New Voices News Round-Up: May Edition

Here's some of what New Voices are reading (and watching) online right now:

Political News
The$86 billion dollar America COMPETES Act succumbs to political tactics and is ridiculously derailed by an amendment about pornography. Apparently, since some federal employees view pornography at work, America should not stay competitive in science and engineering research.

Joe Sestak defeats Arlen Specter in the PA Democratic Primary. Specter has been a huge advocate for health research over his 30 year career in the Senate. Will Sestak be able to fill such experienced and big shoes?

Around the Country
BP officials and the government watch as potentially the largest oil spill in the history of the planet makes its way towards the ecologically crucial coral reefs of the Florida Keys.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood joined Oprah Winfrey in warning that the increasing popularity of high tech toys being used while driving is making U.S. roads far more dangerous. To put it in perspective, in 2008 there were an estimated 6k deaths attributed to distracted drivers , while in the same year annual drunk driving fatalities were at 11.7k.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of some great reads like Blink, Outliers and the Tipping Point, published an incredibly illuminating piece about the hidden world behind developing drugs to treat cancer.

Just for Fun

After re-reading Steve Alten's Meg on the metro last week, this article on Megalodon teeth captured Heather's eye. (They're seriously making a movie?)

In honor of all of students graduating around the country this month, here are two great commencement speeches: Steve Jobs at Stanford and J.K. Rowling at Harvard.

*Don't forget we've got our last round of quotes from the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Forum going up this afternoon starting at 1 p.m. on Twitter. Follow @NV4Research for some words of wisdom from the Honorable Vernon Ehlers' "The Silent Scientists" lecture.