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| The latest news from the Academies
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Mar. 19 -- Countries can inventory their carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel use accurately enough to support monitoring of an international climate change treaty, but currently there is no sufficiently accurate way to verify countries' self-reported estimates using independent data, says a new report from the National Research Council. Strategic investments could, within five years, improve countries' self-reported emissions estimates and yield the capability to verify them.
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Mar. 18 -- Most of the actions proposed by two federal agencies to protect endangered and threatened fish species through water diversions in the California Bay-Delta are "scientifically justified," but less well-supported by scientific analyses is the basis for the specific environmental triggers that would indicate when to reduce the water diversions required by the actions, says a new report from the National Research Council.
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Mar. 17 -- The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History has opened a new exhibit dedicated to the discovery and understanding of human origins. The National Academy of Sciences consulted on the project and is a partner institution for the exhibit. On March 31, the Smithsonian will host a public event to discuss the findings and recommendations for the National Research Council report, Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution, with several members of the committee that wrote the report.
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Mar. 10 -- The InterAcademy Council, a multinational body of science academies including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, was asked today to conduct an independent review of the processes and procedures of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The review was requested by the United Nations secretary-general and the chair of the IPCC.
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| Breaking stories in science
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Mar. 15 -- Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson has signed a bill imposing restrictions on smoking in restaurants, offices, and other public places that will go into effect July 1. The bill makes Kansas the 25th state to impose a smoking ban in restaurants and bars in order to protect patrons and employees from secondhand-smoke exposure.
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Mar. 11 -- Last week scientists from the NOAA-funded Gulf of Maine Toxicity Project (GOMTOX) issued an outlook for a significant regional algal bloom of Alexandrium -- the toxic algae that cause red tides. Red tides are a chronic problem in the Gulf of Maine, an area with a large shellfish industry. Filter-feeders such as oysters, mussels, and clams accumulate the toxins produced by red tides, making the shellfish dangerous for human consumption. Major blooms in 2005 caused an estimated $20 million in losses to the Massachusetts shellfish industry alone, and a large bloom in 2008 caused losses on a similar scale.
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Mar. 3 -- The U.S. Commerce Department this week announced that the Census Bureau will develop a Supplemental Poverty Measure to improve understanding of the economic status of U.S. families. The measure is based on recommendations from the 1995 National Research Council report Measuring Poverty: A New Approach, along with subsequent research.
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Feb. 11 -- With the declared goal of curbing childhood obesity within a generation, First Lady Michelle Obama kicked off a major initiative on Tuesday to bring down the nation's alarming rates of obesity among children and youth.
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Feb. 4 -- The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Economic Council this week began collecting public input on science and technology challenges that could help shape our future. The initiative, designed to foster sustainable economic growth and create high-quality jobs, was partly inspired by the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineering.
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