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Biden to Elevate Science Adviser to His Cupboard

Biden to Elevate Science Adviser to His Cabinet

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced Friday that he would strengthen the role of science in his cabinet to “refresh and reinvigorate our national science and technology strategy.”

Mr. Biden will appoint Eric S. Lander, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and appoint him as scientific advisor to the president. For the first time, the position is raised at cabinet level.

The appointments signal a drastic shift from the role of science in the Trump administration. President Trump left the science advisor position blank for 18 months while his administration routinely ignored guidance from government scientists on topics such as the coronavirus pandemic, chemical pollution and climate change.

Mr Biden has made other appointments to the White House that could add science to decision-making, such as the appointment of John Kerry, former Secretary of State and Democratic Senator, a special envoy for the President on Climate Change, and the creation of a new White House Office of Climate Policy under the direction of Gina McCarthy, who served as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama.

“Eric Lander is a true Renaissance scientist with a deep understanding of the many fields of science and their interrelationships,” said Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences. “At a time when the nation and the world are facing complex challenges that require the full power of the natural, life, environmental, social, biomedical, and engineering sciences, Eric is an inspired choice of a scientist of international standing for ensuring that science guides sound policy. “

In Friday’s announcement, Mr. Biden also announced that Alondra Nelson, professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and president of the Social Science Research Council in Washington, DC, would serve as assistant director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Frances H. Arnold and Maria Zuber will serve as external co-chairs of the President’s Science and Technology Advisory Board, a council of prominent volunteer experts from outside the federal government. Dr. Arnold, a protein scientist at Caltech, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018, just the fifth woman to do so. Dr. Zuber, vice president of research at MIT, was the first woman to lead a NASA spacecraft mission.

“Science will always be at the forefront of my administration – and these world-renowned scientists will make sure that everything we do is based on science, facts and the truth,” Biden said in his announcement. “Your trusted guidance will be vital as we come together to end this pandemic, bring back our economies, and make new breakthroughs to improve the quality of life for all Americans. Your insights will help America plan a better future, and I am grateful that you answered the call for service. “

In 2018, Mr. Trump appointed Kelvin Droegemeier, then vice president of research at the University of Oklahoma, as its director of the science and technology policy bureau. Although Dr. Droegemeier is highly regarded for his weather research, many scholars felt that he failed to convince Mr. Trump to stand behind a significant improvement in American science.

“I give him an A for effort and an F for performance,” a science policy expert told Science Magazine in October about Dr. Droegemeier.

During his two years in the White House, Dr. Droegemeier back in January and made headlines. He expelled two employees after they published brochures about climate deniers with a White House logo.

Mr Trump left the President’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology inactive for 33 months. When he restored it in 2019, only one of his appointees was an academic scientist, and private industry representatives filled out the council.

Dr. Lander, the candidate for the Scientific Advisor, is best known as one of the directors of the Human Genome Project. With his PhD in mathematics, he created elegant methods for sifting through genetic data, mapping genes and discovering their functions and roles in diseases.

Dr. Lander founded the Broad Institute, which became a premier research center for genome sequencing. Broad researchers have also done some of the pioneering work on CRISPR, the technology for manipulating DNA. Dr. Lander previously served as co-chair of Mr. Obama’s Scientific Advisory Board.

“Our country represents science and technology at the most important moment since World War II,” said Dr. Lander in a press release from the Broad Institute. “How we react will shape our future for the rest of this century. President-elect Biden understands the centrality of science and technology, and it is my great honor to have the chance to serve the nation. “

In a letter to Dr. Lander, which Mr Biden released on Friday, reminded the President-elect how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had asked his science advisor Vannevar Bush a series of questions about how science could benefit the United States. Mr. Biden introduced Dr. Lander raised his own questions about improving public health, climate change, technology, and ensuring that the benefits of science are fully shared by all Americans.

