Science under a new US Administration

Leo Kadanoff ponders over whether the fruitful relationship science enjoyed with the White House, will be re-kindled with the next US administration. The signs are not encouraging...(Nature article, needs subscription) The American Association for the Advancement of Science and a large group of other organizations tried to bring science back into view by putting before the presidential candidates a list of fourteen key science-policy questions. After long and discouraging delays — possibly indicating the candidates' lack of enthusiasm for the task — extensive answers were returned3. The responses revealed many similarities between the programmes of the two candidates. Both explicitly rejected the present administration's weakness in scientific honesty and integrity; both were in favour of bringing better scientific and technical advice to the White House; both worried about energy availability and environmental degradation, and supported some sort of cap-and-trade system for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. But there were also major differences. Whereas both candidates seemed to want to encourage 'innovation', Obama would do this via government programmes and a doubling of the budgets for basic science; in contrast, McCain's first target would be to show strong support for industry as a way of nurturing technology. Both candidates supported the improvement of education. Obama pledged to educate citizens; McCain aimed to train the workforce and retrain displaced workers. Bob Park reviews (also in Nature, needs subscription) Physics for future presidents: the science behind the headlines by Richard Muller, a UC Berkeley Physics Professor. After an amusing start Dear Mr President, Congratulations on your election to lead our nation. I think you can forget the 'leader of the free world' part of the job; it kind of lost its cachet in your predecessor's administration. Nevertheless, America still looks to you to make the difficult decisions. It won't be easy. it goes on The good news is that UC Berkeley Physics Professor, Richard A. Muller, has written Physics for Future Presidents: The Science behind the Headlines, a knowledgeable and level-headed analysis of many of the problems you will face, written in a clear, non-mathematical style that a President can easily understand: nuclear energy, from bombing cities to keeping them lit; what terrorists might try next; getting the space programme back to exploration instead of flag-planting; the key facts about global warming and the common-sense measures we should take; and finally, the opportunities and problems of alternative energy. Scientifically, the 354 pages of Physics for Future Presidents would make you the best-informed national leader on the planet at a time when science is the key to power. The bad news is that you aren't going to read it; your calendar is so full you don't have time to read your own ghost-written books. It's too late to sign you up for Professor Muller's class, but fortunately there is a happy alternative: appoint Richard Muller to be your Science Advisor. If he's not available, there are about a thousand other physicists that think the way he does....