It seemed like such an elegant answer to an age-old mystery: the disappearance of what are arguably North America’s first people. A speeding comet nearly 13,000 years ago was the culprit, the theory goes, spraying ice and rocks across the continent, killing the Clovis people and the mammoths they fed on, and plunging the region into a deep chill. The idea so captivated the public that three movies describing the catastrophe were produced. But now, four years after the purportedly supportive evidence was reported, a host of scientific authorities systematically have made the case that the ... Read More
Beware of Science as Political Veneer
May 13, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Government officials often are criticized for “politicizing science” by interfering with scientists’ work in order to advance a political cause. The use and abuse of science has been a recurring theme at Miller-McCune, with examinations of the science policies of both the last Bush and current Obama administrations put under the microscope. And earlier this year, Loyola Law School’s Robert Benson castigated the GOP for what he termed its “anti-science mania.” But David Goldston also warns against “scientization of politics” — portraying all government decisions as ... Read More
Maximum Disclosure, Minimum Delay
February 24, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
When hacked e-mails between climate change researchers surfaced late last year, they created a furor. The messages, swiped from a server at a British university, included a reference to a statistical trick and slights against critics. To climate change skeptics, this was proof of what they'd been saying all along: The idea of a warming Earth is a boondoggle, bought into by greenie extremists looking to blame SUVs, air-conditioning and factory-farmed sirloin. Critics gave climate researchers a good telling off, but the scientists stuck to their guns — er, graphs — citing a ... Read More
Sea Change in Government Science Still Offshore
December 23, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
In his first few weeks in office, President Obama made several significant nods to a disillusioned scientific community. He nominated respected experts like Steven Chu to head science-based agencies, elevated the clout of the science adviser within the White House, even singled out science's "rightful place" in policymaking in his inaugural address. Nearly a year into his presidency, though, scientific integrity advocates are still awaiting several of the reform milestones key to a vast and lasting culture change in the way federal scientists conduct and discuss their work and the way ... Read More
