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Defense and homeland security received most of the federal R&D dollars in the past three US budgets. However, a 1.9% drop was observed in the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget, down to $5.5 billion that is $272 million less than what the administration requested.

This article examines the year 2003 budget allocations by the Bush administration and notes that nation's defence and health sectors have taken priority over others. The physical sciences budget comprising of the funds from Department of Energy, NASA, and National Science Foundation together form only 20% of the total budget.

Issues are presented concerning the weighting which has been given to defense and medical research and development projects in the 2002 fiscal budget of President George W. Bush. The Department of Defense receives 48% of budget monies.

Plasma behavior study is facilitated by computer models. Particle computer models are possible with current supercomputers. Gyrokinetic fluid models have been run successfully. However, the more promising numerical tokamak method remains beyond the reach of current technology.

Jay Cohen, undersecretary of the science and technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is open to all ideas from scientists and researchers, but has insisted on only those mechanisms that work.

The Scientists and Engineers for America is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to encouraging and supporting scientists and engineers who are interested in running for political office.

A group of prominent scientists have formed a national political advocacy organization with the intent of influencing elections and government policy, at the wake of the ongoing frustration with the trivial role science play in the congressional election, combined with a deeper sense that the president of the United States, George Bush administration is ignoring and misusing science. The group's 19-member board of advisers includes eight Nobel laureates, physicists Johan Gibbons and Neal Lane.

Scientists working in the US State and Defense departments are championing a program intented to reconnect the once-vibrant Iraqi science community with researchers around the globe. The immediate goal stated by the US state officials is to get the IVSL online for Iraqi scientist and eventually establish wireless network at Iraqi universities so the library will be in use.

This article discusses the role science and technology in the newly created Homeland Security Department. About $2.3 billion of the department's $37.5 billion budget for 2003 is allocated to Research and development activities, which include chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear countermeasures to bioterrorism.

Issues concerning the provision of scientific advice to Congress are discussed. In particular attempts to reestablish the Office of Technology Assessment are examined.

Issues concerning science funding and the record federal R&D budget of more than US$ 90bn are discussed.

President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative will signify boost in funding for research at NSF, Department of Energy as compared to the other agencies.

The federal funding for science research projects is not affected due to the confusing confluence of three budgets.

Nuclear scientists and arms control experts are skeptical about the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Council's decision on building the new Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), as it might threaten the existing nuclear weapons. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is trying to assess the risks of the RRW program and the prospects for the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA's) 2030 vision.

NASA officials have tried to address its future workforce problem in April 2006 by submitting to Congress a workforce strategy document showing that the agency has a plan to ensure it has the right people in the right position to return to the moon, prepare to go Mars and conduct myriad other scientific projects over the next 15 to 20 years. But an interim National Research Council report on NASA's workforce issues states that the agency has not translated the workforce analysis in action plan.

The four recommendations made by the National Science Board (NSB) in 2006 that the administration of the US should carry out to ensure that there is no loss of confidence by the American public and broader research community regarding the quality and credibility of the government sponsored scientific research results are discussed. John Marburger, a spokesman for presidential science adviser stated that the situation requires the development of a mandatory one-size-fits-all government-wide policy after issue of a government wide directive to encourage the open exchange of data and results of research conducted by scientists.

The officials from scientific societies, academic organizations and industrial groups have protested against the Department of Commerce's (DOC's) 'deemed policy' as the changes might limit the ability of foreign researchers and students in the US to use equipment and software that are on federal controlled technology lists. The DOC has established an independent advisory committee made up from the academic and industrial communities to review the policy, so that they can come up with significant recommendations.

Steven Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory tries to convince committee members to support the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) as an innovative way to help solve the growing US energy crisis. Although most of the committee members are strong advocates of using science and technology to move beyond the current energy infrastructure, the ARPA-E proposal remains in limbo.

