Science marches onward

Or maybe not, depending on where you stand. In the first case, the government is now proposing to cut spending (!) by cutting the U.S. manned space program.

"Other recommendations contained in the bill include a $77million reduction in NASA's proposed space operations budget, which includes the space shuttle and international space station; a $6 million reduction in science; and a $332 million shift in funds from the Cross Agency Support account to a new budget line-item included in the subcommittee's mark. Dubbed Construction and Environmental Compliance, the new account would be funded at $441 million. Congressional aides said the new line item and accompanying funds are aimed at consolidating NASA's various construction efforts into a single pot of money."

When budget items are shifted into a "single pot of money" the usual term for this is "slush fund". It's a pretty good bet that little or no science will be performed here.

On the other hand, here's an article suggesting that the introduction of a couple of enzymes into your cellular structure can cause you to quickly metabolize fat into carbon dioxide, essentially allowing you to mimic the operation of a biodiesel engine.

The researchers then introduced the genes into the livers of mice. While normal mice gain weight when put on a high-fat diet, Liao says that the engineered mice "remained skinny despite the fact that they ate about the same and produced the same waste" and were as active as their normal counterparts. They also had lower fat levels in the liver and lower cholesterol levels. As in the cultured cells, the engineered mice did not convert the fat into sugar, which could have the dangerous side effect of promoting high blood sugar and diabetes. Instead, the scientists found a measured increase in their carbon dioxide output; the excess fat was literally released into thin air. The mice exhibited no visible side effects, although more detailed studies are necessary to verify that.

Of course, since your CO2 emissions go up, your taxes will also, or you can buy an emissions credit from a fat person, allowing him to super-size his lunch at Burger King.

Cancer research tends to be underfunded, likely because the payoff from extending the lives of elderly cancer patients isn't very high. The dead, after all, reliably vote democratic already.

Being the person to defeat cancer would, no doubt, gain accolades, awards, things named after you, and all that. The person who conquers obesity will have enough money to finance a karate castle full of PhD hotties in lab coats beyond the wildest dreams of a James Bond villain, and allow that person to research cancer (or un-natural life extension) for the rest of their natural (or un-natural) lives.