Long paper topics: some links to get you started.

This is not the "definitive" set of links for each of these topics! Rather, these will give you some material to think about and serve as a useful starting point for additional research.

1. Evolutionary biologists and the battle over the public school science curriculum. The relevant non-scientists to consider here are the students, the parents, and the school boards.  (Note that they might not share the same interests or views here!)
   
   Any of the postings (and comments that follow) on Intelligent Design at Panda's Thumb.
   National Center for Science Education.
   Discovery Institute.
   Coverage of the battle in Dover, PA.
   
2. Vaccines and the developing world.   You may want to consider the scientists as health care providers and as researchers interested in studying other contagious diseases and developing treatments or vaccines.
   
   Two interesting cases that may be worth looking at:
   Challenges to polio eradication projects in Africa.
   Resistance to vaccination with (soon-to-be-approved) HPV vaccine in India.
   
3. Government oversight and regulation as a strategy to reduce scientific misconduct versus self-regulation.  The relevant non-scientists to consider here may include funders, administrators of funding agencies, and the tax payers.
   
   This chapter of the AAAS science policy yearbook (2002) gives a scientist's view.
   This article considers the role of the scientific power structure in fraud.
   
4. Are appointments to government science panels too political?  The non-scientists to consider here can include political parties and the public at large.
   
   A couple pieces (here and here) from the magazine Science, plus one newspaper article.
   
5. Are IACUCs an appropriate burden on research, an excessive burden, or a rubber-stamp for the scientific establishment?  The non-scientists to consider may include university administrators, animal lovers, and the public at large.
   
   This from a Berekeley animal rights group.
   IACUC resources from a university office of sponsored research.
   "Assessing the Reviewers of Animal Research".
   
6. Are foreign students in U.S. graduate programs in science and engineering a good thing or a bad thing.  In addition to considering the U.S. tax payers, graduate students, and undergraduate students, you may include in the non-scientists you consider the community in the foreign student's country of origin.
   
   This piece from Chronicle of Higher Education about a proposed law in North Dakota.
   A website devoted to demonstrating the upside of immigration of foreign students (and others) to the U.S.
   
7. How transparent should scientists be in their communications with each other about matters of public interest? The "ClimateGate" emails stolen from the Climate Research Unit webserver at the University of East Anglia provide an interesting (and much-discussed) case where this question comes up.
   
   Coverage in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
   RealClimate on the CRU Hack.
   Chris Mooney, "Why 'ClimateGate' Ain't Nothing" and "The 'ClimateGate' Burden of Proof".
   My analysis of the report of an ethics inquiry into one of the scientists who authored some of the leaked emails, and my discussion of some of the general issues at stake.
   
8. There is something like scientific consensus that there is no demonstrable link between vaccinations and autism, yet some doctors and parents groups argue otherwise, claiming that more research ought to be done on this matter and that scientists and officials at government agencies like the CDC are mired in conflicts of interest. Should scientists and government agencies submit to demands for further research on this matter?
   
   A good starting point is the recently aired episode of Frontline, "The Vaccine Wars".

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