The Sounds of Science from the National Academies

As women of childbearing age have become heavier, the trade-off between maternal and child health created by variation in gestational weight gain has become more difficult to reconcile. The Weight Gain During Pregnancy podcast looks at some of the key findings and recommendations for the Institute of Medicine report.

In this podcast the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine examines the psychosocial consequences of the cancer experience, specifically on breast cancer in women because this group has the largest survivor population (over 2 million) and this disease is the most extensively studied cancer from the standpoint of psychosocial effects.  Read the report free.  Visit the IOM report page.

The ocean has absorbed a significant portion of all human-made carbon dioxide emissions. This benefits human society by moderating the rate of climate change, but also causes unprecedented changes to ocean chemistry. Carbon dioxide taken up by the ocean makes the water more acidic and leads to a suite of chemical changes collectively known as ocean acidification. The long term consequences of ocean acidification are not known, but are expected to result in changes to many ecosystems and the services they provide to society. This podcast gives an overview of the current state of knowledge, explores gaps in understanding, and identifies several key findings.  Read the Report Online

This podcast provides a historical overview of the emergence of school meal programs and provides recommendations to update the nutrition standard and the meal requirements for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The recommendations reflect new developments in nutrition science, increase the availability of key food groups in the school meal programs, and allow these programs to better meet the nutritional needs of children, foster healthy eating habits, and safeguard children's health.  Visit the IOM report page.

The ocean has greater affects on human health than the average person realizes. This report brief discusses the health and medical hazards, benefits, and potential found in the ocean's depths.  Read the report online.

Given the popularity of the World Cup, the Sounds of Science revisits a 2002 IOM workshop reports on head injury in young soccer players. This podcast addresses the biology of concussion, when to return a concussed player to the field, studies of soccer and football players, and the policy issues relevant to head injuries in youth sports.

This podcast examines the relationship between land development patterns and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the United States to assess whether petroleum use, and by extension greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, could be reduced by changes in the design of development patterns.

Reducing the intake of sodium is an important public health goal for Americans. Since the 1970s, an array of public health interventions and national dietary guidelines has sought to reduce sodium intake. However, the U.S. population still consumes more sodium than is recommended, placing individuals at risk for diseases related to elevated blood pressure.

Teachers make a difference. The success of any plan for improving educational outcomes depends on the teachers who carry it out and thus on the abilities of those attracted to the field and their preparation. Yet there are many questions about how teachers are being prepared and how they ought to be prepared. Yet, teacher preparation is often treated as an afterthought in discussions of improving the public education system. This podcast provides an overview of the teacher preparation landscape and identifies the need for a data collection model to provide valid and reliable information about teacher preparation programs.

Given current demographic trends, nearly one in five U.S. residents will be of Hispanic origin by 2025. This major demographic shift and its implications for both the United States and the growing Hispanic population make Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies a most timely podcast. This report from the National Research Council describes how Hispanics are transforming the country as they disperse geographically.  Read the report online.

Why is communicating chemistry so difficult relative to other scientific disciplines? The Chemical Sciences Roundtable will hold a workshop on May 26-27, 2010 to examine science content, especially chemistry, on television, on the internet, in museums, and in other informal educational settings. The workshop will explore how the public obtains scientific information and discuss methods chemists can use to improve and expand their efforts to reach a general, non-technical audience. This podcast introduces the issue and frames the discussion.

Burning coal in electric utility plants produces, in addition to power, residues that contain constituents which may be harmful to the environment. The management of large volumes of coal combustion residues (CCRs) is a challenge for utilities, because they must either place the CCRs in landfills, surface impoundments, or mines, or find alternative uses for the material. This study focuses on the placement of CCRs in active and abandoned coal mines.  Read the report online.

This podcast introduces the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences, which organizes events and exhibitions for the public that explore the relationships among culture and the sciences, engineering, and medicine. Learn more about one of their upcoming events, the Visual Culture and Evolution Online Symposium, which brings together scientists, artists, and a number of other experts to reflect on the ways in which the idea of evolution has impacted visual culture, and vice versa.

The United States spends approximately four million dollars each year searching for near-Earth objects (NEOs). The objective is to detect those that may collide with Earth. What is the true threat that we are facing and what can we do about it?

Regardless of how we decide to pay for health care, we now have the tools and knowledge necessary to improve the performance of the U.S. health care system and reduce costs. Kevin Finneran, Editor-in-Chief of Issues in Science and Technology, discusses some of the strategies we could take based on the article Better U.S. Health Care at Lower Cost by Arnold Milstein and Helen Darling in the Winter 2010 issue.

This podcast offers a timely look at issues that are increasingly important in an interconnected world. It discusses the importance of foreign languages and cultural knowledge on national security and global competitiveness and it describes the challenges faced by the U.S. educational system and the federal government in trying to address those needs.  Read the report online.

