Keeping on tops of the news

I know I haven't kept on top of my posts. Its because I recently started the Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellowship in Washington DC and I have been incredibly busy learning how the National Academies work. For those of you that aren't familiar... well... its complicated.

Maybe that's not a fair statement. I don't actually feel that the National Academies is very complicated in the big picture, but climbing into the beast and working with the nuts and bolts was a bit daunting the first couple weeks. The big picture (in my own words) is that the National Academies is a for-hire organization of truth-seekers. You call the National Academies when you want a non-partisan, scientifically-based study and you want recommendations for solutions to a question or a problem.

Here's an example - 

Let us say the US Dept of Energy wants to start using more Nuclear Power. Great. More people, more power, no problem. Let's start building... WRONG!