“I look forward to receiving your recommendations – and to working with you, your team, and the broader scientific community to create solutions that will ease the burden on the American people, create new jobs and opportunities, and drive American leadership in the world restore stage, ”wrote Mr Biden.

Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be Dr. Lander, Dr. Nelson, Dr. Arnold and Dr. Zuber at a live event on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time in Wilmington, Del.

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Health

Health 2020: The 12 months in Train Science

Fitness 2020: The Year in Exercise Science

This year, the novel coronavirus has crept into and changed every aspect of our lives, including our fitness. In myriad ways – some surprising and some useful and potentially lasting – it changed how, why, and what we need from training.

At the beginning of the year, few of us expected a virus to change our world and our training. In January and February I wrote on topics that seemed urgent at the time, such as: B. Whether low-carb, ketogenic diets compromise athlete’s skeletal health; If fat-soled, maximalist running shoes could change our steps; and how to run a marathon – do you remember these? – Reconstruction of the arteries of first-time riders.

By the way, the answers according to the study are that avoiding carbohydrates for several weeks in endurance athletes can lead to early signs of deterioration in bone health. Runners wearing super-padded marshmallow shoes often hit the ground with greater force than when wearing thinner pairs. and a single marathon makes the arteries of new runners smoother and more biologically youthful.

However, concerns about shoe padding and racing subsided in March when the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic and we suddenly had new concerns, including social distancing, masks, aerosol spread and bans.

The effects on our exercise routines appeared to be both immediate and stuttering. At the time, neither of us knew exactly how and whether to train under these new circumstances. Should we still be running, horse riding, and walking outside if our community had put restrictions on being at home? Did we have to wear a mask while exercising – and could we do so without feeling like we were suffocating? Were Communal Drinking Fountains Safe?

My first column on these and related topics appeared on March 19th. The experts I spoke to at the time firmly believed that we should try to stay physically active during the pandemic – but avoid shared drinking fountains. However, they also indicated that many questions about the virus, including how to exercise safely, remained unresolved.

After that, our experiences with – and the research about – Covid and exercise have snowed in. For example, a much-discussed April study showed that brisk walking and running can alter and accelerate the airflow around us and send expired breath particles further than if we were staying still. As a result, the study found, runners and hikers should maintain a social distance of 15 feet or more between themselves and others, more than twice the standard recommended distance of 6 feet at the time. (Subsequent research found that outdoor activities are generally safe, although experts still recommend staying as far apart as possible and wearing a mask.)

Another cautionary study I wrote about in June tracked 112 Covid infections in South Korea in Zumba classes in the spring. Some infected instructors introduced the virus to their students in cramped classrooms. Some students carried it home and infected dozens of their family members and friends. The quickest way to recover. But the history of the study was troubling. “If you work out in a gym, you are prone to infectious diseases,” one of the disease detectives told me.

Fortunately, other science about exercising was more encouraging in the Covid era. In two recent experiments with masked exercisers, the researchers found that face coverings had little effect on heart rate, breathing, or, after initial familiarization, the subjective feeling of difficulty in exercising. The movement felt the same whether the participants wore masks or not. (I use a cloth mask or neck seal on all of my hikes and runs.)

What is more surprising is that the pandemic has caused some people to exercise more, additional research has shown. An online survey of runners and other athletes in June found that most of these already active people said they were training more often now.

However, a separate British study provided more nuanced results. Using objective data from an activity tracking phone app, the authors found that many of the older app users got up and left more regularly after the pandemic began. But the majority of younger working-age adults, even if they used to be active, now sat most of the day.

Updated

Dec. 16, 2020 at 6:27 am ET

The long-term impact of Covid on how often and how we move is, of course, unexplained, and I suspect it will be the subject of significant research in the years to come. But as someone who writes about exercise, enjoys it, and hesitates with it, the most important lesson of this year for me was that fitness in all of its practical and powerful meanings has never been more important.

For example, in a useful study I wrote about in August, young college athletes – all extremely fit – produced more antibodies to a flu vaccine than other healthy but untrained young people, a result that keeps me training in anticipation of the Covid Vaccine.

