On March 9, Barack Obama signed the Presidential Memorandum on Scientific Integrity.
The memo basically says:
- Candidates for science positions should be selected based on the candidate’s knowledge, credentials, experience, and integrity
- Scientific information considered in policy decisions should be subject to peer review
- Scientific findings should be made available to the public
You probably won’t be surprised that as a scientist I think this is fantastic. Hopefully, this change in attitude towards science by the federal government helps improve the attitude towards science in our society overall. I think that we can only solve many of today’s problems by relying on a scientific approach.
This statement, along with the recently passed stimulus and budget bills seem to indicate the start of a period where we are investing heavily again in basic research. Time and time again, this has been shown to be a great use of resources.
The sculpture in the photo is just outside my office. The Nataraja is trampling a dwarf that represents ignorance. Scientific research is an organized fight against our ignorance of the universe. Let’s make trampling ignorance our goal.
