Science World Won't Be Sorry to See Bush Go

[Leo 9]

Science World Won't Be Sorry to See Bush Go

By David Ewing Duncan, Portfolio.com 06.04.08


In science, as in most things, you usually get what you pay for. Money doesn't always mean you get the best. Just ask the New York Yankees so far this season.

But when a nation has been the world leader at something as vital as, say, medical research and regulation, and annual funding is flat or declining when it used to go up, then money may matter.

The stakes for America were spelled out in a panel discussion held at the first-ever World Science Foundation last weekend in New York.

"I think there's a loss of American power and prestige that came about as a result of our anti-science policies," said biologist David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate and the chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Harold Varmus, another Nobel laureate and the president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, decried the lack of attention being paid to advancing science even in the current presidential campaign. "The campaign so far has given too little attention to what science means for our own economy and our status in the world," he said.

This comes as reports and recommendations have been piling up describing the slowdown in research grants and projects at the National Institutes of Health since budgets began a decline in 2004.

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http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/06/portfolio_0604

[eppur_se_muova]

1. An understatement, for SO many reasons. nt

[seasat]

2. Unfortunately it'll take about a year for funding to recover.

A lot of university research programs are just limping along right now. However, when Shrub Inc is out of power in January, it will be a joyous occasion for us. It'll mean the start of a big turnaround in funding especially for basic research and environmental science.

[n2doc]

5. Only if the bushco depression doesn't kill fed funding

and we have the guts to cut off the iraq war funding orgy. I am not hopeful.

[SnowGoose]

3. Y'all might be interested in this link:

http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php

It's a large and growing group calling for the candidates to participate in a debate/discussion specifically focused on science and research in the USA.

[BadgerKid]

4. Can't wait

until the current "belief-based" regime is unseated.