| Science spending cuts: how should we judge Vince Cable? | Dr Evan Harris Reductions in science spending may be inevitable, but business secretary Vince Cable must protect research spending from the severest cuts to his department's budgetOn the Today programme at 0750 this morning the business secretary Vince Cable was asked about suggested spending cuts of 35% to science spending. In a rare – and perhaps unplanned – exception to the rule of ministers not commenting on specific quanta of cuts ahead of October's spending review announcement, Cable rejected that figure explicitly saying "No, that's not right, that is way in excess of what we are talking about."It is not clear where that 35% figure came from. William Cullerne Bown of the science periodical Research Fortnight mentioned it in his Guardian comment piece yesterday, but the only reference he gives is to an earlier personal blog of his which does not mention any figure let alone 35%. Such an approach to figures would be condemned by Research Fortnight, so it may be that Mr Bown is being used by the Government to lower expectations so that the final figures are not seen as too bad. The figures that we do know (subject to assumptions such as an announced cut in welfare spending of £11bn) are that to tackle the structural deficit in this parliament, there would need to be average cuts of 14% in government departments over five years. The protection of the NHS against any cuts means other departments like the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) need to make savings of 25%. This in itself will rile LibDems in government like Cable and Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander, who were opposed to ring-fencing the NHS in this way because of the gearing effect on other government programmes. Any relative protection given to defence and education (say, restricting cuts to 10%) would require cuts in departments such as BIS of 33%. The coalition government is not responsible for the need to make cuts, and a Labour government – whatever the leadership candidates now say – would have had to deal with the deficit on a broadly similar scale, perhaps with a 70/30% split between spending cuts and tax rises compared with the 77/23% split of the coalition (itself different from the 80/20 pure Tory position). The cuts may also have been dragged out over a longer period. Lord Drayson, Labour's former science minister, broke a long Twitter silence on science matters this morning to say that he was shocked by Vince Cable announcing major cuts to science budget on Radio Four. This is curious because the one thing that Cable did not do this morning on the radio or in his speech was announce major cuts. The mere acknowledgement that science spending will be hit in some way by the fiscal crisis should not shock anyone. Disappoint? Yes. Depress? Yes. Surprise? No. The government is however responsible for deciding where those cuts fall the hardest and the success of the efforts of Cable and his deputy David Willetts should be judged on whether he is seen to seek to present the best arguments to the Treasury for maintaining science investment, and – given the scale of BIS cuts that follow – whether there is a relative protection for science within his department. The next question is exactly how spending cuts will be implemented and what the government should, can and will do to influence that, which Cable dealt with in his speech today and which will benefit from close reading.Vince CableScience policyEvan Harrisguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Cutting Schools' Energy Waste and Bills An environmental educator and an energy entrepreneur team up to help cut schools' energy bills. feeds.nytimes.com |
Today's Mystery Bird for you to identify | GrrlScientist At first glance, this elegant species might appear to be impossible to ID from this photograph, but the pose is part of the typical behaviours shown by one of the several closely related species found in this location. What is that behaviour and what species is this?Mystery Bird photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, close to the towns of Freeport and Lake Jackson on the upper Texas coast, USA. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]Image: Joseph Kennedy, 29 September 2010 (would you like to see this bird using a 'scope?).Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/400s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400At first glance, this elegant species might appear to be impossible to ID from this photograph, but this pose is part of the typical behaviours shown by just one of the several closely related species found in this location. What is that behaviour and what species is this?Daily Mystery Bird Rules: 1. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification, keeping in mind that more than one field mark is often necessary to distinguish between species. IDs without any supporting information are not valid and may be deleted by the moderators. 2. Expert and intermediate level birders: do NOT try to be the first to blurt out the mystery bird's ID. Instead, please provide helpful hints, such as descriptions, literary references, puns, personal anecdotes, and other forms of discussion and assistance for beginning birders and for those following on their iPhones without naming the species. Expert and intermediate birders are free to name the bird species 24 or more hours after it was first published.3. Each mystery bird is usually accompanied by a question or two. These questions can be useful for identifying the pictured species, but may instead be used to illustrate an interesting aspect of avian biology, behaviour or evolution, or may be intended to generate conversation on other topics, such as conservation. 4. Each bird species will be demystified 48 hours after publication. If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and appreciate audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Wordplay: Numberplay: The Puzzle Gourmet A gourmet pizza puzzle by puzzle gourmet Dr. Peter Winkler. feeds.nytimes.com |
Boffins focus on first invisibility cloak US-based scientists claim to have reached a significant milestone in their efforts to create the world's first invisibility cloak. news.com.au |