Science Under Attack

When the President of Cal Tech reacts to Bush administration muzzling of scientific findings with a shrug and a “What do you expect?” I get a little bit the other side of distressed.

Science is truth, and the quest thereof, and to make it a political football cheapens the process, and makes all findings suspect. It undermines the integrity of the scientific process, and it casts the shadow of doubt over all legitimate and vital research. Everyone who earns a living in scientific endeavors, from the most celebrated Nobel laureate to the lowliest cage-cleaner at a research facility, should be raising the roof with a great hue and cry. Instead, we are realistic and practical people, so we shrug, and say “What do you expect?”

People who don’t understand science are incapable of respecting it, and from there it is a short step to the sad situation we find ourselves in now: The suppression of scientific freedom as part of the theory of government. Science is muzzled, denied, and un-funded; but a specious political theory, that of the “Unitary Executive” is heartily embraced. The times in which we live become curiouser and curiouser indeed.

And how long will it take to undo the damage that is being done right now? The rest of my career? Longer than that? I am diligently working toward a doctorate that will take me into the research lab from the clinical lab. What ramifications on my future are being set in motion today?

And it doesn’t just affect me and others in my field. It affects you, too. You live on this planet, so you too are a victim of the denial of human-initiated global climate change. Plant and animal species are extincting at a rate previously unknown in history or the fossil record (with the exception of the dinosaur die-off) and that could potentially have dramatic consequences on any persons life. Where do new drugs to treat devastating illness come from? Plants and animals. Premarin (estrogen replacement) comes from horses, and Tamoxifen (used to treat breast cancer) comes from the Pacific Yew tree. What species has vanished forever, because of human activity; that held the potential to treat the untreatable, like ALS? That is, of course, an unanswerable question, but you get my drift.

It is incumbent upon every American to speak for science. After all, science speaks for you on a daily basis. Return the courtesy.