John H. Marburger III
(Image from APS Physics site)
John H. Marburger III, President Bush’s science adviser, invited me to come by his office for a conversation, which we held on April 23. Marburger, who heads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, is one of the administration’s longest-serving officials, having arrived in October 2001. A physicist, and nominally a Democrat, he formerly was president of SUNY Stony Brook and came to Washington from the directorship of the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Following is Part One of edited excerpts of the conversation.
Q. There’s more hostility between the scientific community and this administration than has ever occurred before. I gather you share that perception.
A. Yes, yes.
Q. What is the origin of this hostility?
A. We have an unpopular administration in general. I came in immediately after probably one of the most, if not the most, bitterly divided elections, 2000, there ever was in our country. And the person who lost that battle was identified not only with science but a particular piece of science. And so it was inevitable that there would be tension at least over the issue of climate change. And of course the issue of reproductive technology was already contentious and the previous president avoided it as much as he could, as far as I could tell. So we had some ready-made conditions for contentiousness, and finally the impact of the Internet was accelerating pretty rapidly just about the time this administration came into existence. I sense that the bitterness and the political polarization that was already very apparent during the last years of the previous administration, and the election itself, was a very important factor in the perception of increased hostility between the science community and the administration. The media played an important role here. There was a tendency to politicize things in a particular way in the media, especially those media covering science. And scientists tend to be more on the liberal side anyway. So I think there was a natural tendency to blame things on the administration if they didn’t go well. So there were probably pre-environmental aspects of the culture coming into this administration that led to a heightened tension.
Q. There were specific issues in which scientists clashed with the administration or were highly critical. A large number of Nobel laureates petitioning about this or that. Stem cells. The administration’s many assertions, never always the same, but generally supporting the position that intelligent design deserved some —
A. I think that’s a bogus issue. I think that this administration has never been very visible on that issue. The president himself said as little as he could possibly say on it.
