In an effort to figure out something to do all day, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is now taking Twitter suggestions as to what “grand challenges” American science should seek to conquer in the 21st century.
Anyone who wants to suggest great inventions not seen since the Jetsons first aired – in 140 characters or less of course – can simply send a tweet to @whitehouse with the tag #whgc. Some of the ideas that Twitter users apparently believe had not yet been considered include:
- “1) Clean energy! 2) Get the money out of politics and everything else will fall into place.”
- “Reduce the national debt.”
- “Let’s put new books on every school child’s desk in America”
- “It’s time to seriously invest in renewable energy sources. Wind, Solar, and Geothermal.”
- “next grand challenge: protecting the nation’s libraries from massive budget cuts & layoffs!”
- “End hunger – ridiculous that we still have hungry in our country and the world.”
- “Bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan”
- “Preservation of historic homes. Enable review of any plan requiring demolition, esp. for 50-plus yr. old structures.”
- “cure cancer. now. mars is important. rural broadband is important. but not like this. cure cancer now.”