Articles by Bruce Alberts

Brad FitzpatrickLast month, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presided over the launch of a report by the InterAcademy Council, Inventing a Better Future: A Strategy for Building Worldwide Capacities in Science and Technology.1 The report is a call for action to strengthen national scientific capabilities throughout the world and to foster new opportunities for cooperation among the world's scientific and technological communities.This is the first report issued by the InterAcademy Council,2 an or

When the president of South Africa implied recently that AIDS may not be caused by a virus, his statement was met with shock by much of the world. After all, scientists established the link between human immunodeficiency virus and AIDS years ago. But unfortunately, ignorance about--or even blatant disregard of--the science behind many of the world's most controversial issues is becoming all too common. No part of the world is immune. Just look at the "Frankenfood" scare in Europe. Consumers the

"In science, theory does not mean guess or hunch." It's remarkable that the controversy over teaching evolution continues to be so rancorous, given that the central issues have been resolved in the courts and by much of the American public. All of the major religious denominations have concluded that the concept of evolution is not at odds with their concepts of creation and human origins. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 and a number of lower courts have ruled that creationism is religion, not

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Institute of Medicine (IOM)--along with our "operating arm," the National Research Council (NRC)--are private, independent nonprofit organizations. Most of the work that we do is funded by the federal government in our role as science advisers to the nation. This tradition of service reaches back to our 1863 charter, and providing independent advice to our government remains the central role of the NAS, NAE,