David Applegate

Geophysical advances triggered by 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake

A little more than 50 years ago, on 27 March 1964, the Great Alaska earthquake and tsunami struck. At moment magnitude 9.2, this earthquake is notable as the largest in U.S. written history and as the second-largest ever recorded by instruments worldwide. But what resonates today are its impacts on the understanding of plate tectonics, tsunami generation, and earthquake history as well as on the development of national programs to reduce risk from earthquakes and tsunamis.

Science in times of crisis: delivering situational awareness to emergency managers and the public when disaster strikes

When the White House National Science and Technology Council laid out a series of grand challenges for disaster reduction, the first was to provide hazard and disaster information where and when it is needed. Earth observation and monitoring capabilities are only as good as their ability to reach those in harms way and inform those who must respond when disaster strikes. At the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS), our scientists work on many different natural hazards across the US and around the globe in close collaboration with federal, state and academic partners. We support monitoring networks, generate hazard assessments, and study the natural processes and societal factors that shape the risks we face from hazard events. The USGS has delegated federal responsibility to provide notifications and warnings for geologic hazards, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides. For a number of other hazards, USGS monitoring capabilities support the statutory responsibilities of our partners. Data from USGS national and global seismic networks are fed directly to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tsunami warning centers. USGS streamgages and storm-surge monitors support NOAAs flood and severe weather warnings, including those for hurricanes. The USGS maintains a network of 14 geomagnetic observatories around the US and its territories, which are used by NOAA and the U. S. Air Force to measure the intensity of geomagnetic storms caused by solar flares and other space weather. For earthquakes, the USGS Advanced National Seismic System generates situational awareness tools that include e-mail and text alerts to over 300,000 subscribers worldwide and the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) systems rapid estimates of fatalities and economic losses to help focus and prioritize response. Disaster information has increasingly become a two-way flow thanks to crowdsourcing and social media. The USGS actively engages with the public, who report on what they experienced through our Did You Feel It website. Tens of thousands of these reports come in after widely felt earthquakes, and that citizen science information is then used to augment instrumental data to refine impact estimates. For volcanoes, the USGS is modernizing and expanding its monitoring capabilities through the National Volcano Early Warning System. Common nationwide alerts and notifications characterize the threats to aviation and nearby communities due to unrest and eruptive activity at the 169 active U. S. volcanoes. For landslides, a prototype debris-flow warning system has been established in southern California in partnership with NOAA with plans to expand up the West Coast. USGS geospatial information supports response operations for wildfires and many other types of disasters. The web-based GeoMAC application provides fire managers and increasingly the public with current geospatial information on the status, location, and proximity of wildfires to natural resources, property, and infrastructure. Through its Hazard Data Distribution System, the USGS coordinates the acquisition and provision of satellite imagery and authoritative geospatial information for use in disaster preparations, rescue and relief operations, damage assessments, and reconstruction efforts. Millions of people worldwide look to USGS for rapid, reliable hazard information, either directly or through our partners. We are continually looking for ways to innovate in the face of ever-increasing expectations to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time.

SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY: Translating Between Two Worlds

Publisher Summary Science threads its way throughout the entire federal government. Similarly, the range of issues addressed by the executive branch and by government at state and local levels is also dependent on science and technology. However, very few of the policymakers or policy-level staff in any of these settings have a background in science or engineering. This communication gap, combined with the growing importance of science and technology in society as a whole, has created a need for scientists who can work at the interface between science and public policy. Like scientists who pursue careers in the media, scientists in public policy are translators between two worlds filling a critically important need. The opportunities in science policy are diverse and are not easily defined. Although understandably diverse, this group—call them science policy wonks—shares a number of qualities: they are good communicators, particularly as writers; they have an interest in issues outside their discipline; and they work well with a variety of people. Science policy is a career field consisting of many niches. Like ones education, policy experience is money in the career bank.

Chapter 21 – SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY: Translating Between Two Worlds

Publisher Summary Science threads its way throughout the entire federal government. Similarly, the range of issues addressed by the executive branch and by government at state and local levels is also dependent on science and technology. However, very few of the policymakers or policy-level staff in any of these settings have a background in science or engineering. This communication gap, combined with the growing importance of science and technology in society as a whole, has created a need for scientists who can work at the interface between science and public policy. Like scientists who pursue careers in the media, scientists in public policy are translators between two worlds filling a critically important need. The opportunities in science policy are diverse and are not easily defined. Although understandably diverse, this group—call them science policy wonks—shares a number of qualities: they are good communicators, particularly as writers; they have an interest in issues outside their discipline; and they work well with a variety of people. Science policy is a career field consisting of many niches. Like ones education, policy experience is money in the career bank.

Nuclear explosions in a geologic repository? Peer review meets politics and the press

When the popular press picks up an article from /Science or Nature, the increased exposure produces a wider understanding about what scientists do and how science is important to society. Although problems may sometimes arise in the translation, in general the results are highly beneficial to both the scients and the public. A murkier case is media coverage of an ongoing scientific debate, where a reporter may be tempted to focus on the controversy rather than educate readers on the underlying science.