So a couple of months ago I wrote a blog post drawing attention to the excellent “Daily Science Policy News Alerts” assembled and distributed (via email) by Scientists and Engineers for America. SEA, if you remember, also runs the excellent Science and Health Related Policy (SHARP) Network that organizes science and technology related information on elected officials and candidates for office.

On June 4 I was delighted to find in my email box a second service dedicated to a similar goal, this one distributed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to its membership. Rather than speaking for them, here’s a passage from the explanatory text accompanying the email:

This is the first issue of the AAAS Policy Alert that is being sent to all AAAS Members. The Alert is a weekly newsletter of policy developments in areas of concern to the science and engineering community, broadly defined. It includes short items on such subjects as the federal budget, stem cell research, science and security, and climate change, with links to additional information.

Major props to AAAS for initiating this excellent source of information, another great tool for keeping up with how science is debated in the public sphere. Depending on how into policy news you are, the two services may nicely complement one another. The SEA daily alert is more frequent, and is primarily an index of articles from news outlets: major national newspapers, regional newspapers, popular online news outlets, specialty popular publications (i.e. Wired and other magazines). The AAAS Policy Alert features a more substantial, paragraph-length summary with links to primary sources (i.e. discussion of congressional reports on climate change have a link to the actual report). Also, the AAAS Policy Alert is published less frequently (weekly rather than daily), and is distributed only to AAAS members, although I’d say this kind of outreach is an excellent way of increasing the overall value of joining AAAS.

This is good news, and I urge everyone (U.S. based folks especially) to consider reading one or both of these updates as part of your public involvement as a science-minded person.