Photonics for a Better World

 Scientists, researchers, and engineers attend conferences (such as SPIE Advanced Lithography , above) to learn about the latest research and industry developments, network with others in the field, and locate high-quality, right-cost vendors. You know that scientific conferences are not junkets and that cutting national investments in technology R&D will cut national competitiveness in the global market. We hear it from every segment of photonics, and heard it particularly loud and clear at SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing in Baltimore recently. Now you have a new chance to join with others in getting the message out. A survey has been opened to gather input from the scientific community about the impacts of the sequester.   We are passing along the invitation from Benjamin Corb, Director of Public Affairs at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, for you to take part and provide the photonics perspective in this cross-discip...

Kerstin Bailey, the marketing analytics manager for SPIE, has a word of encouragement for optics and photonics professionals working in the defense sector, to counter recent nerve-wracking news about the U.S. budget sequester. "From the information I see about our community, optics and photonics defense professionals should not be overly worried about long-term employability," she said. "While these professionals work in defense, we have seen that their interests and backgrounds cover many application areas. Their activity with SPIE indicates a broad knowledge base that is very transferrable," Bailey said. Examples of technology transfer from the defense sector to commercial use are abundant. Adaptive optics for telescopes are used in opthalmology. Sensing technologies used by the military can ensure food safety and clean water for the general public. The technology that runs the Internet, GPS systems, and microwave ovens has its roots in defense resear...

Vertigo -- a dizzy, confused, disoriented state of mind -- is a nearly universal response when looking out over the edge of a cliff. But the managers and researchers at labs and universities across the United States don’t have time for vertigo as they contemplate the brink of the impending “fiscal cliff.” With 10 days (and a major holiday week) before a deadline that would among other things substantially reduce federal funding for scientific research, the House of Representatives has adjourned until after the first of the year, delaying or eliminating the opportunity for a different resolution. After the first of the year, more than $500 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts will begin to take effect, threatening to undermine the sluggish recovery and prompt a new recession, a Washington Post article noted yesterday. (The New York Times provides detailed analysis as well.) So, labs and universities are reviewing contingency plans for worst-case scenari...

In the face of recent comments by lawmakers and others in the public eye suggesting that accepting scientific evidence is akin to the decision to believe in a particular religion or political dogma, NPR commentator Adam Frank has suggested a clarifying solution. Congress, he said in a Cosmos & Culture post on 11 December , should consider making a pledge to science -- not to wholesale acceptance of all published research, but simply to “uphold the integrity of basic scientific research and take no actions to undermine the broadest public education in empirically verifiable scientific truths."  Volunteers from SPIE are among hundreds of scientists and engineers who visit Congressional offices every year to stress the contributions of STEM research to society and the economy. His underlying point that science and technology are “the engines of our economic competitiveness” echoes the words of leaders of 120 science, engineering, and STEM education organizat...