The Guardian weekly science podcast is specially extended to nearly an hour this week to discuss the likely consequences for the scientific community, both within the United States and around the world, of the anticipated policies of the incoming Obama administration.
The link follows after the jump.
You can listen to it here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
This podcast covers a broad range of topics such as; improving science education in high schools, allowing federal funding of stem cells, ensuring that NASA is funded through an economic recession, NASA's role in investigating climate change, Anglo-American collaboration in scientific research, Obama's own attitudes towards the scientific community and the way in which he responds to advice and so forth..
The participants and their focus in this debate are listed below;
Lesley Stone, executive director of Scientists and Engineers for America, gives her reaction to George W Bush's successor.
Lord professor Martin Rees, head of the Royal Society, has some advice for the most powerful man in the world.... president to president. He hopes Obama's victory won't result in a brain-drain from Britain to America.
We also look more closely a three key areas: climate change, stem cells and space.
Professor Diana Liverman, director of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford, gives her view on the green issues Senator Obama needs to focus on.
Chris Mason is an international expert on regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and stem cell technologies.
As for NASA and space, we speak to Lawrence Krauss, a physicist at Arizona State University; and Martin Barstow the head of physics and astronomy at Leicester University.
So as science breathes a collective sigh of relief, we acknowledge how bad things could have been if the Republicans had won. Sarah Palin (with plenty of help from John McCain) has been nominated for the New Humanist's bad faith award. PZ Myers takes a look back at some of their worrying comments on science. Yes, those French fruit flies get a mention!
The Guardian's team of experts debate what the future holds. Science correspondents James Randerson and Ian Sample, environment correspondent David Adam, and Nell Boase from our arts desk all offer their opinions.
There's obviously a sense of keen relief throughout much of the scientific community that Obama won the election, a letter endorsing Obama during the campaign was signed by 76 American noble prize winners
http://www.salon.com/...
and it's easy to see why, Obama's positive engagement with science and technology issues - his recognition for the need for energy reform and his pragmatic approach to stem cell research contrast strongly with the Bush administration's deafness to scientific opinion and the close minded ideology epitomised by Palin who mocked fruit fly research (if you don't know about Drosophila melanogaster research have a look on google- it's not something many scientists would mock, or indeed many non-scientists with the slightest clue about the progress of biology in the 20th century)
This quote from the nobel laureates' letter, taken from the Salon article linked above summarises the deterioration of confidence which was the result of Bush policies;
During the administration of George W. Bush, 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. We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy.
Fortunately, this quagmire, which threatened to be exacerbated under another republican presidency will be ended once Obama takes office in January - when the dawn of a new, brighter future for science in America and around the world will come in to being.
I believe Obama's election victory will be a seminal moment in the progress of science and technology, opening up new avenues of research and application and speeding up the march of progress, not only through funding but also by the creation of a society more conducive to science.
The podcast is well worth a listen - it gives a very good flavour of the attitudes and expectations of leading thinkers and it conveys a sense of optimism that should make everyone who contributed to the Obama campaign feel a sense of pride- whether they're a science geek or not.