Last September, I wrote a post called Publicly Funded Science, Global Warming, and Christian Responsibility which gave a short history of publicly funded science and pointed out the potential dangers for both public policy and science. Today the Christian Science Monitor had a story titled White House spin reaches science research that echoes some of the points I was trying to make with my earlier post. The CSM article closes with:
Last year, the UCS published a study laying out many examples of what it saw as the administration's abuse of science. But she argues that more is needed: stronger protection for whistle-blowers, a stronger role for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and for Congress, a rebuilt Congressional Office of Technology Assessment.
Yet for all the concern that science may not be getting a fair hearing in the halls of government or is being spun by politicians, some observers caution that scientists may need a more thorough grounding in democratic politics.
Many scientists recall President Dwight Eisenhower's warnings about the danger of the rising postwar military-industrial complex, notes Mr. Happer, now a Princeton physicist. In the same speech, however, Eisenhower also warned: "We must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system…."
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