The National Science Board's 2006 Science and Education Indicators, a biannual report that assesses the state of science worldwide, warns about the global science and technology (S&T) competition as the US K-12 education is lagging behind. This study has offered a few general recommendations to improve K-12 education, such as ensuring that school administrator value skills and knowledge in mathematics, S&T and paying math and science teachers higher salaries.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel Bodman has sent a legislative proposal regarding the controversial Yucca Mountain program to Congress. The proposal is facing a difficult time on the Capitol Hill as many of them are convinced that the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste dump will never be built as the project is mired in scientific, safety and technical problems.

The US President George W. Bush announced increased funding for physical science research in his fiscal year 2007 science budget. This budget will give a major boost to agencies like Department of Energy's Office of Science, National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and also federal spending on basic research would be doubled over 10 years.

US Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced a road map intended to guide research and manufacture hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2020. The road map is aimed at research into hydrogen production, delivery and storage and its goal is to develop advanced hydrogen technologies to the point that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can be manufactured in a commercially viable way by 2020.

Jim Simons, a PhD mathematician and a billionaire, has helped in raising money for saving Brookhaven National Laboratory's (BNL's) billion-dollar machine, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Simon's investment company, Renaissance Technologies Corp., would give the operating money to the Stony Brook Foundation, which in turn would give it to the Brookhaven Science Associates and this has highlighted the ongoing problem with the shortfall in operating funds for federal science facilities.

The US President George W. Bush's administration's science and technology budget proposal for the fiscal year 2007 has called for doubling innovation-enabling research at NSF, NIST and the Department of Energy's Office of Science over a 10-year period. The science budget proposal includes a proposed$910 million boost in FY 2007 and $50 billion more over the next decade.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is funding two new centers and related projects to create a four-university network that would study the societal implications of the rapidly expanding field of science. The five-year year grants, totaling $14.3 million, would fund the sixth major NSF nanotechnology research network and add yet another piece to the $1 billion-per-year US National Nanotechnology Initiative.

The Department of Defense saw a modest increase on overall spending for R&D by 2.1% from fiscal year 2005, to $73 billion, as the US government's fiscal year 2006 budget was finalized. Of the 2.1% of increase, according to the analysts with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 82% goes to development programs, the largest of which is the joint strike fighter, which receives $4.6 billion.

Norman Augustine, the former chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp. who oversaw the 10-week effort to put together the US National Academy of Sciences' (NAS'), 'Gathering Storm' report, found that the broad scope of report's four recommendations and a high cost of implementing them is likely to doom the study to gather dust like others reports. However, NAS staff members claim that the Bush administration has been receptive to the report's recommendations.

Democrats in the US House of representatives offered an innovation agenda intended to maintain US leadership in science and technology by giving scholarships, doubling of federal research funding, universal broadband internet access. The democrats innovation agenda faced some criticism from republicans but on the whole received bipartisan praise.

A slate of real-world candidates swept the intelligent design majority off the Dover, Pennsylvania, school board, while in Kansas antievolutionists not only weakened science standards, but redefined science itself. Dover Area School Board enacted a requirement that biology teachers in the school district read a statement to students stating evolution is not a fact and that students can learn about other theories.

The Financial Year 2006 federal budget numbers shows that there is a flat funding for basic science due to war, deficit and hurricane recovery costs. Figures of Federal R and D programs containing national Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, NASA and Department of commerce are included.

Homestake is the underground site selected by the NSF for the proposed federal underground science center, which is expected to play a major role in the improvement of the education and economy system of South Dakota by attracting a huge sum of money for new researches. The project is still under study and core drilling is being done to make certain that the rock is suitable for laboratory development, in spite of the fact that rejuvenating the site can be difficult as well as expensive.

Several reports like the 'Gathering Storm' ask the US government to improve the federal support for science and technology, as the prevailing conditions might lead to a low standard of living in the country. Providing incentives and awards for new researches and developments in addition to the process of raising funds for education and research are two main steps recommended to overcome the predicted crisis.

A report by the US Department of Commerce office of the inspector general in March 2004 recommended changes to the department's 'deemed exports' policy, rules that are intended to keep researchers from restricted countries from taking knowledge about controlled technology from the US back to those countries. One recommendation was to change an 'and' to an 'or' in a regulation governing the use of research equipment by foreign nationals.

