy
scientificactivist | August 23, 2006Lines were drawn in the sand, artillery stood armed and ready, and tensions ran high. Neither side was willing to budge, and despite the seemingly endless conflict having already tested the resolve of both sides, it looked like things were only just beginning to get rough. The whole scenario was regrettable--war always is--but it felt inevitable at the time.
Besides, how else was I going to get internet access in my house?
Wars are fought for a variety of reasons: for power or territory, for religions or ideologies, for oil, and so on. I had never counted the internet among those, but in…
scientificactivist | July 4, 2006This week's Ask a ScienceBlogger question is "What are some unsung successes that have occurred as a result of using science to guide policy?" I think there are several good answers to this question, including several successes in basic science (the NIH, basic science funding), health (vaccination, AIDS relief), space (NASA, the Hubble Telescope), and environmental (the formation of the EPA, the Kyoto Treaty) policy. One success that might not be so obvious, though, was the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT).
When it was signed and ratified in 1963 by 113 countries, including almost all of the…