More poetically, in a mouse study I covered in September, animals that ran were much better able to deal with unfamiliar problems and stress later than animals that had sat quietly in their cages.

And in my favorite study of the year, people who took “awe-inspiring walks,” intentionally seeking out and focusing on the little beauties and unexpected wonders along the way, felt rejuvenated and happier than unrepentant hikers afterward.

In other words, we can reliably find comfort and emotional – and physical – strength as we move through a world that remains beautiful and beckons. Happy, healthy vacation everyone.

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Health

Fruit Flies Are Important to Science. So Are the Employees Who Hold Them Alive.

Fruit Flies Are Essential to Science. So Are the Workers Who Keep Them Alive.

The rooms of the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center at Indiana University are lined with identical shelves from wall to wall. Each shelf is filled with uniform frames and each frame with indistinguishable glass bottles.

However, the tens of thousands of fruit fly species in the vials are each very different. Some have eyes that fluoresce pink. Some will jump if you throw a red light on them. Some have short bodies and iridescent curly wings and look “like little ballet flats,” said Carol Sylvester, who helps with grooming. Each strain is also a unique research tool, and it has taken decades to introduce the traits that make them useful. If left unattended, the flies will die in a few weeks and destroy entire scientific disciplines.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, workers from different industries held the world together and took great personal risk to care for sick patients, maintain supply chains, and feed people. However, other important professions are less well known. Dozens of employees come to work at the Stock Center every day to serve the flies that support scientific research.

For most casual watchers, fruit flies are tiny dots with wings that hang near old bananas. Over the past century, researchers have turned the insect – known in science as Drosophila melanogaster – into something of a genetic switchboard. Biologists regularly develop new “fly strains” in which certain genes are switched on or off.

Studying these light mutants can show how these genes work – including in humans, as we share more than half of our genes with Drosophila. For example, researchers discovered what is now known as the hippopotamus gene – which helps regulate organ size in both fruit flies and vertebrates – after flies with a defect in them became unusually large and wrinkled. Further work with the gene has shown that such defects can contribute to the uncontrolled cell growth that leads to cancer in humans.

Other work with the flies has shed light on diseases from Alzheimer’s to Zika, taught scientists about decision making and circadian rhythms, and helped researchers win six Nobel Prizes. Over a century of optimizing fruit flies and cataloging the results has made Drosophila the best characterized animal model we have.

It’s a big part of a humble mistake. “When I try to tell people what I’m doing, the first thing they usually say is, ‘Why should you keep fruit flies alive? I’m trying to kill her! “Said Ms. Sylvester, who has been a Bloomington warehouse keeper since 2014.

When a couple of hitchhikers come to her house from the grocery store and their children rape her, she added, “Mom, you brought your coworkers home from work.”

The Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center is the only facility of its kind in the United States and the largest in the world. It is currently home to over 77,000 different types of fruit flies, most of which are in high demand. In 2019, the center shipped 204,672 fly vials to 49 laboratories States and 54 countries, said Annette Parks, one of the center’s five lead investigators.

It’s “one of the jewels we have in the community,” said Pamela Geyer, a University of Iowa stem cell biologist who has been ordering flies from the storage center for 30 years.

Other model organisms can be frozen for long-term storage in certain life stages. Laboratory freezers around the world hold mouse embryos and E. coli cultures. But fruit flies cannot go on ice. Taking care of the creatures means turning them over regularly: they are transferred from an old vial to a clean vial that has been supplied with plenty of food. Under quarantine with other members of their species, the flies mate and lay eggs that hatch, pupate and reproduce and continue the cycle.

“We have strains in our collection that have been continuously propagated this way since about 1909,” said Cale Whitworth, another senior investigator at the camp center, across generations and institutions. To keep the millions of Drosophila on their toes, the center employs 64 storekeepers plus a media preparer – think fly food cook – as well as a kitchen assistant and five dishwashers.

