I know we have many perspectives on this site. One that I'd like to think that most of us share is to have this administration strengthen science policy, science funding, and science education whenever possible and in multiple ways.
So LiveScience asked a bunch of science-minded folks that question--What should Obama and Congress Should Do for Science?
And they got a bunch of answers.
I will just highlight and/or summarize some items here, go over there and read the whole thing. Many are fairly expected pieces like more education, more funding, but some are different or have a neat wrinkle to them...
- "Instead of just a separation between church and state, what we also need is one between church and education." --Frans de Waal
- Michael Mann asks for a strong defense of science, and "to stand up against the antiscientific smears and attacks". Oh, snap.
- Mark Changizi suggests changing the funding strategy to the individual, not merely the project. That's one I hadn't considered before, but liked very much.
- "...completely free and unrestricted access to the Internet by every person in every place in the United States" --Michael Reece
- Eugenie C. Scott calls for respecting the civil servants in sci-related agencies, and not interfering with their work.
- John Flynn calls for support for scientific repositories like museums, databases, and new survey missions to study biodiversity.
- "protect our investments in the future by not allowing the significant rollbacks in environmental protections" --Helen Fox
- "The partisan bickering over global climate change and environmental sustainability needs to stop." --Samantha Joye
- Here's one of my favorites: "undermine the deniers" by funding real-time climate research better --Kevin Trenberth
- Here's one I didn't see coming, but totally support: keep the smart people who come here as immigrants. --Nicolas Gutiérrez
- Ken Caldeira wants investments in 21st century transportation.
- Internships for kids in science roles! --Peter Wetzel
- Got rocks? Erik Klemetti calls for a stronger USGS
Anyway, go over there for more: http://www.livescience.com/...
hat tip to
@DaveMosher What can Obama and Congress do for science? @LiveScience asks leading researchers, gets some great answers: http://bit.ly/...