Thursday, September 18, 2008

WMIC 2008’s 3 key themes (bench to bedside is one!)

The title of the opening keynote address at the 2008 World Molecular Imaging Congress (the Society for Molecular Imaging’s annual meeting), “Advances in Molecular Imaging from bench to bedside,” articulated one of three key themes of the meeting: Translation of preclinical work to clinical.


The title of the opening keynote address at the 2008 World Molecular Imaging Congress (the Society for Molecular Imaging’s annual meeting), “Advances in Molecular Imaging from bench to bedside,” articulated one of three key themes of the meeting: Translation of preclinical work to clinical.

“The promise of molecular imaging is to provide an uninterrupted flow of technologies from in-vitro microscopy, in-vivo animal imaging to clinical phenotyping of disease and image guided therapeutic interventions,” said keynote speaker Dr. Markus Schwaiger, Nuklearmedizinische Klinik und Poliklinik (Munich, Germany). Dr. Schwaiger discussed the advancement of molecular imaging, including probe development, which he said has become quite sophisticated as both a diagnostic tool and a method of therapy selection, “especially in the area of optical imaging,” he said. And indeed, probe development was another key theme of the conference.

Then Dr. Schwaiger went on to discuss the third major topics of the conference: multimodal imaging. “Optical imaging is now limited,” he said, but said that situation is changing. He pointed to multispectral optoacoustic tomography as an example, and encouraged the audience to remember a time when PET was the only game in town. “Today you cannot even buy a PET-only system,” he said, noting that PET/CT is now standard.

McCain, too, addresses "the quiet crisis"

Thank you Senator McCain for joining Senator Obama in answering ScienceDebate.com’s "14 top science questions facing America." (See my earlier post on the organization’s efforts and BioOptics World’s own reporting on the candidates’ science and technology positions.)

Thank you Senator McCain for joining Senator Obama in answering ScienceDebate.com’s "14 top science questions facing America." (See my earlier post on the organization’s efforts and BioOptics World’s own reporting on the candidates’ science and technology positions.)

Thanks too to Senator Obama, who earlier heeded the request—but thanks mostly to ScienceDebate.com for encouraging this important discussion among the presidential contenders. The group has done a nice job of setting up the answers of the two presidential hopefuls side by side so that you can easily compare. Further, ScienceDebate.com has invited both nominees to participate in a televised forum to cover vital issues in front of a broader audience.

With all the urgencies currently facing America, it may be easy to lose sight of the issue that Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, so aptly called “the quiet crisis” in her 2005 speech, The Quiet Crisis and the Future of American Competitiveness. We do so at our peril, though, and ScienceDebate.com is working to spread that message beyond the scientific community already well aware.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Obama answers “top 14 science questions”

"For the last 60 years, science and engineering have been responsible for half the growth in the U.S. economy,” says Shawn Lawrence Otto, CEO of Science Debate 2008. “But some reports suggest that by 2010, 90% of all scientists and engineers will live in Asia.” That fact inspired formation of the nonpartisan citizens’ initiative, which hopes to make key science issues a larger part of America’s political dialogue. To this end, ScienceDebate2008.com developed its “top 14 science questions facing America” and invited presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. Senator Obama has answered the call.

"For the last 60 years, science and engineering have been responsible for half the growth in the U.S. economy,” says Shawn Lawrence Otto, CEO of Science Debate 2008. “But some reports suggest that by 2010, 90% of all scientists and engineers will live in Asia. Asian countries are now graduating 10 times the number of scientists and engineers the U.S. is.”

That fact inspired formation of the nonpartisan citizens’ initiative, which hopes to make key science issues a larger part of America’s political dialogue -- including the current presidential election. To this end, ScienceDebate2008.com developed its “top 14 science questions facing America” and invited presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.

Senator Obama has answered the call.

“Most of America’s major unsolved challenges revolve around these 14 questions. To move America forward, the next president needs a substantive plan for tackling them going in, and voters deserve to know what that plan is,” says Otto.

“We’re pleased that Senator Obama has provided voters with that substantive plan, and we’re hoping for similarly thoughtful responses from Senator McCain.”

I, too, hope for a response from McCain -- and according to a recent poll by the group, so do most voters. The results indicate that 85% of Americans want the candidates to debate science issues -- and a vast majority “strongly agree” with the necessity of such discussion.

It’s unfortunate that the McCain camp hasn’t answered yet. And I’m not encouraged by the fact that McCain’s campaign was similarly unresponsive to BioOptics World’s “In The Loop” columnist Susan M. Reiss when she called seeking information. (Susan’s article will appear in the Sept/Oct issue, but we’ve posted a preview here.) In fact, while Reiss was able to uncover more details regarding Obama’s views and plans than McCain’s, neither campaign agreed to be interviewed.

C'mon, Senator McCain. Follow Mr. Obama's lead and answer ScienceDebate2008.com. And let this be a start -- not an end -- to the discussion of these important issues.

More information:
Senator Obama’s answers.


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