Nobel laureates line up behind Obama's science policy
On the eve of the first US presidential debate, a list of 61 Nobel laureates issued an open letter (see also below) to urge Americans to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. This is the largest number of Nobel laureates to ever endorse a candidate for office, more than endorsed either Gore or Kerry, says Scientists and Engineers for America. All received their award for achievements in physics (22), chemistry (14) or medicine (25). The letter was announced on Thursday in a conference call by three Nobel laureates: Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Peter Agre, director of the Malaria Research Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; and H Robert Horvitz, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Ten of the signatories have also signed Declan’s petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning, which now has been signed by 540 scientists and academics, including 24 Nobel laureates.)
Calling the Bush Administration's science policy “disastrous”, Horvitz, who won a Nobel Prize in medicine in 2002, spoke in support of Obama's science policy, which includes elevating the role of White House science adviser to a senior-level position and reversing the ban on using federal funds for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research on cell lines created after 9 August 2001, reports The Boston Globe. “Instead of shutting scientific knowledge out of the White House, Senator Obama will engage top scientists,” Horvitz said. “Instead of blocking groundbreaking efforts to use embryonic stem cell research to find cures for diseases like Parkinson's disease … Senator Obama will provide strong support to these efforts” (see blog of 4 September “Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding”).
The three scientists said they couldn’t trust Republican presidential candidate John McCain's positions regarding science policy because of political pressure from religious conservatives. They were particularly concerned about McCain's position on federal funding of hESC research. McCain says he supports it, but in the heat of the campaign, according to this week’s Nature journal, “he now refuses to say whether he would lift the ban as president. Instead, he emphasizes research on adult or induced pluripotent stem cells in place of human embryonic ones”. Said Agre, who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2003: “While I think that Senator McCain has in the past ... had some reasonably progressive views, he's now in the difficult position of reconciling his views with that of the Republican platform” (see blog of 1 September “2008 GOP platform calls for total ban on embryonic stem cell research”).
Harold Varmus, who is an Obama campaign science adviser, and who won a Nobel Prize in medicine in 1989, said that there's general confusion in the scientific community over McCain's position. Physicsworld.com notes that Obama beat McCain by more than two weeks to answering the questions posed by ScienceDebate – an organisation formed last year that tried, and failed, to persuade the presidential candidates to attend a televised debate on science policy. On Wednesday, Obama again trumped the Republican by being the only candidate to answer 18 science-related questions asked by Nature.
Princeton professor Philip Anderson, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1977 and who was one of the signatories (he is also a NAC Honorary Associate) told physicsworld.com that voting for Obama in November would be a “no-brainer”. Referring to why he would not choose McCain, he added: “There are too many obvious reasons to pick one. Let me name three. 1. Torture; 2. Tax cuts for the rich; 3. A [running mate, Sarah Palin] who believes in the Apocalypse and not in evolution.”
The same day the letter was released, the Obama campaign published an 11-page policy document entitled, “Investing in America’s future: Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s plan for science and innovation”, pledging to double federal funding for research over 10 years. An Obama-Biden administration, they say on their website, would change “the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology”.
This is the open letter:
An Open Letter to the American People
This year's presidential election is among the most significant in our nation's history. The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate change, security, and economic competitiveness.
We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him.
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.
We have watched Senator Obama's approach to these issues with admiration. We especially applaud his emphasis during the campaign on the power of science and technology to enhance our nation's competitiveness. In particular, we support the measures he plans to take - through new initiatives in education and training, expanded research funding, an unbiased process for obtaining scientific advice, and an appropriate balance of basic and applied research - to meet the nation's and the world's most urgent needs.
Senator Obama understands that Presidential leadership and federal investments in science and technology are crucial elements in successful governance of the world's leading country. We hope you will join us as we work together to ensure his election in November.
Signed,
Click here to read the original with signers
