HAVING promised to return science to the 鈥渢op of our agenda鈥�, US President-Elect Barack Obama will soon be getting down to business with his stellar squad of freshly appointed scientific advisers.
Obama鈥檚 science vision could begin to materialise following the first meeting of his , sometime after his inauguration on 20 January. Attendees will include Obama鈥檚 new science adviser, climate-science champion John Holdren of Harvard University; of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California; and , the marine biologist from Oregon State University who is taking over as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got three serious experts on the environment and climate,鈥� says a scientist close to the Obama transition team. 鈥淗ow they divvy up the pie will be interesting and important.鈥�
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The appointments in December were greeted by heady optimism that science is back in the vanguard following years of being sidelined under President George W. Bush. Obama vowed as much in , in which he promised to 鈥減ut science at the top of our agenda [because] science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation鈥�.
In a dig aimed at the outgoing administration, he also promised to shield scientists from the ideological and political interference that critics say has obstructed progress in stem cell research and combating climate change. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about protecting free and open inquiry,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.鈥�
Leading scientists are delighted. 鈥淚t signifies that science will be a foundation for decision-making and that鈥檚 very reassuring,鈥� says Rita Colwell, a molecular marine biologist at the University of Maryland in College Park. She says that these changes are 鈥渓ong overdue鈥�.
This is 鈥渟urely the most distinguished group of scientists at the highest levels of government in decades鈥�, adds Jonathan Moreno, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a fellow at the left-leaning think tank.
鈥淭his is surely the most distinguished group of scientists at the highest levels of the US government in decades鈥�
Appointees to the President鈥檚 Council of Advisers on Science and Technology will provide heavyweight influence in biological and medical sciences. Human Genome Project scientist Eric Lander of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Harold Varmus of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and former director of the US National Institutes of 91色情片 will co-chair the council. Their appointment also eases concerns that Obama might focus on climate and physics to the exclusion of all else.