In the camp center, as everywhere, the first movements of the pandemic felt threatening. “I remember joking with people:” We are the people at the beginning of the dystopian novel, and we still don’t know what’s coming, “said Ms. Sylvester.

As the number of cases increased, Dr. Whitworth got a bag with a pillow and a toothbrush and imagined the worst. “I was in the ‘everyone is sick, last man on earth’ business,” he said. “How ‘How many flies can I fly in a period of 20 hours, sleep for four hours and keep turning the next day?'”

When Indiana University closed on March 15, the warehouse center remained open.

Kevin Gabbard, the fly food chef, made an emergency shop. Although they eat the same thing every day – a yeast puree made primarily from corn products – flies can be picky. Risking nothing, Mr Gabbard ordered two months of her favorite brands. “They think cornmeal is cornmeal,” he said. “But it’s not when it’s not right.”

The co-directors developed a more robust Hail Mary plan that would enable them, if necessary, to “keep most flies alive with just eight people,” said Dr. Whitworth. They also decided to stop all supplies and focus their energies on looking after flies.

On March 26th, the flies stopped leaving the building – and news of support came in almost immediately. “You are all amazing,” read an email. “The fly community is strong because of the phenomenal work you do.”

At around the same time, employees had a choice. They were considered essential workers and were allowed to come on campus. The university guaranteed them full pay even if they decided to stay home or an hour and a half to get in. (The center covers its costs through a combination of federal grants from the National Institutes of Health and its own income from sales of flies.)

The vast majority chose to keep working, said Dr. Whitworth – although suddenly the job was very different. The center is usually a very social place to work with birthday parties and group lunches. Working hours are usually flexible, a big selling point for employees, many of whom are parents, students, or have retired from full-time work.

Now people work in masks, often in separate rooms. Relocations in one of the buildings in the center were strictly planned to avoid overlap. “You can work alone for quite a while, maybe all day,” said Roxy Bertsch, who has been a warehouse keeper since 2018.

And for the first few weeks, the warehouse keepers – many of whom do additional duties like packing, shipping, and training – spent all of their time turning flies, which is monotonous and tough on the hands. “We just came in, fed flies and left,” said Ms. Bertsch.

But she kept going back. After her son may have been exposed to the coronavirus and she had to quarantine herself, she counted down the 14 days before she could return.

“There’s no way to keep me from work when I could be here,” she said.

Ms. Sylvester specializes in caring for flies whose mutations mean they will need additional DC. She also worked full time during the entire shutdown, borne by the care for her protégés. “Most of the time, I just love the flies and don’t want them to die,” she said. “I never thought I would love larvae so much.”

In mid-May, the center began shipping inventory again. Dr. Parks relayed another series of messages, many of which were now relieved.

“Feels like Christmas,” tweeted a laboratory at Aarhus University in Denmark with a photo of a box of vials.

A message in the spring from Tony Parkes, a biologist at Nipissing University in Ontario, had praised those “who do their job with few awards, but on which everyone counts as a basic backbone”.

When Dr. Parkes’ laboratory paused, he spent some of his unexpected downtime thinking about the storage center. It is a balance, he said, that enables even small laboratories to answer big questions “without using large resources”.

Plus, researchers can literally share their discoveries with one another. “You don’t need to have your own library to access all of this information,” he said, since the storage center is “there whenever you want.”

The people who keep the center going are also thinking about it. “It means a lot to know that you are part of it,” said Ms. Bertsch.

But it increases the pressure. “We all feel this great weight in making sure the storage center is there for everyone,” said Dr. Whitworth.

The pandemic continues, of course, and further obstacles loom. Although the fall semester has passed without incident, cases are increasing in the region, increasing the potential for another shutdown. Post delays at home and abroad have led the center to point out that their customers are turning to private freight forwarders – flies die if they’re on the road too long.

Although they are no longer paid extra, they all keep coming back to work. And even if things change, Dr. Whitworth ready. “I never unpacked my bag,” he said. “It’s still in the closet.”