BETHESDA, MD – The Biophysical Society denounces the Administration’s termination of the National Science Board (NSB) en masse on Friday, April 24. The board, deliberately designed to avoid partisan political influence, plays a pivotal role in shaping U.S. science and engineering policy, guiding investments that drive innovation and economic growth. It also provides oversight and strategic direction for the NSF, ensuring the societal benefits of fundamental research. The National Science Foundation Act created both the agency and oversight Board and intentionally established rotating six-year terms to ensure consistent support for the work being done by the $9 billion agency.

Matthew Kubic, assistant professor of accounting, and Sara Toynbee, associate professor of accounting, examined SEC reviews of corporate financial statements. They found regulators were less likely to flag errors when they were reviewing companies audited by their former accounting firms. “Oversight appears less rigorous when prior employment ties are present,” Kubic says.

Policies that have helped reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon over the past two decades have mostly failed to stop forest degradation: a slower and potentially more dangerous form of destruction. Unlike deforestation, where whole areas of forests are cleared for farming, industry or infrastructure, a degraded forest still has trees standing. However, it has been so damaged by fire, illegal logging, fragmentation, droughts and over-hunting that it has lost much of its ecological value. 

By 2050, degradation could affect the entire Brazilian Amazon, but it has barely featured in the policies meant to protect it.

A study shows that enrollees in Michigan's Medicaid expansion program had large drops in medical debt in collections and in rates of sub-prime credit scores