Description: We depend heavily on energy for a variety of modern goods and services. Yet the provision and use of that energy comes with many costs to society that are not reflected in the market price. In 2005 alone, the hidden costs of energy amounted to about $120 billion dollars in damages to human health and the environment. This podcast discusses where the key external costs that are associated with the production, distribution, and use of energy come from.

A mismatch between the federal government's revenues and spending, now and in the foreseeable future, requires heavy borrowing, leading to a large and increasing federal debt. That increasing debt raises a serious challenge to all of the goals that various people expect their government to pursue. This podcast assesses some of the options and possibilities for setting the nation back on a path to a sustainable federal budget.

What if you could clearly define in dollars saved, crashes averted, and better technology implemented the benefits of attending an conference. When it comes to the benefits of attend the Transportation Research Board's Annual Meeting, the Utah Department of Transportation can.

Early childhood mathematics is vitally important for young children's present and future educational success. Unfortunately, many children's potential in mathematics is not fully realized, especially those children who are economically disadvantaged. This is due, in part, to a lack of opportunities to learn mathematics in early childhood settings or through everyday experiences in the home and in their communities. Relying on a comprehensive review of the research, this podcast introduces the critical areas that should be the focus of young children's early mathematics education, explores how well they are currently being incorporated in early childhood settings, and identifies some of the changes needed to improve the quality of mathematics experiences for young children.

In this podcast the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine examines the psychosocial consequences of the cancer experience, specifically on breast cancer in women because this group has the largest survivor population (over 2 million) and this disease is the most extensively studied cancer from the standpoint of psychosocial effects.  Read the report free.Visit the IOM report page.

This podcast provides a historical overview of the emergence of school meal programs and provides recommendations to update the nutrition standard and the meal requirements for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The recommendations reflect new developments in nutrition science, increase the availability of key food groups in the school meal programs, and allow these programs to better meet the nutritional needs of children, foster healthy eating habits, and safeguard children's health.  Visit the IOM report page.

Informal science is a burgeoning field that operates across a broad range of venues and envisages learning outcomes for individuals, schools, families, and society. This podcast looks at what how and where informal science learning takes place and the benefits it can provide to all people.

The internet is entering a new phase that represents a fundamental shift in how computing is done. This phase, called the Cloud, is discussed by Kevin Finneran, editor-in-chief of Issues in Science and Technology and based on the article, The Cloud, the Crowd and Public Policy by Michael R. Nelson, in the Summer 2009 issue.

When policy makers and researchers consider potential solutions to the crisis of uninsurance in the United States, the question of whether health insurance matters to health is often an issue. This question is far more than an academic concern. It is crucial that U.S. health care policy be informed with current and valid evidence on the consequences of uninsurance for health care and health outcomes, especially for the 45.7 million individuals without health insurance.

As women of childbearing age have become heavier, the trade-off between maternal and child health created by variation in gestational weight gain has become more difficult to reconcile. The Weight Gain During Pregnancy podcast looks at some of the key findings and recommendations for the Institute of Medicine report.

Humans coexist with millions of harmless microorganisms, but emerging diseases, resistance to antibiotics, and the threat of bioterrorism are forcing scientists to look for new ways to confront the microbes that do pose a danger. This report identifies innovative approaches to the development of antimicrobial drugs and vaccines based on a greater understanding of how the human immune system interacts with both good and bad microbes. The report concludes that the development of a single superdrug to fight all infectious agents is unrealistic.  Read the report online.

There is currently heightened interest in optimizing health care through the generation of new knowledge on the effectiveness of health care services. This podcast looks at some of the basic findings of the IOM report.  Read the Report Online.   Visit the IOM report page.

As digital technologies are expanding the power and reach of research, they are also raising complex issues. These include complications in ensuring the validity of research data; standards that do not keep pace with the high rate of innovation; restrictions on data sharing that reduce the ability of researchers to verify results and build on previous research; and huge increases in the amount of data being generated, creating severe challenges in preserving that data for long-term use. This podcast examines the consequences of the changes affecting research data with respect to three issues - integrity, accessibility, and stewardship-and finds a need for a new approach to the design and the management of research projects

Everyone--government agencies, private organizations, and individuals--is facing a changing climate: an environment in which it is no longer prudent to follow routines based on past climatic averages. People and organizations need to consider what they will have to do differently if the 100-year flood arrives every decade or so, if the protected areas for threatened species are no longer habitable, or if a region can expect more frequent and more severe wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, water shortages, or other extreme environmental events. This podcast examines the growing need for climate-related decision support--that is, organized efforts to produce, disseminate, and facilitate the use of data and information in order to improve the quality and efficacy of climate-related decisions.

The increasing popularity of blogs, social networking sites, and twitter has created many new and interactive forums for people to communicate about science. The National Academies recently invited Phil Plait, author of the blog BAD ASTRONOMY and president of the James Randi Educational Foundation to speak to us about these technologies and how they are being used by the science community. This weeks podcast provides some highlights from his presentation.

