I've now been writing for this website since October of 2007, and have delighted to watch it mature into one of the top sites for serious science policy analysis on the web. To that end, my one year anniversary column, entitled "A Year's Worth of Thinking About Science Policy," enumerates five of the recurrent themes that have emerged from the site:
1. We need a new administration that takes science much more seriously across the board--that listens to scientists, that follows recommendations and wants to restore integrity to science in the federal government.
2. We need a similar rapprochement between science and Congress.
3. Amid concerns about U.S. competitiveness in science, let's not forget that today the youngest scientists in America are struggling, disadvantaged in trying to get grants, and stuck in postdoc holding patterns.
4. While the American science community still leads the world in research, it has not really emphasized outreach and communication, and as a result has seen declining societal influence and relevance.
5. All of this matters quite a great deal because advances in the life sciences--in particular, genetics and neuroscience--stand poised to radically transform our understanding of human identity, free will, morality, and obligations between generations. Unless we reunite science with politics and culture, we will face a rocky road indeed as a new set of science-related controversies begin to erupt.
You can read the full column here.
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hasn't anyone noticed that McCain is antiscience? notice that when McCain complains about earmarks he isolates earmarks that were for development of science? Grizzly DNA studies....Adler Planetarium....
Maybe there should be other mechanisms (bigger NSF budgets) so that such things have more peer review, but I don't see McCain talking about that either.
as for a projection system for a Planetarium...all you science geeks didn't planetariums just rock your world as a kid and maybe influence your desire to become scientists? or is that just me (even though I went into biology) because I came of age during the lunar missions.
6. And Obama can do most of this
Have you noticed that McCain's favorite earmarks to attack deal with science and technology? ones that were not added in secret back room deals, but proudly announced and put into bills up front (and in the case of the Adler Planetarian, removed in committee).
McCain is about as antiscience and technology as one can get. I wish Obama had nailed him to the wall on the "overhead projector" issue last night. to attack a request for funding science education is ridiculous.
I too have noticed that this site has progressed. Cheers!
Jill