BUZZING SCIENCE Thousands of researchers received funding for projects through the Recovery Act. Here are some of the things they are working on.
Image: THE HARVARD SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES
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Can you put a price on science? The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed into law on February 17, 2009—a year ago today—sent some $31 billion to scientific pursuits.
The money has been a welcome windfall, especially for those who work in basic and social science research and have been struggling to find substantial funding from other sources. "It really is stimulating," says Ezra Zubrow, an anthropology professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, who is using an ARRA award to study the response of past human cultures to climate change. "It's not only stimulating the economy—it has stimulated the imagination and what is possible."
A long history of funding shortages had left many so-called "beaker-ready" projects shelved—or at least suspended in application limbo. So, for many funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), finding worthy projects to green-light was as simple as digging through piles of proposals.
This approach allowed many who had applied before the stimulus to finally get their proposals approved. Melinda Wilson, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky who is studying the role of estrogen receptors in the brain, says that her group had applied for NSF funding several times. And each time the proposal was given "very high reviews," Wilson says, but owing to lack of funds it was not approved. But she kept trying and "luckily it was in there when the stimulus funds came up." Good thing, because, as she notes, given the research topic and approach, "it really was only going to have been funded by the NSF."
Matthew Thomas, a professor at The Pennsylvania State University who is studying the impact of climate change on the transmission of infectious diseases, says that his group had applied for funding in late 2008. For months he heard that his application for $1,884,991 was still "under consideration." He notes that "it did seem to be rather a long time" before getting approval in June 2009. In the interim, his team was left wondering "when we could pop the champagne—not that we used NSF funds for that," he says.
View a Slide Show of 7 Stimulus-Funded Research Projects
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11 Comments
Add CommentRobotic bees? Studying the effect of stimulus spending for research on boosting research?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo offense to Joe Biden, but I believe taxpayers could have utilized the money more wisely for themselves.
Yes, they would've either spent it on useless crap they'd be throwing away in two months, or sticking into a savings account to further stimulate Wall Street. There is no such thing as useless scientific research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you think $10 million is too much on those robotic bees, clearly you've never heard how much DARPA and the Navy have invested in microrobotics.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIncidentally, you might think differently in 15 years, when microrobots are routinely scouring earthquake rubble for victims, searching buildings for hostages, scouting terrain for IEDs...
Silly, dskan, Soccerdad has never been interested in facts or practical applications.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, the argument is that taxpayers are not entitled to keep their own money because they will waste it on "useless crap" or "sticking it into a savings account". Interesting position. Also interesting is the statement that there is no such thing as useless scientific research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere's a topic for study. Why do socialists believe they are more suited to spending a taxpayer's money than the taxpayer themselves?
What a load. 1.8 mil studying the impact of global warming on the transmission of infectious diseases. No rise for the last 15 years. No proof of any unnatural warming. Now that we're gonna be tied to earth, me and Stephen Hawking are pissed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Soccerdad, one of the errors in your rant is that the money belongs to the taxpayer and therefore the government is unjustly taking it from them. It takes a great deal of ignorance and arrogance to think that the money you earn was as a result of your efforts and your efforts alone. Society has protected you with a criminal justice system and emergency services, has protected your interests outside of the country with diplomatic, intelligence and military services, has enabled you to work by providing you and your employer with infrastructure and the list goes on. The technologies industries commercialize often have their origins in publicly funded science or military research projects. Furthermore, the whole concept of money is an artificial construct that is created and supported by the state. It is the government's job to determine how the public's money is best spent. Sometimes the government will spend a buck to generate 2 bucks worth of jobs and security for you and your family. Therefore you owe your fellow Americans your share of those expenses. The fact that you do not appreciate the complexities of economics underscores why no one asked you to make those decisions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMY THEORY is the bees wing is obsorbing friction from the top of the wing then emitting the friction on bottom of the wing, causing the bee to create a anti-gravity situation or take the path of least resistance. So they are falling up. Yes I am the best at what I do.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRobert,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs your real last name Gibbs?
Nice to see all of our tax dollars are going to good use. Do they really think they'll learn how to manage emergency medical response and traffic through a hive of robotic bee's?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGranted, I find it interesting and there could be some potential scientific benefits. But can we really afford to be spending 10 million dollars on a hive of robotic bee's? These are the types of projects/decisions that lead to the problems we're trying to fix in our economy
good question. I'll put down another 10 million for the answer to that one. ;)
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