President’s Budget Proposal Could Be Two Steps Forward; Will Likely Be One Step Back

image of the US Capitol building

  With the journey to progress started by the Omnibus last year, the scientific community breathed a collective – albeit small – sigh of relief. The agreement signaled that science-related agencies would be relieved from the disruption of damaging cutbacks, program delays, and costly shutdowns, allowing them to carry on with their important work. And … Read more

Sexual Harassment and Scientific Community

By Margaret Leinen, President, American Geophysical Union, Eric Davidson, President-elect, American Geophysical Union, and Carol Finn, Past President, American Geophysical Union UPDATE, 29 January 2016: On Thursday, 28 January, an opinion piece titled, “Steps to Building a Zero-Tolerance Culture for Sexual Harassment,” was published on Eos.org. The piece, authored by three AGU members, Erika Marín-Spiotta, Blair Schneider, … Read more

AGU Introduces New Organizational Support Policy

AGU’s mission and vision center on advancing Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity, and communicating its power to ensure a sustainable future for us all. Our ability to collaborate with organizations that share our values – who can also help to amplify the reach and impact of our work – is critical … Read more

The U.S. National Space Weather Strategy and You

By David Sibeck (NASA/GSFC), President, Space Physics and Aeronomy Section While the effects of most space-weather events are not as immediately recognizable as floods, hurricanes, or tsunamis, they can be just as detrimental. Extreme space-weather events could cause prolonged losses of electrical power that would be incredibly destructive to the lives and livelihoods of millions … Read more

Protecting Academic Freedom and Holding Ourselves Accountable

Update (3 March 2015): In the last few days we have received several comments regarding the situation with the Natural Resources Committee, and as such, I want to expand a bit on what I previously wrote here. AGU unwaveringly supports a scientist’s right to academic freedom, and nothing in my previous post should be interpreted … Read more

Comets, Probes, and Gender Inequality In Science

By Carol Finn, President, American Geophysical Union, Margaret Leinen, President-elect, American Geophysical Union, and Eric Davidson, Incoming President-elect, American Geophysical Union During the Rosetta probe’s successful deployment of Philae on Wednesday, a male European Space Agency scientist speaking for the project was captured by the TV cameras wearing a shirt that featured images of partially naked women. While he … Read more

The Value of Science and the Benefits of Investing

chart displaying trends in federal r&d funding

As I sat down to compose this post, the irony of the situation was striking to me. A few weeks ago, AGU and NASA released a press statement regarding new findings of serious water decline in the Colorado River Basin, potentially posing an even greater threat to water availability in the West than previously thought. … Read more