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| The latest news from the Academies
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Oct. 7 -- All U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect or "mine" personal data -- such as phone records or Web sites visited -- should be required to evaluate the programs' effectiveness, lawfulness, and impacts on privacy, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report offers a framework agencies can use to evaluate programs, and urges Congress to consider new restrictions on how agencies can use data.
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Oct. 6 -- Representatives of the presidential campaigns of Sens. Obama and McCain, journalists, and members of the National Academy of Engineering's committee on the "Grand Challenges for Engineering" participated in a lively discussion of how to encourage action on this century's greatest engineering challenges and opportunities. The participants agreed that if met, any of the 14 challenges would improve life around the world.
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Oct. 3 -- At this year's annual meeting of the National Academy of Engineering, featured sessions include the president's address to members; the Founders Award and Bueche Award ceremonies; lectures on genomics, robots, and nanotechnology; and a symposium on the Grand Challenges for Engineering.
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| Breaking stories in science
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Oct. 7 -- National Academy of Sciences member Yoichiro Nambu has been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics for his introduction of spontaneous broken symmetry into elementary particle physics, along with Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, who will share half of the prize for their discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry. The spontaneous loss of symmetry permeates the Standard Model of physics, which unifies the smallest building blocks of all matter and three of nature's four fundamental forces into a single theory.
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Oct. 6 -- The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Harald zur Hausen for his discovery that human papilloma viruses cause cervical cancer. Over 5 percent of all cancers are caused by this virus.
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Oct. 2 -- The number of emergency room visits in the United States increased by 20 percent between 1995 and 2005, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Wait times have also been on the rise. In 2006, the average ER wait time in an emergency department was 56 minutes -- almost 10 minutes longer than it was in 2004. Meanwhile, the number of emergency departments in the nation is shrinking.
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Sep. 25 -- Committed to protecting the integrity of science, AAAS, in collaboration with the National Academies, has established a Web site on scientific misconduct and research integrity. Subjects covered include conflicts of interest, plagiarism, use of research animals, and protecting human subjects, among others.
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