As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs. This podcast is based on the report Retooling for an Aging America which calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. The report also recommends that Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides.  Visit the IOM report page.

The United States is increasingly dependent on information and information technology for both civilian and military purposes, as are many other nations. Although there is a substantial literature on the potential impact of a cyberattack on the societal infrastructure of the United States, little has been written about the use of cyberattack as an instrument of U.S. policy. In this podcast, cyberattacks- -actions intended to damage or adversary computer systems or networks-- are looked at from a variety of angles.

Pollinators- insects, birds, bats, and other animals that carry pollen from the male to the female parts of flowers for plant reproduction- are an essential part of natural and agricultural ecosystems throughout North America. For example, most fruit, vegetable, and seed crops and some crops that provide fiber, drugs, and fuel depend on animals for pollination. This Podcast looks at the role they play in our economy and the steps we need to take to protect them.  Read the report online.

Public health officials and organizations around the world remain on high alert because of increasing concerns about the prospect of an influenza pandemic, which many experts believe to be inevitable.  The 1918 - 1919 influenza pandemic killed more people in absolute numbers than any other disease outbreak in history. There are lessons to be learned for the 1918 outbreak in how we address the issues facing us today. Read more online

In this podcast the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine examines the psychosocial consequences of the cancer experience, specifically on breast cancer in women because this group has the largest survivor population (over 2 million) and this disease is the most extensively studied cancer from the standpoint of psychosocial effects.  Read the report free.Visit the IOM report page.

PNAS is one of the world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific serials and has been published by the National Academies since 1914. This podcast looks at the history and future of this publication

What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators, teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, school administrators need to know to create and support such experiences? This podcast takes a brief look into this increasingly important topic.  Read the report free

When it comes to motivating people to learn, disadvantaged urban adolescents are usually perceived as a hard sell. Yet, in a recent MetLife survey, 89 percent of the low-income students claimed I really want to learn applied to them. This report brief summarizes the major findings and recommendations in this National Academies report.  Read the report online.

China and India, both with populations of over 1 billion, are drawing increasing attention from the United States. Their growing populations and interaction with the world presents both opportunities and challenges. Is we are to gain a much-needed understanding

The effect the mechanical revolution has had on farming is and continues to be enormous. From tractors to irrigation, our way of life would be not be the same without them. This podcast looks at just a few of the innovations that has changed the face of agriculture in the last century.

Over the past 50 years, thousands of satellites have been sent into space on missions to collect data about the Earth. Today, the ability to forecast weather, climate, and natural hazards depends critically on these satellite-based observations. At the request of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Research Council convened a committee to examine the scientific accomplishments that have resulted from space-based observations. This podcast takes a brief look at some of those accomplishments. Read more for free.

How can we know for certain when someone is up to no good? Most people will say, give them a lie detector test. But, is it truly the best, most reliable means? This weeks podcast reviews the reality of the lie detector test based on the conclusions of the report The Polygraph and Lie Detection. Read more online free.

Since its opening in 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway has provided a route into the Great Lakes not only for trade, but also unfortunately for aquatic invasive species (AIS) that have had severe economic and environmental impacts on the region. This podcast looks at research and efforts underway to reduce their effects and further invasion. Read the report online free.

Soil has a bad reputation as just dirt, but in actuality it is a veritable wild kingdom where you can find more life concentrated in the three inches below the surface than anywhere in the world above the soil. In week's podcast, we explore the importance of soil.

Quality post-secondary education is no doubt important to the future of the United States, but can everyone benefit from the same type? This week's podcast looks at need for more studies for the less traveled paths of higher education.

Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in the United States to improve the public understanding of engineering (NAE, 2002). Despite these efforts, educational research shows that K–12 teachers and students generally have a poor understanding of what engineers do. This podcast looks at the new NAE report addressing the need for better public understanding of engineering. Read the report online free.

The federal government plays the predominant role in supporting research and development (R&D) and in establishing public policies that affect science and technology (S&T) in the United States. However, the federal government is no longer the sole focus of R&D funding and S&T policy making. State and local policy makers are unquestionably making more and more decisions that affect all of us on a daily basis. This podcast looks at the recent Convocation addressing these issues.  Read more online free.

This podcast provides an overview to the 2004 report Science, Medicine, and Animals. This report explains the role that animals play in biomedical research and the ways in which scientists, governments, and citizens have tried to balance the experimental use of animals with a concern for all living creatures.  Read this report and the accompaning Teacher's Guide online for free

This podcast is based on the third book in a series evaluating underexploited African plant resources that could help broaden and secure Africa's food supply. Read this report online free

In the popular mind, scientists and engineers have distinct job descriptions but in truth, the distinction is blurry. In the century ahead, engineers will continue to be partners with scientists in the great quest for understanding many unanswered questions of nature and the solar system. Learn more about this Grand Challenge and other online.