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A new NIH commissioned study to investigate anecdotal evidence that black biomedical researchers face a a negative bias in grant funding success rates found that is true. The NIH is taking the insights provided by this report seriously and efforts are underway to improve training, mentoring and grant application assistance to minorities.
The ability to create, exchange, store and use information ubiquitously is dynamically changing business, social, healthcare and political landscapes worldwide, concurrently creating opportunities for economic and health benefit, as well as threats to individual privacy, national security and intellectual property rights. The challenge is how to address data protection needs without stifling innovation. A high level meeting was held by the Council of Europe and the European Commission on January 28, 2011, the 30th anniversary of the Council of Europe Convention 108, addressing the challenges of globalization and technology in the context of data protection. This post points to resources for further study of this topic.
A June 2, 2009 article, Online, A Reason To Keep On Going, in the New York Times reported that among older people who went online last year, the number visiting social networks like Facebook and MySpace grew almost twice as fast as the overall rate of Internet use among that group, according to the media measurement company comScore.Researchers who focus on aging are now studying whether the networks can provide some of the benefits of a group of friends, while being much easier to assemble and maintain. About one-third of people 75 and older live alone. Per the article, in response to the growing number of older Americans, the National Institute on Aging is awarding at least $10 million in grants for researchers who examine social neuroscience and its effect on aging.