Science Change.gov

Under Bush, Science Learned It Must Speak Up:

Barack Obama received a relatively quiet endorsement on Aug. 23 from 61 of the country's Nobel laureates in physics, medicine and chemistry -- scientific heavyweights who used the occasion to both call for a scientific renewal in America and critique the state of American science at the end of the Bush era.

"During the administration of George W. Bush," their open letter charged, "vital parts of our country's scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government's scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations. As a result, our once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk."

The United States lost critical time, the letter went on, in innovating alternative energy sources, treating disease, reversing climate change, strengthening security and improving the economy. In the process, the country has lost ground as the world's scientific leader and leading attraction to the world's current and would-be scientists -- many of whom could not have come here even if they wanted to after Sept. 11.

The underlying concern -- that the Bush administration has been either ambivalent toward or downright hostile to their work -- elicited an outcry this election season from the normally staid scientific community....

Cautious Optimism for Obama's Policy on Science:

Whoever advises Barack Obama in the next administration will have to differentiate between science for policy and policy for science.

It's not just wordplay: The former captures how the resources of science can affect issues like energy, health care and the environment. The latter refers to making policy in support of science by providing, for example, funding for research and development.

"One thing a science adviser has got to be very, very careful about is putting the emphasis on science for policy," said Bill Blanpied, a retired government scientist and expert on presidential science history. President Richard Nixon, he pointed out, eliminated the Office of Science and Technology Policy because it came to be viewed as a special lobby for science within the White House (and, well, farmers don't get their own special lobby either).

"You don't want the science adviser perceived as someone who is simply saying, 'We need more money.' On the other hand, the expectation of a lot of scientists is that's exactly what the science adviser should be doing. It's tricky.".....

And Obama has a good start - Steven Chu appears to have been tapped for Secretary of Energy.