Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Advisor Is In

The US Senate confirmed Kelvin Droegemeier this week as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Stat News reports.

President Donald Trump nominated Droegemeier, a meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, to the post this summer. The science advisor spot, Stat News notes, had been empty since the start of the Trump administration. This had raised concerns about whether the president and the White House were receiving needed science advice, especially as the size of the OSTP office has reportedly shrunk.

The Associated Press adds that Droegemeier also was Oklahoma's vice president for research and served on the federal National Science Board under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. When Droegemeier was nominated, he garnered support from much of the scientific community, with John Holdren, who led OSTP during the Obama Administration, telling Nature at the time that Droegemeier was a "very solid choice" with "experience in speaking science to power."

Stat News notes, though, that it is unclear how much of an influence Droegemeier may have on the Trump Administration, which it says can be "skeptical of mainstream science."

The Scan

Foxtail Millet Pangenome, Graph-Based Reference Genome

Researchers in Nature Genetics described their generation of a foxtail millet pangenome, which they say can help in crop trait improvement.

Protein Length Distribution Consistent Across Species

An analysis in Genome Biology compares the lengths of proteins across more than 2,300 species, finding similar length distributions.

Novel Genetic Loci Linked to Insulin Resistance in New Study

A team reports in Nature Genetics that it used glucose challenge test data to home in on candidate genes involved in GLUT4 expression or trafficking.

RNA Editing in Octopuses Seems to Help Acclimation to Shifts in Water Temperature

A paper in Cell reports that octopuses use RNA editing to help them adjust to different water temperatures.