The US representative Vernon Ehlers, a physicist looked at the proposed funding of NSF's share of the fledging Math and Science Partnership Program and saw an unexpected shift in administration policy. Congressional supporters are fighting to maintain funding for NSF's share of the program while the administration pushes to shift the money to the Department of Education.

Scientific speculation that life on earth could have begun at deep vents such as 3.5 km deep in the Atlantic Ocean offend creationists of the 2003 IMAX movie 'Volcanoes of the Deep Sea'. Some museums are yielding to antievolution sentiment and not showing controversial films as the science museums find an interestingly important source of revenue in their IMAX theaters.

A US Department of Energy task force has recommended that the federal government should help revitalize the US nuclear power industry by sharing the up-front costs of the first of a new generation of nuclear power plants. The members of nuclear energy task force of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board stated that there should be government supported demonstration programs and financial incentives to overcome the uncertainties and economic hurdles that would prevent the building of first few new plants.

Bush administration officials have started discussions about the federal government's proposed science and research budget considering the need to support the ongoing war on terror and the mounting pressure caused by the growing deficit. The administration's budget maintains a strong focus on winning the war against terrorism while moderating the growth in overall spending, reflected in the proposed R&D budget.

The 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) rankings indicated that eight graders in the US improved in both mathematics and science but the US fourth graders scored virtually the same as they did in 1995, thus retaining their earlier status. The scores show that US students are only in the middle of the rankings among nations that are most advanced or that have taken part in TIMSS consistently since the first assessment in 1995.

A coalition of industry, academic, and science groups has developed a broad set of benchmarks to persuade policymakers that US leadership in technological innovation is slipping. Steps are initialized to update the benchmarks annually and to keep the connection between basic research and economic growth in front of policy-makers.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has specified that the president and the government agencies will get an unbiased, total and proper advice on science and technology. The academy report indicates that the president's science advisor needs higher status, and candidates for science advisory boards should not be asked their political party or whom they voted for.

James Van Allen as physicist who was honored by the University of Iowa on October 2004, on the occasion of his 90th birthday discusses about his research and the changes he has seen in physics. He shares his experience of teaching and reveals that he loves to teach and to explain things.

Rubin, vice president of biomedical research for the nonprofit Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), tried to create a biology-focused version of Bell Laboratories. The new HHMI facility, called the Janelia Farm Research Campus would include the lab, a hotel and a housing complex for visiting researchers.

The candidates like U.S. President George W. Bush and democratic candidate John Kerry address a host of issues ranging from space exploration to energy policy. Kerry talks of both near- and long-term programs to deal with the problem. Bush promotes his views on comprehensive climate change strategy.

Working with a four-year, US$50,000 grant, a group of physics teachers from Virginia, United States of America, is working in a remote area of Zambia, Africa, to prevent physics education from becoming a victim of the AIDS pandemic that is ravaging the countryEs teaching corps. In August 2004 the teachers held several workshops to begin implementing a four-year physics curriculum that, by 2007, would cover various topics such as measurements, classical mechanics and modern physics.

On July 9, 2004 the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had ignored a report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on the future radiation levels at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility. The court concluded that the EPA must either issue a revised standard that is 'consistent with' the NAS peak-dose standard or 'seek legislative authority from Congress to deviate from the NAS report'.

A growing number of politically active scientists, dismayed with the poor development of science under the Bush administration, are urging their colleagues to work for John Kerry. The Nobel Laureates endorsement of Kerry is one part of the movement against the U.S. administration and the other is the Union of Concerned Scientists report attacking the administration for systematic abuse of the scientific process.

The Interagency working group (IWG) on the physics of the Universe recommended three highest priority investigations of dark energy research. The recommendations are important because they define the priorities placed by federal research agencies on National Research Council's (NRC) recommendations.

Norman Neureiter will be the first director of the new center for science, technology and security policy. The center will facilitate movement of some of the work and will act as a two way portal between research institutions and federal policy makers.

The report given by the National Science Board's (NSBs) science and engineering indicators, point to a decrease in the number of US citizens entering science and engineering. The NSB further stated the need to take action to attract more US students into the sciences to maintain its dominant position in R and D leadership.