February 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.

January 12 - Last week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new legislation that would impose stricter air-quality standards for ground-level ozone concentrations. If implemented, counties and states would have up to 20 years to comply with the new regulations, which would work in tandem with other regulations, such as those on vehicle fuel economy, to reduce health risks and curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming trends.

January 7 - People in the U.S. often take safe drinking water for granted until a severe weather event, like a flood or drought, endangers its availability. Water potability is not a subject that’s well-understood by the public, and few realize that the everyday activities of industry, people, and nature are constantly affecting the safety and reliability of what comes out of our water taps.

December 7 - Leaders from across the globe convened today in Copenhagen for a United Nations conference to discuss a plan to combat climate change. One of the goals of the summit, which runs through Dec. 18, is to work on a follow-up treaty to the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.

December 4 - After four years of collaboration, researchers have nearly completed sequencing the B73 corn genome, cataloging over 32,000 genes (more genes than are in human DNA) and 2.3 billion base nucleotides. Corn is one of the most widely grown grains in the world, and the B73 strain -- one of the most common -- has the largest genetic blueprint discovered for any plant species mapped to date. The completed mapping has implications for developing higher yield, disease resistant, drought resistant, and more nutritious crop strains.